Gasaway gets $486 of thousands incurred in House District litigation

After months of litigation for the single House District (HD) 28 seat covering Banks, Stephens and part of Habersham counties, former District 28 State Rep. Dan Gasaway only received $486.50 of the $774.32 he sought in his most recent bill of costs for the second lawsuit he filed against his challenger and successor Chris Erwin and the Habersham County Board of Elections and Registration.

The final amount was divided between the two. Gasaway filed the motion for attorney fees and court costs in March, where he sought more than $107,000 from Erwin and the Habersham County Board of Elections and Registration despite also going to trial against the Banks and Stephens counties’ boards of elections and registration in late January.

According to the judgment received in July, Gasaway received $258 for court-filing fees, $35 for subpoena fees paid to the clerk and $193.50 for fees paid to witnesses. Senior Judge David Sweat, who presided over the case, ruled in a hearing June 17 in Banks County Superior Court Gasaway would be awarded court costs, but not attorney fees.

It is still unclear how Gasaway plans to pay for the remainder of his incurred costs. He did not respond to The Northeast Georgian’s request for comment by press deadline Wednesday, but his attorney, Jake Evans, with Atlanta-based Holland & Knight LLP, confirmed Erwin and Habersham County paid their respective amounts.

As previously reported by The Northeast Georgian, Habersham County spent approximately $34,000 in attorney fees for litigation of Gasaway’s second lawsuit, not including his bill of costs, and about $10,000 in election costs for the second redo election. It was paid for from the county’s general fund.

“We paid the court cost as ordered by Judge Sweat on July 18,” said Habersham County Manager Phil Sutton about the portion of the bill of costs the county was responsible for paying. “We received the bill for costs on July 17. The amount, $243.25, was a small fraction of the original demand for all litigation costs.”

Erwin did not respond to The Northeast Georgian’s request for comment and has never disclosed how much he spent on litigation of this case.

“This is the last step of the case because I believe we are now past the time for Mr. Gasaway to appeal the order on attorney fees,” said Erwin’s attorney, Bryan Tyson, with Atlanta-based Taylor English Duma LLP.

Gasaway was first elected as state representative for HD 28 in 2012, but lost re-election in the May 22, 2018, primary election, by 67 votes due to a districting issue, which led to his first lawsuit calling for a redo election.

In the first redo election Dec. 4, 2018, he lost again by two votes. He later filed a second lawsuit, where he was granted a second redo election after Sweat found four voters had improperly or wrongfully cast ballots. He lost the second redo election, held April 9, by more than 3,000 votes.