Representing Decatur’s Efficiency Lodge, former Gov. Roy Barnes argued in the Georgia Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the federal eviction moratorium had emboldened some motel guests to appeal for tenant rights — a ploy, he said, to avoid being kicked out for not paying the bill for their stay.
The case hinges on whether a panel of three judges sides with The Barnes Law Group, which asserts three people who have stayed at the Efficiency Lodge signed an innkeeper-guest agreement they must honor, or with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society (ALAS), which argues the behavior of those people and the motel’s proprietors constituted a landlord-tenant deal.
