Walter Hussman Faces Legal Dispute with Sister Over $2.7M Lake Hamilton Property

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Walter Hussman Jr., chairman of Wehco Media, owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is in a legal dispute with one of his two sisters over 90-plus acres on Lake Hamilton in Garland County.

The website of the Garland County Assessor’s Office places a value on the tracts in contention at $2.7 million.

Marilyn Hussman Augur sued her brother, Walter, and sister, Gale Hussman Arnold, in Garland County Circuit Court last June. Augur, who lives in Texas, said the siblings had been unable to agree on how to divide the property, which the three inherited from their parents. Walter Hussman Sr., the siblings’ father, died in 1988. Their mother, Betty Palmer Hussman, died in 1990.

Augur asked the court to determine a fair market value of the property and divide it among the three. In addition, Augur asked the court to order the appointment of three “disinterested and impartial” commissioners to transfer to each sibling by deed those parts of the property set aside for each.

In his court filing in response, Hussman, of Little Rock, acknowledged that he and his sisters had been unable to agree on the division of the land. He said he’d prefer not to partition the property, but agreed that it should be divided if no agreement can be reached. And Hussman denied that commissioners needed to be appointed to carry out the transfer.

On Jan. 17, Garland County Circuit Judge Meredith B. Switzer issued a default judgment against Gale Arnold, who lives in Washington, D.C., after, according to the filing, she failed to respond to her sister’s lawsuit. The judge’s order said that Arnold’s interest in the property would be partitioned as requested by Augur.

The property, according to the suit, consists of two tracts of unimproved land, one of about 90 acres and another of about 1.5 acres. The suit includes a map of the tracts at issue.

The Garland County Assessor’s Office website shows three tracts corresponding to the lawsuit’s map, one of 32.6 acres valued at $913,950, an adjacent tract of 56.43 acres valued at $1,471,800 and a third 1.3-acre tract to the east valued at $302,500. The tracts are all on Lake Hamilton.