§ 46-3-132 - Validation of contracts for payments pledged as security for bonds - Georgia Statutes

O.C.G.A. 46-3-132 (2010)
46-3-132. Validation of contracts for payments pledged as security for bonds

(a) When payments which are made by political subdivisions pursuant to contracts entered into under subsection (a) of Code Section 46-3-131 are pledged as security for the payment of bonds sought to be validated, the petition for validation shall make party defendant the authority and shall also make parties defendant to such action every political subdivision which has contracted with the authority for the use of the facilities, commodities, and services of the project for which bonds shall be sought to be validated and issued. In addition, every other party, whether public or private, contracting with the authority in any manner with relation to the operation of such project, and particularly with relation to any common ownership of such project or to the supplying of electric energy to the authority or the taking or purchasing of electric energy from the project, shall be made parties defendant.

(b) All such parties defendant shall be served and shall be required to show cause, if any exists, why such contracts and the terms and conditions thereof should not be inquired into by the court and the validity of the terms thereof determined and the matters and conditions imposed on the parties to such contracts and all such undertakings thereof adjudicated to be valid and binding on the parties thereto.

(c) Notice of such proceedings shall be included in the notice of validation hearing required by Code Section 46-3-131 to be issued and published by the clerk of the Superior Court of Fulton County. In addition to such notice required to be published in Fulton County, such notice shall also be published in the newspaper in which sheriff's advertisements are published, once a week during each of the two weeks immediately preceding the week of the hearing, in each county in which any portion of any of the defendant political subdivisions lie.

(d) Any citizen resident of this state may, at or before the time set for the validation hearing, intervene in the validation proceedings conducted in the Superior Court of Fulton County pursuant to Code Section 46-3-131 and may assert any ground or objection to the validity and binding effect of such contract on his own behalf and on behalf of any political subdivision and of all citizens, residents, and property owners of the state.

(e) No appeal may be taken by any person who was not a party at the time the judgment appealed from was rendered.

(f) An adjudication as to the validity of any such contract which adjudication is unexcepted to within 30 days after the date of the judgment of validation or, if an appeal is filed, which adjudication is confirmed on appeal shall be forever conclusive and binding upon such political subdivisions and the resident citizens and property owners of this state.