Grant v. Williams

2013 Ark. App. 663, 430 S.W.3d 786, 2013 WL 6001934, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 698
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 13, 2013
DocketCV-13-236
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2013 Ark. App. 663 (Grant v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grant v. Williams, 2013 Ark. App. 663, 430 S.W.3d 786, 2013 WL 6001934, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 698 (Ark. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Chief Judge.

|! Appellant Michael Grant, administrator of the estate of Linda Williams, deceased, appeals the Union County Circuit Court’s order of November 15, 2012, vacating its order of December 15, 2009, which had granted a petition for approval to make final distribution and determine heirship. 1 Appellant argues three reasons why the circuit court erred by setting aside its order: (1) the circuit court lost jurisdiction to vacate the order; (2) there was insufficient evidence to set aside the order; and (3) equitable estoppel prevents appellee Gates Williams from objecting to the order. We affirm.

I. Procedural and Factual History

On August 18, 2006, appellant was appointed administrator of the estate of Linda Williams, deceased. He named Susan Scritchfield, cousin, and one unknown cousin as heirs Land placed the value of the estate at $145,000, including both personal and real property. On June 18, 2008, an affidavit in support of heirship determination was filed on behalf of appel-lees James Edgar Jones, Jr., Norma Wright Holman, Kathrine Maile Pitts Brock, James Walter Pitts, and Samuel M. Batterson, each cousins to the decedent.

On November 12, 2009, appellant filed a “Petition for Approval to Make Final Distribution and Termination (sic) of Heir-ship,” alleging that the decedent had married Edward Brandhurst on August 24, 1968, and had never obtained a divorce. Further, the petition alleged that the decedent had no children, that she was an only child, and that her parents predeceased her, leaving her surviving husband, Edward Brandhurst, the sole heir.

Appellee Cathy F. Poole responded to the November 12, 2009 petition, alleging that she was the cousin of the decedent, that no accounting had been filed, and that the decedent’s marriage to Edward Bran-dhurst was not valid. She claimed that the heirs would be the decedent’s first cousins and their descendants, herself being one.

A hearing was set for December 15, 2009, and the interested parties met for a settlement conference that day. As a result, a settlement was presented to the circuit court judge, who signed an order finding that Edward Brandhurst and the decedent were married at the time of the decedent’s death and that Brandhurst was the sole heir of the decedent. The order also contained a provision that Brandhurst agreed to make a gift of the 2406 shares of Simmons First National Corporation stock to the descendants of Lloyd Williams, Ralph Williams, and Heard Williams, one third each per stirpes. However, this order was held and not filed by the attorney for the estate.

|3Appellee Gates Williams, first cousin to the decedent, filed a motion on March 27, 2012, alleging that he was not a party to the settlement and did not know that the circuit judge had signed an order on that day. He acknowledged that the order had not been filed and sought a hearing for the circuit court to determine that there had been no binding settlement. On April 4, 2012, the order signed on December 15, 2009, was filed at appellant’s direction in circuit court. On April 10, 2012, appellant responded to Williams’s motion, acknowledging that the order had been filed.

On September 13, 2012, a motion to vacate the order was filed by Williams, alleging that the order had been filed on April 4, 2012, but that his attorney had not received a copy or been notified, having first learned of the filing on September 7, 2012. Attached to the motion were the documents related to the decedent’s divorce from Brandhurst in New Mexico in 1969. Williams claimed that despite obtaining a divorce from the decedent, Bran-dhurst appeared in December 2009 and represented that he was the surviving spouse. He further claimed that, at the time the order was filed on April 4, 2012, reciting that Brandhurst was the surviving spouse, appellant and his attorney had actual knowledge of the 1969 divorce decree.

Williams testified that he had attended the hearing set for December 15, 2009. He explained that the group met in the circuit court’s library and discussed settlement. Williams testified that appellant had attended with his attorney, and that Cathy Poole, her boyfriend, and Edward Brandhurst, who represented himself to be the decedent’s husband, also attended. Williams explained that he went to the meeting on behalf of himself and the rest |4of the Williams family who were not represented by counsel. He claimed that the resulting agreement was based on fraud because Brandhurst was not the decedent’s husband. Williams said he remembers that shortly after the meeting, Bran-dhurst said that the deal was off. He also testified that he was not represented before the circuit court when the attorneys explained the settlement to the judge because he was not invited and does not know what was said. He said that the terms of the order reflect what had been discussed in their settlement meeting, except for the attorney’s fees, fees for W.L. Cook, who prepared the accounting, and those fees being paid from the Simmons, stock. Williams objected to dividend checks being cashed and commingled with the other cash assets. He remembered that he received an email from appellant, who explained that Brandhurst reneged on the deal. Williams also testified that he received an email from appellant explaining that appellant did not intend to have the order filed, even though it had been signed by the circuit judge.

Don Dodson, former attorney for appellant as estate administrator, testified pursuant to a subpoena that appellant told him after the settlement meeting that a problem had arisen about the dividend of stock that was to go to the Gates Williams family. He said it was a significant amount of money that

we did not realize existed one way or the other at the time of our discussions. And we realized that suddenly there was a pretty material amount of money and we were unclear, and Gates Williams took the position that that money should be a part of the stock and should be delivered to him as part of the settlement. I think [appellant] took the position that it was part of the general estate and should not be paid to the Williams family as a part of the settlement. And I was told to hold on and let’s see how we can get this sorted out because it was very hotly contested almost immediately once we realized that that amount of money did exist as the dividend.

li;On November 15, 2012, the circuit court set aside the April 4, 2012 order, finding that appellant, as administrator, was notified by letter from Williams that neither he nor the other intestate heirs were parties to the settlement and that there were issues related to the distribution of accrued dividends of the Simmons Bank stock that were not resolved. Further, the circuit court found that it was agreed that the signed order of December 15, 2009, would be held by Dodson and not filed. As of the filing of the March 27, 2012 motion, the order had not been filed. However, the order was filed on April 4, 2012, without notification to Williams, his counsel, or any other heirs at law. The circuit court found that, prior to filing the motion to vacate, Williams obtained a certified copy of a final divorce decree between Brandhurst and the decedent filed on February 28, 1969, in New Mexico.

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Bluebook (online)
2013 Ark. App. 663, 430 S.W.3d 786, 2013 WL 6001934, 2013 Ark. App. LEXIS 698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grant-v-williams-arkctapp-2013.