GRADY EMC CAIRO GA NUMBER TRIAL
As a result, the trial court entered a consent order dismissing the case with prejudice on May 24, 2016. The parties resolved the litigation by entering a settlement agreement that, among other things, required Rosser to resign his employment and terminate any affiliation, other than as a member, with Grady EMC and its entities, and required the formation of a special committee to evaluate the claims of Take Back Our Grady EMC and advise the board. Other members of Grady EMC contacted Clyatt, and ultimately a group of them, including Clyatt and defendants Ronald Sellars, Seaborn Roddenberry, and Jerome Ellis, formed a committee they called “Take Back Our Grady EMC.” 3 In 2014, the group filed a lawsuit against Grady EMC, Rosser, his son, and other officers and directors. Clyatt purchased nine advertisements in the local newspaper, the Cairo Messenger, to publicize his concerns. In April 2014, Clyatt met with Grady EMC leadership to discuss his concerns, but he was not satisfied with their response. In 2014, Clyatt, a member of Grady EMC, began questioning some of management’s decisions, including, among other things, lending $468,000 to Rosser hiring Rosser’s son as president and general manager of Grady EMC to succeed Rosser and holding tens of millions of dollars in earnings instead of returning the money to the member-owners. It has the exclusive right to furnish service within its service area. 2 Grady EMC, like all EMCs, is a “private, nonprofit, electric utilit owned by the members serve.” Walker v. We affirm the trial court’s other rulings. Because there is no evidence that Grady EMC would suffer an imminent and irreparable injury absent the permanent injunction, we reverse the grant of injunctive relief.
Clyatt appeals the trial court’s order granting injunctive relief. Grady EMC sought, among other things, to permanently enjoin Clyatt from publicly disclosing certain records obtained in the earlier, settled litigation. In that case, Grady EMC sued William Gordon Clyatt, one of the founders of Take Back Our Grady EMC. A18A0987 stems from a separate, but related, lawsuit. We hold that the trial court did not err in determining that the anti-SLAPP statute applies and that Rosser had not established that there is a probability that he would prevail on his claims. A18A0843, Rosser appeals the grant of the defendants’ motion to strike the defamation lawsuit under Georgia’s Anti-SLAPP (“strategic litigation against public participation”) statute, OCGA § 9-11-11.1. Rosser, Sr., the former president and general manager who resigned pursuant to the settlement agreement, filed a defamation lawsuit against four Grady EMC members who had formed a group called Take Back Our Grady EMC a business with a Facebook page on which messages about Rosser were posted and the local newspaper. The dispute ended up in court, and the parties settled. These two cases arise from a dispute among some members of the Grady Electric Membership Corporation (“Grady EMC”) and its management team. Under the Georgia Electric Membership Corporation Act, OCGA § 46-3-170 et seq., customers of an electric membership corporation generally are members of the corporation with certain rights. NovemIn the Court of Appeals of Georgia A18A0843.
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