Ozark Regional Land Trust says it was due to inherit the 33-acre tract near Greenland (pictured above) from Benjamin Johnson, a Sherwood man who died in 2011. Instead, the family trust of Johnson sold it to another party for $125,000.
The nonprofit conservation group Ozark Regional Land Trust has filed a lawsuit against the estate of a Pulaski County man arguing that he planned to leave land to the trust after his death that was later sold.
The ORLT claims in court filings that Benjamin Franklin Johnson IV owned a 33-acre tract referred to in his living trust as the “Farm Tract.” The property was intended to be left to the ORLT after Johnson’s death, but remained in his name until he died, according to the complaint.
Johnson died on Sept. 11, 2011, and a petition for probate of will was filed in February 2014, but the ORLT was not notified. The Farm Tract was sold during the probate process for $125,000 to pay for administrative expenses and some small debts of the estate.
Constance G. Clark, an attorney for the ORLT, wrote in the complaint that because the group had been left the land in Johnson’s trust, it was entitled to the funds from the sale. Had the land not been sold, Clark wrote, it would have ended up with ORLT under the terms of the trust.
Linda S. Nevels, one of Johnson’s stepchildren and the trustee of his trust, asked the court to dismiss the complaint. In a separate response, Johnson’s son, George Joseph Nelson, argued that the complaint failed to state facts upon which relief could be granted and that ORLT lacked standing to sue. Both Nevels and Nelson denied the allegations raised in the ORLT complaint.
Attorneys for both Nevels and Nelson declined to comment on the case.
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