The Atlanta Development Authority has dropped a lawsuit against the city's Board of Ethics contesting a 2013 decision barring the development agency from getting free tickets to events at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

A spokesman for the ADA—which markets the city as Invest Atlanta—is staying mum on the decision to voluntarily dismiss the suit, as is filing attorney Josh Belinfante of Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield. The May 7 dismissal came nearly six months after the lawsuit was filed.

In response to queries to the city and Law Department, a City Hall spokesman said Tuesday he would try to arrange a response but nothing had been received by Thursday.  

The attorney for the ethics board, Avondale Estates solo Howard “Tres” Indermark, said he had no explanation for the ADA's decision to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit.

“It's not something I had any advance knowledge of and did not expect,” Indermark said. “We were scheduled to have a hearing in the case, and I was getting ready for that.”

The lawsuit claimed the contract under which Invest Atlanta ponied up more than $220 million toward construction of the stadium included provisions entitling the agency to free tickets to events that it can use to showcase the arena to potential investors.

It was filed earlier last year when Invest Atlanta CEO Eloisa Klementich sent the board a letter asking it to rescind a 2013 advisory opinion in which the contract's provisions regarding the tickets were deemed illegal.

The advisory opinion said the city's ethics code “prohibits the city or its agent from requiring that passes, tickets or gratuities be paid to officials or employees in connection” with any contract or lease.

As Atlanta's “official economic development arm” whose board chairman is the mayor, Invest Atlanta qualifies as an “instrumentality” or “agent” of the city, the ethics board's opinion said.

Invest Atlanta's complaint argued it's not a city agency but an independent development authority and a separate legal entity from the city.

Further, Invest Atlanta argued, the code section prohibits tickets from being “given” away, not from “being used as consideration in contract.”

“Tickets giving officers or employees of Invest Atlanta access to events at Mercedes-Benz Stadium are not for the personal benefit of those officers or employees,” it said. “Rather, the tickets provide access to suitable venues for these officers and employees to carry out their official duties.”

The complaint named the Board of Ethics and Chairwoman Kate Wasch as defendants, and Invest Atlanta later sought to add the individual board members.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk also entered an order on May 7 allowing four other members of the board to be added to the complaint.

Indermark said he didn't think the timing of the two filings was necessarily related.

“It was probably just a coincidence,” he said.

Invest Atlanta's decision to drop the suit comes as it has drawn scrutiny for the role a nonprofit subsidiary, Partners for Progress, played in covering $40,000 in airfare and other costs accrued by former Mayor Kasim Reed and some of his retinue for a trip to South Africa last year.

In April, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the city donated $40,000 to Partners for Progress late last year, the same amount the nonprofit donated back to the city in March to help cover the trip's expenses.

Federal investigators are looking into that transaction, according to the AJC.