In an effort to determine who is the rightful member of the Meriwether County Industrial Development Authority “IDA”, appellant Karey Murphy filed a quo warranto action in which she sought a judicial determination that she rather than appellee Arthur Pearson holds title to the office. Pursuant to the constitutional amendment that created the IDA in 1967,1 the five members of the IDA are appointed by a majority of the Board of Commissioners of Meriwether County “the Board” to four-year staggered terms, and any vacancy is filled by the Board for the unexpired term. Ga. L. 1967, p. 901 B.2 Murphy was appointed to the IDA by the Board in October 2005 to fill the unexpired term of a member who had vacated the position. Three months later, in January 2006, the Board appointed her to a four-year term on the IDA. It is undisputed that the unexpired term to which Murphy was appointed expired in January 2007 and that, when the Board voted to appoint Murphy to a four-year term on the IDA in January 2006, it did so under the mistaken belief that the term expired in January 2006.3 In January 2007, upon the actual expiration of the term Murphy had been appointed to fill, a newly-reconstituted Board4 appointed appellee Pearson to a four-year term on the IDA, succeeding Murphy’s completion of the term vacated by the previous officeholder. In filing the quo warranto action, Murphy challenged the January 2007 appointment of Pearson, and she now appeals from the trial court’s determination that Pearson is the rightful member of the IDA.
Murphy contends the January 2006 vote to appoint her to the IDA was a valid vote to have her serve a four-year term upon completion of the unexpired term to which she had been appointed in 2005. Pearson contends Murphy’s service on the IDA ended in January 2007 upon the expiration of the term she was appointed to complete, and that the Board was without authority in January 2006 to appoint Murphy to a four-year term that was to begin a year later. Thus, the issue is whether the 2006 Board had the authority to appoint someone to a seat on the IDA a year before the seat was available for occupancy.
