A local judge has rejected part of Georgia’s request to be reimbursed for legal fees it incurred in while defending against multiple citizen lawsuits over Rivian‘s planned $5 billion factory in the state.
Despite the lawsuits being dismissed, the government and development authority argued that six Morgan County property owners had litigated against the zoning of the factory only to delay the construction process.
While “citizens have the right to voice concerns,” it is not a “legitimate exercise of that right” when “the legal system is weaponized to block a perfectly legal project,” the
Joint Development Authority (JDA) of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton counties argued.
“The lawsuits filed by the plaintiffs were designed to delay progress, costing taxpayers and the community,” the authority added.
The state asked for a $337,000 compensation, and $200,000 more in a similar case filed in Atlanta.
However, Morgan County Superior Court Judge Stephen Bradley said in a new ruling that the state’s request was “far from frivolous” and that it could open a precedent that could hurt the citizens’ ability to challenge government actions in court.
According to several First Amendment advocates, this is an unprecedented sum of money in a lawsuit between government agencies and citizens.
“No truly aggrieved citizen should be prohibited from suing to test the legality or constitutionality of the government’s claims,” the judge stated.
He added that “any precedent that could allow political actions and costs to be offloaded to complaining litigants would be untenable.”
In a statement, state and local officials said the courts have consistently allowed construction to move forward, adding that “this ruling doesn’t change the status of the Rivian project.”
The ruling came a few days before the official groundbreaking cerimony with Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp and Rivian‘s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, which will be held on Tuesday (September 16).
According to Georgia law, governments may pursue litigation costs when lawsuits are deemed “frivolous” — in other words, when it has no legal merit. It is up to the judge to evaluate that.
The government authority was seeking to recover attorney fees as part of its responsibility to manage public funds, stating that the recovered money would be used to support education, infrastructure and public services.
The lawsuit dismissed last year was not the first time the landowners brought Rivian plant’s zoning before court, since plans for the factory were announced in late 2021.
The Georgia state and the JDA assumed the project site in early 2022. The $5 billion project was set to be completed in 2024, however, construction was delayed due to the legal proceedings.
The new facility is expected to take approximately 36 months to build, with partial operations projected to begin in the third quarter of 2027 and sales of its production expected to begin in late 2028.
CEO RJ Scaringe said earlier this year the plant is set to “provide an additional 400,000 units of annual capacity for R2 and R3 once fully built out.”
Earlier this year, Rivian has secured conditional approval for a loan of up to $6.6 billion from the US Department of Energy to finance the construction of its electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Georgia.
However, the EV maker must restart construction of the facility before being granted access to the loan.
Last month, the Irvine-based EV maker announced it will establish a new East Coast headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of its broader investment in the state.
