The Georgia Court of Appeals came out swinging with a scathing line of questioning on Wednesday when it was faced with the question of whether a county government can take over an apartment complex because of third-party criminal activity.

“I am absolutely stunned that [Macon-Bibb County] Thought [they] can take someone’s business away, remove control of it, you don’t contact them, you don’t give them a chance to remediate the problems, you acknowledge that crime was bad ahead of time and you just rush to a judge and install a receiver to take over someone’s business with no due process,” Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard said.

Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard of the Georgia Court of Appeals. Courtesy photo Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard of the Georgia Court of Appeals. (Courtesy photo)