Civil rights attorney Ben Crump visited Atlanta Wednesday to update former Forest Cove residents on a proposed lawsuit against the owner of the demolished apartment complex — nearly two years after it was first announced.
As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in April, even though the city said in October 2023 that it had enlisted Crump for a class action against Millennia-managed property, no lawsuit was ever filed.
Crump and his legal team gave a partial explanation for the delay during a media briefing Wednesday evening at the Thomasville Recreation Center, saying they have been watching how claims played out against Millennia in other courts around the country.
The attorneys said they still planned to file a lawsuit, possibly for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraudulent misrepresentation, in Fulton County Superior Court. They did not offer a definite timeline for when that would happen.
“Litigation goes slow, y’all,” Crump said. “I know everybody wants justice. But that’s just not reality.”
Crump said his legal team had agreed to take the case without any upfront payment.
“All the money, all the resources we put out is on us, and if we don’t prevail, then we are taking the loss. We’re not asking the city of Atlanta for one red dime,” he said.
After the news conference, the lawyers held a closed meeting with former residents inside the recreation center. Media was barred from observing the meeting after lawyers cited attorney-client privilege. They said they would continue their fact-finding mission, update former residents, and hoped to sign up more clients.
Outside the center, Ayran Tucker, who lived at the complex for seven years, described how her mold- and rodent-infested home had fallen into disrepair. She said she hoped families that lived through the horrors at the complex would get compensation for medical bills and damage to their property.
The delays frustrated her. She is now back in the neighborhood and living comfortably in a three-bedroom house, after being displaced and living for three years in Jonesboro, which is about 20 miles south of Atlanta.
“Justice for me would look like getting a settlement for everything that I had to recover on my own. The things that I’ve had to recover for my children. The things my children lost. And ultimately, the health bills that they have at this point,” she said.
The city first announced the litigation at a news conference at City Hall on Oct. 6, 2023, where former resident Felicia Morris, known as “Ms. Peaches,” was flanked by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Crump.
However, the firm never took the next step of filing a complaint in court. As the months rolled by without any word from the city or the law firm, residents wondered if they would ever see justice.
The city has since demolished the ravaged complex, and officials said they intend to rehouse people at an affordable housing development in the south-east side neighborhood.
Neither Millennia Companies nor the law firm representing its subsidiary and complex owner, Phoenix Ridge, immediately responded to a request for comment. The Ohio-based affordable housing provider has faced allegations of dangerous and neglected conditions at several of its complexes across the country and owns more than 200 properties.
Chatiqua Ellison, director of special projects for the mayor’s housing team, attended the meeting and also declined to comment.
Crump’s legal team includes lawyers Quinton Washington, Sue Ann Robinson and Megan McCullough. They said setbacks in cases against Millennia in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee meant they have narrowed their focus.
The attorneys said they feared residents would struggle to show enough commonality of injuries, such as linking mold infestations to asthma.
“It is clear to us now that the physical injury claims alone cannot survive,” Robinson said.
Washington said that changes to Georgia’s tort law would make it difficult to move forward with personal injury claims. A civil racketeering claim is on the table, he said, but attorneys did not get into the complexities and challenges of pursuing such a claim in a housing dispute.
Crump added cases involving “marginalized people, people of color” were too often “swept under the rug.”
“They’ve already dealt with so much loss, dealing with living in these apartments and these horrible conditions. We want them to have viable claims that we pray can survive,” Crump said.
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