"It is, we think, a sound principle, that when a government becomes a partner in any trading company, it devests itself, so far as concerns the transactions of that company, of its sovereign character, and takes that of a private citizen. Instead of communicating to the company its privileges and its prerogatives, it descends to a level with those with whom it associates itself, and takes the character which belongs to its associates, and to the business which is to be transacted. Thus, many States of this Union who have an interest in Banks, are not suable even in their own Courts; yet they never exempt the corporation from being sued. The State of Georgia, by giving to the Bank the capacity to sue and be sued, voluntarily strips itself of its sovereign character, so far as respects the transactions of the Bank, and waives all the privileges of that character. As a member of a corporation, a government never exercises its sovereignty. It acts merely as a corporator, and exercises no other power in the management of the affairs of the corporation, than are expressly given by the incorporating act."
That quote is from The BANK OF THE UNITED STATES v. The PLANTERS' BANK OF GEORGIA, an 1824, Georgia Circuit Court decision that has stood the test of time and has been referred to many times in case law as making governments responsible for the actions of the corporations said governments invest taxpayers' dollars in.
In the American Statesmen, Volume 17, it is written that:
The total cost of filing my own law suit against the City of Greensboro came to less than $250.oo.
Yes, I would prefer to have an attorney but I can't afford one. So with the help of members of our volunteer staff here at EzGreensboro.com we figured out how to do it for ourselves.
These court decisions mean that the City of Greensboro can, in some cases, be sued for the actions of the various developers, for profits and non profits the City of Greensboro gives money to.
It wouldn't take but just a few such lawsuits to make City Council start thinking really hard about who they're giving money to, especially considering that the City could be sued years after the deal is done. I mean, could you imagine the implications of the City of Greensboro having to pay a multi-million dollar lawsuit because of the actions of some developer they gave just a million dollars to ten years ago.?
A city with those kinds of worries couldn't sell $10 in bonds, much less $200 million as none of the rating agencies would touch them. And a city unable to sell bonds is a city paralyzed, forced to give in to the demands of those who hold it hostage.
And all the while they were fearing I was going to try and shoot my way in.
I don't know exactly how well we'll fare in our trial against Mayor Nancy Vaughan, City Manager Jim Westmorland and the City of Greensboro but you can rest assured we will learn from the process. And because we learn from the process we'll start teaching what we've learned to others so that the fight to end corruption in Greensboro can grow ever bigger.
And with every attempt we'll get better.
Nobody is saying it will be easy but then life here on the East Side has never been easy, least not for as long as any of us can remember.
Who knows, maybe by the time the election rolls around in 2017 the status quo will be too broke to run against me. Follow the link to read my platform.
