COPY General Civil Case Filing Information Form (Non-Domestic) Court Coumty Futon Date Filed 03262015 @ Superior TMINM-DD-YYYY— CO State Docket # Plaintiffs) Defendant(s) ‘Atlanta independent Schoo System All Persons Known or Unknown Wha Claim or a Fiat Hie — Sa rats Wace Fa Might Claim Adversey o Plant's Tite to Real Property a oe a wm a8 711 Catherine Street, 202 Milton Avenue, 126 “ia is tae Fat WET Be te We Lockwood Drive, 350 Autumn Lae, All Located in Futon Tat re a Ft isa ———Feat We tc Pet — aiden No. of Plainti No. of Defendants Unknown $ Plaintiff’Petitiones's Attorney 0 ProSe FILED IN OFFICE Strickland Frank B rat Tat wat MAR 26 2015, Bar # 687600 Check Primary Type (Check only ONE) Contract/Account willsftstate Real Property Dispossessory/Distress Presonal Property Equity Hebeas Corps Appeals, Reviews Doe osoe come Post Judgement Garnishment, Altachment, or Other Relief a Non-Domestic Contempt a Tort (IE tort, fin right column) Other General Civil Specify, If Tort is Casl pCR COTY. GA (Check no more than TWO) Auto Accident Premises Liability Medical Malpractice (Other Professional Negligence Produet Liability Other Specify 0 o o o o o Ave Punitive Damages Pleaded? O Yes (1 No} & [hereby certify that the documents in this filing (including attachments and exhibits) satisfy the requirements for redaction of personal or confidential information in O.C.G.A, 9-11-71DUPLICATE IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COY Ge STATE OF GEORGIA MAR 26 2015 ATLANTA INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SYSTEM, ) ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) CIVIL ACTION FILE ve ) ) NO. ALL PERSONS KNOWN OR ) UNKNOWN WHO CLAIMOR __) MIGHT CLAIM ADVERSELY TO. ) PLAINTIFF’S TITLE TO REAL, ) PROPERTY KNOWN AS 711 ) CATHERINE STREET, 202 ) MILTON AVENUE, 1261 ) LOCKWOOD DRIVE, AND 350) AUTUMNLANE, ALLLOCATED ) INFULTON COUNTY, CITY OF) ATLANTA, GEORGIA Defendants. VERINIED PETITION TO ESTABLISH TITLE AGAINST ALL THE WORLD COMES NOW the Atlanta Independent School System, also known as the Atlanta Board of Education ("BOE"), Plaintiff in the above-styled action, and, pursuant to 0.C.G.A. §§ 23-3-60, et seq., files this Verified Petition to Establish Title Against All the World regarding four properties formerly used as sites for public schools by the BOE, and shows the Court as follows:Summary of Petition 1 ‘The BOE seeks to establish clear title to four school properties in the City of Atlanta that the BOE has possessed for over 40 years and has formerly used as the sites for four public schools, The Pai Jurisdiction, & Venue oe ‘The BOE is an independent school system chartered in 1973 under the laws of the State of Georgia. 3, The four properties involved in this proceeding are located in Fulton County, Georgia and are more particularly described on Exhibit A, attached hereto and incorporated by reference (hereinafter the "School Properties"). 4, The Superior Court of Fulton County has in rem jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 23-3-61. Further, venue is proper in Fulton County since it is the county in which the properties at issue are situated. O.C.G.A. § 23-3-62(a).The Adair School 5 The first school property, commonly known as the George Adair School, is located at 711 Catherine Street, a/k/a 0 Catherine St, SW, tax parcel 14 010600080733, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (the "Adair School"). 6. Attached hereto as Exhibit B is a copy of a plat of survey of the parcels of and that make up the Adair School. a Title to the Adair School is currently in the name of the City of Atlanta, which acquired title to and took possession of the property under that certain Warranty Deed dated August, 4, 1911, from the Atlanta Real Estate Company to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 366, Page 74, Fulton County records and under that certain Warranty Deed dated February 26, 1913, from Edwin Camp to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 366, Page 219, Fulton County records, true and correct copies of which are included in the title report attached hereto as Exhibit C. 8 Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a list of the names and addresses, so far known, of the owners of lands adjoining the Adair School.9 The only adverse claimant to BOE's title to the Adair School of which BOE has actual or constructive notice is the City of Atlanta, located at 55 Trinity Avenue, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 The Arkwright School 10. The second school property, commonly known as Arkwright Elementary School, is located at 1261 Lockwood Drive, SW, tax parcel 14 015200040466, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (the "Arkwright School"). 1 Attached hereto as Exhibit E is a copy of a plat of survey of the parcels of land that make up the Arkwright School. 12, Title to the Arkwright School is currently in the name of the City of Atlanta, which acquired title to and took possession of the property under the following: * Warranty Deed dated July 23, 1955, from Edward E. Altman to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 3020, Page 656; * Warranty Deed dated December 13, 1954, from Ruth Weegand to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 2949, Page 11;© Warranty Deed dated December 13, 1954, from Henry Y. Jones to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 2949, Page 16; © Warranty Deed dated February 15, 1955, from W.S. Pruett to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 2968, Page 653; © Warranty Deed dated April 1, 1955, from R.E. Royal, Jr. to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 2982, Page 577; Tax Deed dated April 2, 1957, from the City of Atlanta Tax Collector to the City of Atlanta; and, Judgment and Decree of Condemnation entered in that certain Condemnation Case no. A-85594, styled City of Atlanta, Condemnor v. Fred A. Landers, Condemnee, dated April 7, 1961and recorded in Deed Book 3697, Page 543. True and correct copies of the foregoing are included in the title report attached hereto as Exhibit F, 13. it G is a list of the names and addresses, so far Attached hereto as known, of the owners of lands adjoining the Arkwright School,14, The only adverse claimant to BOE's title to the Arkwright Schoo! of which BOE has actual or constructive notice is the City of Atlanta, located at 55 Trinity Avenue, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The Milton Avenue School 15, ‘The third school property, commonly known as Milton Avenue Elementary School, is located at 202 Milton Avenue, a/k/a 0 Milton Ave, SE, tax parcel 14 005600040257, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (the "Milton Avenue School"). 16. Attached hereto as Exhibit H is a copy of a plat of survey of the parcels of land that make up the Milton School. 17. Title to the Milton Avenue School is currently in the name of the City of Atlanta, which acquired title to and took possession of the property under that certain Warranty Deed dated August 15, 1914, from D.S. Boyd to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 384, Page 579, Fulton County records, a true and correct copy of which is included in the title report attached hereto as Exhibit I.18. Attached hereto as Exhibit J is a list of the names and addresses, so far known, of the owners of lands adjoining the Milton Avenue School. 19, The only adverse claimant to BOE’s title to the Milton Avenue School of which BOE has actual or constructive notice is the City of Atlanta, located at 55 Trinity Avenue, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. The Wright School 20. The fourth school property, commonly known as the Rosalie Wright Elementary School, is located at 350 Autumn Lane, a/k/a 0 Brooks Ave, SW, tax parcel 14 018100010092, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (the "Wright School"). 21. Attached hereto as Exhibit K is a copy of a plat of survey of the parcels of land that make up the Milton School. poh Title to the Wright School is currently in the name of the City of Atlanta, which acquired title to and took possession of the property under that certain Quitclaim Deed recorded February 1, 1957, from the Fulton County Board ofEducation to the City of Atlanta, recorded in Deed Book 3190, Page 326, Fulton County records, a true and correct copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit L. eee Attached hereto as Exhibit M is a list of the names and addresses, so far known, of the owners of lands adjoining the Wright School. 24. ‘The only adverse claimant to BOE's title to the Wright School of which BOE has actual or constructive notice is the City of Atlanta, located at 55 Trinity ‘Avenue, SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 ‘The BOE's Interest in the School Properties 25, During the time period that record tite to the School Properties was transferred to the City of Atlanta ("City"), the City operated free public schools for the benefit of the children of Atlanta. In 1973, however, pursuant to a Charter granted by the State of Georgia, the responsibility for maintaining a "system of public schools" and providing "free text books" to the children of Atlanta was vested in a new entity, the Atlanta Board of Education (that is, the BOE). Ga. Laws 1973, p. 2167 (hereinafter the "1973 Charter," a true and correct copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit N), Under its 1973 Charter, the new BOE was granted all "lawful powers of boards of education" (1973 Charter § 1-107(9)),including the power to provide for "the levy of a tax for educational purposes" (1973 Charter §§ 1-107(7) and 2-105). 26. ‘The 1973 Charter also stated that all "contracts, orders, leases, bonds and other obligations or instruments" entered into by the former City-operated board of education subsidiary or for its benefit prior to the effective date of the Charter would continue in effect according to the terms thereof, as obligations and rights of the new BOE. (1973 Charter, § 4-103.) Therefore, beginning on January 7, 1974, the effective date of the 1973 Charter, the ownership and legal title to all properties previously acquired by the City for the benefit of the City of Atlanta's former board of education subsidiary in order to provide a free public education to the children of Atlanta (including school buildings, administrative buildings, and other properties), became vested in the new BOE as a matter of law. As a result of assuming full ownership of these school-related properties, the new BOE also immediately assumed all of the costs and liabilities of a property owner for those formerly City-owned properties, such as the expenses of maintenance, upkeep, and insurance, and the potential liabilities associated with accidents on the properties. 27. ‘These expenses arising from the new BOE's possession, use, and ownership of all the properties previously acquired by the City for public education purposes(prior to January 1974), have cost the BOE millions of dollars over the past 41 years. For example, the ownership costs (maintenance, upkeep, and insurance) for just the last three fiscal years have exceeded $1 million for the 13 vacant buildings that BOE owns. The ownership costs for 41 years for these four School Properties at issue here would far exceed the $1 million it cost the BOE to maintain 13 vacant buildings for only 3 years, 28. During the 40-year period from 1974 through 2014, when the BOE had determined that it no longer had any education-related need for one of its properties that it had assumed ownership of under its 1973 Charter, it would declare the property as surplus and formally request that the City issue a “quitclaim" deed to APS for filing with the Clerk of the Superior Court, so the BOE could sell the property to a purchaser with a clear title. In response to the BOE's multiple requests over the 40-year period, the City has routinely granted quitclaim deeds to BOE for these properties, thereby acknowledging that, although the deeds on file in the Real Estate Records in the Clerk's Office of the Superior Courts of Fulton and DeKalb Counties (dated prior to 1974) show the record title owner as the City of Atlanta, the City of Atlanta no longer had, nor did it claim to have, any ownership interest in these education-related properties that had been owned, operated, and maintained by the new BOE as school properties since 1974. 1029. For 40 years, that process had been followed because, by operation of law pursuant to the 1973 Charter, the title and ownership of all of these education- related properties was vested in the new BOE for the purposes of carrying out its state-mandated purpose of providing a free public education to the children of Atlanta. Ina similar situation, the Georgia Supreme Court has held that when the legal responsibility to provide a free public education is by law delegated to a different governmental entity than the one previously charged with that legal duty, the new governmental entity carrying out the public education function for the children in that geographical area "succeeds to the control of educational matters [in that area] and to the title to the real estate held as public-school property within its territory," even though those public-school properties were previously purchased by and under the control of the governmental entity that previously had the legal duty to provide a public education. Upson County School District v. City of Thomaston, 248 Ga. 98, 104 (1981). And, because the BOE succeeded to the title to those school properties, it has the legal right to use and control those school properties as it sees fit in carrying out its responsibilities to deliver a free public education to the children in its territory, including the right to sell any of those properties it no longer needs for educational purposes, ld30. ‘This process of requesting that the City issue quitclaim deeds to the BOE has been so routine for the last 40 years that a check of the Real Estate Records of DeKalb and Fulton Counties reveals that the City has granted to the BOE, upon the request of the BOE, at least 50 quitclaim deeds for over 150 different properties in the last 40 years, the most recent one of which was granted in 2013 under the current administration. 31, From 1974 through 2014, the City has never maintained that it had any legal ownership interest in any of the properties owned by the BOE that were previously acquired by the City prior to 1974. For example, in Resolutions passed by various City Councils, and approved by various Mayors, granting quitclaim deeds to the BOE for properties acquired by the City prior to 1974, the City has repeatedly stated that although the "City of Atlanta presently holds legal title to certain real property," that legal title was "subject to the equitable title of the Atlanta Board of Education." And, the Resolutions would then routinely direct the City Attorney "to prepare the necessary documents for transfer of [the legal] title" to the BOE, and the Resolutions would also authorize the Mayor "to execute a quitclaim deed for transfer of said [legal] title to the Atlanta Board of Education." (For example, see Resolution 02-R-1488, adopted by City Council on Oct. 4, 2004, in which the City 12quitclaims to the BOE legal title to four elementary school properties and one high school property, a true and correct copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit O.) 32, In 1985, the City Council passed Resolution 85-R-1934 (adopted by Council ‘on Aug. 19, 1985, and approved by Mayor Andrew Young on Aug. 19, 1985, a true and correct copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit P), setting forth a procedure for the City to handle requests from the BOE for quitclaim deeds for any of the BOE's surplus properties "no longer needed for school purposes." In this Resolution, the City stated that if the City determined that it had a "need" for any of the surplus properties that BOE had decided to sell, the City would "enter into negotiations with the Board of Education for an exchange of property." Thus, the City plainly admitted that it did not own, or have any right to possess or use, any of the BOE properties that the BOE had determined were no longer needed for school purposes, merely because the City still held the legal title to those properties that were acquired by it prior to 1974 when the City had the legal responsibility to provide public education to the children of Atlanta. Instead, the City admitted that it would have to "negotiate" with BOE in order to try to reach an agreement with the BOB to swap a City-owned property of equivalent value for the BOE property that the BOE had decided to sell, even though the City still held the legal title to the property that the BOE had decided to sell, 1333. In fact, there has been at least one instance where the BOE has agreed, after negotiations with the City, to exchange one of its surplus properties for a property of equal value owned by the City, after determining that the BOE was receiving from the City a property of equivalent value for which BOE had an education- related need. Such an exchange of properties occurred in 1999 as shown. by Ordinance 98-O-1812, adopted by City Council on Oct. 19, 1998, where the BOE agreed to accept 2.3 acres from the City that were located adjacent to the Cascade Elementary School in exchange for a 2.3 acre property (the site of the old Hardnett School) that the BOE had decided it no longer needed for school purposes. If the City owned some interest in the BOE school property, the exchange would not have been for property of equivalent value, as the City would have claimed some value for any alleged "ownership interest” it had in the BOE property that was being disposed of by the BOE, 34, BOE has completed various steps to obtain legal titles to the four School Properties from the City, including submitting a request in October 2014 for the City to sign quitclaim deeds to the Properties consistent with its historic practice, To date, however, the City has refused to issue the requested quitelaim deeds and has indicated no intention to do so in the future. Thus, in order to sell these four 14School Properties, the BOE needs to clear the cloud from its title to the four School Properties, and asks this Court to vest clear title in the BOE to all four School Properties. 35. As required by O.C.G.A. § 23-3-62(d), a Notice of Lis Pendens is being filed contemporaneously with this Petition, Prayer for Relief WHEREFORE, Plaintiff Atlanta Independent School System respectfully prays: a. That this Court assume in rem jurisdiction against all the world to establish Plaintiff's clear title to the four School Properties described herein, pursuant to 0.C.G.A. § 23-3-61; b. That the Court appoint and refer this matter to a Special Master pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 23-3-63; c. That process issue directed to all persons who are entitled to notice and to all the persons whom this action may concern, including service perfected by publication, if necessary, pursuant to 0.C.G.A. § 23-3-65(b); d. That the Court appoint a Guardian Ad Litem, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 23-3-65(d), in the event it is determined that there are persons under a disabilityor minors, or persons not in being, unascertained or unknown, who may have an adverse interest in the four School Properties; e. That the Court issue a Judgment and Decree to be recorded in the Office of the Clerk of the Fulton County Superior Court establishing Plaintiffs title in the four School Properties against all the world and that all clouds to Plaintiff's title to the four School Properties be removed; and, £ That Plaintiff have such other and further relief as may be equitable and just under the facts set out herein. 4 Respectfully submitted, this £6 “day of #7mre/—, 2015. STRI .ND BROCKINGTON LEWIS LLP Frank B. Strickland Georgia Bat No. 687600 fbs@sbllaw.net Oscar N. Persons Georgia Bat No. 573500 onp@sbllaw.net Jonathan R. Poole Georgia Bar No. 142311 jrp@sbllaw.net Midtown Proscenium Suite 2200 1170 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30309 (678) 347-2200 (telephone) (678) 347-2210 (facsimile) Attorneys for Atlanta Independent School System 16VERIFICATION Personally appeared before me the undersigned, Larry L. Hoskins, who, being first duly sworn, deposes and says on oath the he is the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlanta Independent School System, the Plaintiff in the within and foregoing verified Petition, and that the facts set forth therein are true and correct to the best of his knowledge. Chief Operating Officer Atlanta Independent Schoo! System ‘Swom to and subscribed before me this abt day of Mer, 2015. aunty sonny 7