Georgia justices reverse Fulton judge in tax case

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday took Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall to the woodshed again.

The high court, reversing Schwall in a case involving property taxes, said the Fulton County judge had rushed to judgment.

At issue was a lawsuit by Atlanta officials against Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand seeking to force him to hand over property tax money that the county used to repay bonds issued by tax allocation districts.

Ferdinand refused, citing a state Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to use property tax money raised for school districts to repay such bonds. He said the money should go to the Atlanta Board of Education.

City officials disagreed — saying the money still had to be paid for past bond issues that had been approved by courts before the Supreme Court ruling.

In February 2008, the city asked Schwall to stop Ferdinand from giving the money to the school district until a court could decide the issue after a full-fledged hearing on the merits of the case.

Schwall did them one better. He decided the full case based on what he heard at the emergency hearing — which caused Ferdinand to cry foul since Schwall hadn’t heard all the evidence.

“I don’t need any briefing,” Schwall said at the hearing. “My mind is totally made up.”

The high court said Schwall needed to have a proper hearing as the law required. The justices included quotations of the transcript of the hearing in its written opinion to illustrate why it found Schwall violated basic procedure.

In 2008, Ferdinand’s lawyer asked if Schwall was deciding the merits of the entire case at a hearing for a temporary injunction. “I’m deciding everything because you know what, I know what I need to do and I did it,” Schwall said.

It wasn’t the first time that the Supreme Court has been tough publicly on Schwall. Last June, it reversed Schwall in a lawsuit involving control of the finances of a southwest Atlanta church because it said he had become an advocate when he jailed a man for 20 days without letting him defend himself in 2007.