The City of Memphis has filed a civil warrant against Green Tree Villas LLC, the owner of an apartment complex at 1105-1161 Frayser Blvd., asking a court to declare the property a public nuisance and order it brought into compliance. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Sept. 24 at 1:30 p.m. at 201 Poplar in downtown Memphis.
According to a legal notice published by the Daily Memphian, the city sued out the summons under Tennessee Code Annotated § 13-6-106, asserting that the property, which carries parcel IDs 06903300006C and 0690330008C, constitutes a public nuisance. The case, Civil Warrant No. 26400328, was filed in the Shelby County, Tennessee Environmental Court, part of the Thirtieth Judicial District at Memphis, and is tied to city file number LF# 26-00135. The underlying order was issued Sept. 16, per the same notice.
Court records identify attorneys R. Porter Feild and Rajanae Jones as representing the city in the matter, the notice states. Tamara A. Sawyer is listed as clerk of the court, with Mary Caston serving as deputy clerk/manager. The court ordered that a copy of the order be published once in the Daily News and the Daily Memphian, resulting in the public notice.
What the Filing Could Mean for the Property
Under the terms outlined in the notice, filing the petition creates a receiver's lien on the property securing an undetermined amount, pending a final determination by the court. The filing also bars any transfer of title or other interests in the parcel until the case is dismissed or the court authorizes a transfer.
The notice further states that the municipal corporation may access the parcel to board it up, secure it or otherwise maintain it if the court finds that the owner has failed to do so. Any costs the city incurs in that process would be charged back to the owner, according to the filing.
How Memphis's Environmental Court Handles Nuisance Cases
The case falls under the jurisdiction of the Shelby County Environmental Court, which the City of Memphis created in 1983 to handle violations of health, fire, building and zoning codes, according to the Shelby County Environmental Court. The court's own description says it hears cases involving properties that violate those codes, including ones deemed public nuisances.
The legal tool the city is using traces back to the Tennessee Neighborhood Preservation Act, enacted in 2004 and amended in 2018 to address substandard vacant buildings, per the Institute for Justice. The Environmental Court's site also notes that if an owner or interested party cannot or will not restore a property to habitable condition, the court may appoint a receiver to abate the nuisance or bring it into compliance.
A Precedent From Memphis's Peppertree Case
Memphis has pursued this kind of action against apartment complexes before. In 2021, Peppertree apartments received a public-nuisance order after police responded to 1,649 calls at the complex between March 1, 2020, and Oct. 31, 2021, according to Action News 5. Under that order, tenants could not renew their leases and the complex was barred from accepting new tenants, though the station reported that none of the existing tenants were being evicted as a result.
It is not established whether the Peppertree precedent applies to the Green Tree Villas case, and the current physical condition of the Frayser Boulevard property, along with the specific code violations alleged, has not been detailed in available filings. The outcome of the Sept. 24 hearing has not yet been determined.
