Jacksonville Funeral Home Gets $1.5M Judgment from Buyer

A Natural State Funeral Service at 2620 W. Main St. in Jacksonville

Remember the troubled Arkansas Funeral Care LLC of Jacksonville, where allegations of substandard conditions surfaced in 2015?

Well, AFC recently received a $1.5 million judgment against RPS Ventures Inc., which bought AFC’s assets in 2015 for $1.9 million.

RPS had taken on some of AFC’s debt, but owed $1.5 million in cash, which was supposed to be paid over a 15-year period.

RPS Ventures, which operated the business as A Natural State Funeral Service, lost its counterclaim against AFC alleging the contract should be tossed out for fraud and misrepresentation.

“My clients are very gratified that the judge … felt like this defendant breached its agreement,” said AFC’s attorney, Greg Alagood of the law firm of Mitchell Blackstock Ivers & Sneddon of Little Rock.

Alagood said RPS didn’t make any payments toward the purchase. “So we were left with no alternative other than to sue them,” he said. “And [AFC] was extremely gratified that the judge gave no credence to any of their assertions and gave AFC … a judgment for the full balance.”

RPS Ventures’ attorney John Ogles of Jacksonville declined to comment because motions are pending in front of Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox to modify the judgment or reconsider it, or both. RPS said in court papers that it was misled about a number of elements of the purchase, one of which being AFC’s book of pre-need funeral contracts.

RPS thought the value of the contracts was $2.3 million, but it turned out the contracts were worth only $760,000, the filing said.

“It is absurd to think RPS would agree to pay $1.5 million and incur almost $825,000 in debt, which includes the purchase price for the building, for $760,000 in contract rights,” RPS said.

Ogles said in his court filings that the asset purchase agreement made no representation of the value of the policies that would be transferred to RPS.

RPS’s officers are Joseph “Matt” Robinson, who is the publications manager at the Leader Publishing Co. and the president and funeral director of the funeral home; state Rep. Mark Perry, D-Jacksonville; Perry’s adult son, Logan Perry; and Stephen Savage of Little Rock, a CPA.