A Bleak House: the Story Behind the Oldest Legal Controversy in the State of Georgia

• Publication year: 2020

A Bleak House: The Story Behind the Oldest Legal Controversy in the State of Georgia

Clayton T. Kendrick

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A BLEAK HOUSE: THE STORY BEHIND THE OLDEST LEGAL CONTROVERSY IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA

by Clayton T. Kendrick^*

I. Introduction

Bleak House¹ is a novel written by Charles Dickens, which centers around the fictional English Court of Chancery case Jarndyce and Jarndyce.² The fictional case concerns a dispute surrounding a large inheritance that drags on for several generations.³ As Dickens put it,

Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on . . . . Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it . . . . The little plaintiff or defendant, who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled, has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world.⁴

The story discussed in this Article does not revolve around one extended lawsuit, but rather one extended controversy. And while the subject of this controversy is not the inheritance of money, it is about the

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inheritance of a difficult situation complicated by politics, greed, and tragedy.

In 2018, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia played host to a matter of first impression regarding the Eleventh Amendment⁵ and sovereign immunity.⁶ The matter was implicated by an argument unique to Chatham County, Georgia—an argument linked to the intriguing and untold story of the oldest legal controversy in the state: the management of the Chatham County jail.⁷

This controversy finds its roots in 1760, just before King George III began his reign as King of Great Britain (and Ireland), fifteen years before the American Revolution, and twenty-eight years before Georgia became a state by ratifying the United States Constitution. The controversy continued throughout the Nineteenth century and was largely settled by 1881, sixteen years after the end of the American Civil War. But the controversy reappeared in 1979, 1990, and again in 2018.

Stretching four centuries, this story involves a struggle for control of the Chatham County jail and its revenue, and public outcry over the jail's conditions. And while documentation of this controversy consists largely of legislation and local newspapers, there are five cases that provide insight into the story. This Article will discuss the controversy's background, all relevant legislation, cases, and public references throughout the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth centuries. This Article will then discuss the most recent case and how the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia addressed a matter of first impression stemming from legislation related to this controversy.

II. Background

A. Georgia & Savannah

Named after King George II, the colony of Georgia was founded in 1733 by James Edward Oglethorpe who soon laid plans for the town of Savannah. Before leaving England, Oglethorpe was very active in prison reform. In those times, prisoners were required to pay fees to prison administration for decent arrangements. In 1728, a close friend of Oglethorpe's who was imprisoned for a simple debt, and was therefore

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unable to pay any fees, died after he was placed in a cell with a prisoner suffering from smallpox.⁸

Oglethorpe was alarmed, not only at the horrible conditions of prisons in England, but also at the number of British citizens incarcerated for simple indebtedness. As a result, Oglethorpe and other reformers decided to create a colony in America that would give England's debtors a place and an opportunity to become skilled workers and hopefully avoid prison. By the time Oglethorpe and others left for America, however, there was not a single formerly jailed debtor among them because King George II's funding was conditioned on advancing England's economic circumstances rather than a charitable idea.⁹

Consider the irony. The founder of Georgia was a well-known leader in prison reform who originally sought to establish a colony in North America to reform debtors without imprisonment. Yet, this Article details the plight of the Chatham County jail and its prisoners, many of whom were imprisoned for simple debts. Also consider that Oglethorpe banned lawyers in Georgia until 1755.¹⁰ In what is perhaps a mere coincidence, it was only five years later that the oldest legal controversy in the state began.

Between 1760, where this story begins, and 1777, when the Georgia General Assembly was created, Georgia was under British rule.¹¹ During this time period, legislative power was vested in three branches: the Royal Governor, the Upper House, and the Commons House of Assembly. The Upper House was made up of leading men in the colony, but was not representative in its makeup, and the Commons House was made up of elected delegates.¹² This General Assembly met in Savannah as directed by the Royal Governor, who, much like today, had the power to veto laws passed by the General Assembly.¹³

Once the General Assembly was created, it met in Savannah (the capital at the time) from 1777 to 1778 before retreating to Augusta when the British captured the city during the Revolutionary War. The General Assembly returned to Savannah when the British left in 1782, and

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between 1783 and 1795 the General Assembly met in both Savannah and Augusta (which was Georgia's second capital). ¹⁴ In 1796, Louisville¹⁵ became the capital of Georgia; the General Assembly met there until 1804, when the capital was moved to Milledgeville. The General Assembly remained in Milledgeville until 1868, when the capital moved to Atlanta.¹⁶ The legislation in this story stems from both the Commons House of Assembly and the General Assembly, and there is legislation from the General Assembly that comes from each of Georgia's previous capitals. There is not one capital or location in which the General Assembly was held that did not produce legislation related to this story.

As this story progresses, the reader will see a distinction between the city of Savannah's government and Chatham County's government. Savannah is located in Chatham County, Georgia. The county is governed by a board of commissioners, led by a chairman; whereas the city is governed by the mayor, who works with aldermen who serve in certain districts throughout the city (much like city commissioners). Remember these distinctions going forward. The mayor and aldermen are characters in this story as are, eventually, the county commissioners.

B. The Research Process

What stuck with the Author while researching this story was the ease of access to the many sources relied upon for this Article. There is a searchable, online database for Georgia historical newspapers between the years 1763 and 1963.¹⁷ These archives, however, do not always contain complete sets. In those instances, there are fairly complete sets of microfilmed newspapers in the basement of the University of Georgia's main-campus library and at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah. Two other excellent resources were the Digital Commons¹⁸ for the University of Georgia's School of Law and the Digital Collections¹⁹ for the city of Savannah.

The Digital Commons for the University of Georgia's School of Law maintains copies of legislation that were passed prior to the Georgia Public Laws collection. Prior to Georgia maintaining its own collection of

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public laws, private individuals maintained collections, such as Watkins Digest (Robert Watkins, for whom Watkinsville, Georgia is named)²⁰ or Clayton's Compilation (Augustin Smith Clayton, for whom Clayton County and Clayton, Georgia are named).²¹ Even old superior court opinions were maintained in private collections. In this Article, the first two cases discussed come from the R.M. Charlton collection. Robert M. Charlton, coincidentally, was the mayor of Savannah from 1839 to 1841.²²

The majority of sources used in this Article are quite old. The English language has evolved and the reader may notice outdated spelling, grammar, and punctuation. For example, the word jail was spelled "gaol," the word jailer was spelled "gaoler," or "jailor," and the word authorize was spelled "authorise," just to name a few. Rather than make changes to spelling and grammar, the Author has largely left quotations as they appear in their original source to preserve authenticity. Additionally, many of the sources used in this Article have deteriorated over time, such as handwritten letters from the mayor; the paper has deteriorated and the ink faded.

The reader will also notice that as time passes in the Article, spelling and grammar evolve. And while ink and paper may lose their integrity over time, and spelling and grammar may change, what is just as strong today as it was then is the power of the English language. The Author has consciously chosen to heavily quote material from these sources for three reasons: (1) so the reader can experience how this story revealed itself to the Author; (2) so the reader can experience the inspiring and compelling way in which people so commonly used the English language in the past; and (3) so the sources that make up this story, which required substantial time to gather, can be accumulated all in one place. This Article seeks not only to tell the story of the oldest legal controversy in the state, but to also serve as a collection of content for all related materials, such as newspaper articles, city ordinances, letters, and legislation. This story will be told in chronological order, beginning with the Eighteenth century.

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III. Eighteenth Century

In 1979, in a case regarding control over the prisoners of the Chatham County jail, the court in Griffin v. Chatham County²³ noted that "[this] controversy was already mature in 1823, having been a legislative controversy since 1760."²⁴ This statement was likely informed by the 1823...