Attorney's lawsuit says Oak Hill church expansion damaged home

In the wake of the Bredesen Bunker Battle, the saga of Bill Kraus and sundry other civic tempests, an epic feud between homeowners and a prominent Nashville church is just the latest storyline in the long-running soap opera that is life in the City of Oak Hill.

James C. "Jimmy" Bradshaw III, an attorney from corporate law firm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, has filed suit along with wife Sally against First Presbyterian Church. The litigation is focused on damage to the Bradshaws’ home on Robertson Academy Road, allegedly caused by stormwater runoff from the ever-expanding campus of the church and its related entities, including Oak Hill School and a recreation center.

Beyond that grievance, though, is a history of complaints from the Bradshaws about backstreet traffic, noisy late-night Dumpster runs, equally noisy 5:49 a.m. construction activity, and even the supposedly illegal stabling of horses on church property.

All in all, Jimmy Bradshaw asserted in a 2008 letter to officials of the satellite city, First Presbyterian has engaged in “continued and flagrant encroachment upon the residential neighborhood adjacent to church property.”

Not all of the language used in the controversy has been so decorous and formal.

In e-mails published on one of the two anonymous blogs that have popped up as forums for Oak Hill gossip and gripes, Sally Bradshaw refers to the city's mayor as “Little Tommy Alsup” and its vice mayor as “Austin ‘My firm lost $400k to a computer/bank scam’ McMullen.”

The latter sobriquet refers to the news last summer that Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, where McMullen is a partner, had fallen victim to an offshore scheme and wired more than $400,000 to a scammer’s bank account.

Vice Mayor McMullen is a member of the First Presbyterian congregation, as is Oak Hill Commissioner Ray T. "Chip" Throckmorton III.

“It has always given us a great amount of concern that the church has managed to put somebody into the city government,” said Jimmy Bradshaw, referring to McMullen.

“I wasn’t put into office by any group other than the voters of the City of Oak Hill,” McMullen retorted last week when told of Bradshaw’s comment.

A well-connected congregation

It would be tempting to draw a correlation between Oak Hill's recent proclivity for interpersonal drama and the number of practicing members of the Nashville bar dwelling there.

“A tremendous number of lawyers live in Oak Hill, of all different stripes,” said Tom Lawless — a lawyer — who has fielded several of the Bradshaws' complaints against the church as head of the city's Board of Zoning Appeals.

On the roster of elders and deacons at First Presbyterian are no fewer than a dozen attorneys, including Corrections Corp. of America General Counsel Gus Puryear and partners from Bass, Berry & Sims, Stites & Harbison and, yes, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs — Jimmy Bradshaw's firm. (Not surprisingly, he retained outside counsel, Ray Prince of Prince & Hellinger in Nashville, to sue the church.)

Other prominent names in the church's leadership include former Gov. Winfield Dunn, investors Frank Bass and Andrew Byrd, Ozburn-Hessey Logistics CEO Scott McWilliams and ex-SouthEast Waffles CEO Jim Shaub.

“Without question, it's the wealthiest, most powerful, most well connected congregation in the city of Nashville,” Jimmy Bradshaw said. “And that's been one of our problems. They steamroll over everybody.”

Bradshaw claimed that the Board of Zoning Appeals and other city boards have been known to make rulings on matters brought up by the church without giving any advance notice to neighbors who might be affected.

“My wife and I are in a position where we have to attend every BZA and planning commission meeting because of the history the church has had in showing up unannounced and getting something approved without it ever going on the agenda,” he said.

But BZA chair Lawless responded by saying “Mr. Bradshaw is confused.”

“That probably is the politest word I could say. That has not happened. If a matter is not on the agenda, we don't deal with it,” Lawless said. “There's not a matter that comes before us where we don't ask whether or not appropriate notice has gone out to the affected neighbors.”

Lawless said the BZA set up a citizens' group of neighbors to try to work with the church on contentious issues.

“I asked Mrs. Bradshaw to serve on it,” he recalled, “and I think they did have some involvement with it, but my understanding is that eventually the committee had some issues with the Bradshaws.

“The Bradshaws can be abrasive. Jimmy is a good trial lawyer. Trial lawyers can be abrasive. And Mrs. Bradshaw is a very, very strong-willed woman. That may rub some people wrong.”

Community assets?

The Bradshaws are seeking an unspecified amount in damages for what they claim is a decline in the value of their home due to water damage caused by runoff directed toward them due to church construction. They paid $201,000 for the property in 1996. Metro's tax appraisers this year valued it at $388,000.

The church has hired high-powered attorney Tom White of Tune, Entrekin & White to help it deal with the couple.

“First Presbyterian Church feels that the church and Oak Hill School have been significant assets to the community for many years,” White told NashvillePost.com last week. “The construction commented about in the complaint was done professionally and approved by the City of Oak Hill.”

White decried the “non-stop series of inappropriate complaints” from the Bradshaws over the past several years. “Several weeks ago, we were actually given a copy of proposed litigation and informed that unless we purchased the plaintiff's residence, a lawsuit would be filed,” he said. “We declined to purchase the property.”

The Bradshaws and other neighbors have protested to city officials about the number of automobiles coming down Oak Valley and Robertson Academy Roads to use the rear entrance to the school and church.

“There is a huge traffic problem,” Jimmy Bradshaw said. “The church is routing and directing most of its traffic through that back gate.”

McMullen cites the recent addition of speed humps and hiring of off-duty Metro Police officers to watch out for speeders as steps the city has taken to improve the situation.

“I have led the efforts to address traffic issues that the Bradshaws and other residents have raised,” he said. “I feel I have tried to improve the situation for the Bradshaws as much as I reasonably could.”

Making headlines

About a mile from the church and its neighbors, Gov. Phil Bredesen and First Lady Andrea Conte are about to dedicate the subterranean events facility constructed on the front lawn of the Curtiswood Lane executive residence. They prevailed in building the ‘bunker,’ as critics labeled it, over bitter opposition from neighbors and political adversaries.

No sooner had the Bunker Battle started to die down than Oak Hill City Manager Bill Kraus was found to have concealed a criminal conviction and taken part in a local political campaign, allegedly in violation of the law.

Kraus resigned, then tried to un-resign, and then sued the city in an effort to get his job back. That litigation continues.

Controversy also arose over a landowner’s efforts to build a 12-home development on Granny White Pike.

In a stinging opinion handed down in August, Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy reversed the Oak Hill BZA's decision to allow a building permit for the project, saying that Lawless and other officials had employed “circuitous reasoning” and failed to “follow the law.”

Like most of the players on Oak Hill’s stage, McMullen is at a loss to explain the suburb’s proclivity for drama.

“My goal is to try to help run the city in a way that will minimize all the controversy,” the vice mayor said. “If we can keep ourselves out of the headlines for a while, that would be a good thing.”