One week before it was set to go to trial, a Fulton County judge has once again tossed a long-running lawsuit that aimed to have declared illegal more than $5 billion in bonds issued by the county’s development arm.

The Dec. 20 bench ruling by Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter comes four and a half years after the filing of the first challenge to the county’s system for funding several major projects through “sales-leaseback” agreements with private developers.