Tuesday Update in Court Case to Return Ownership of WWII Veteran’s Property to Him
June 26th, 2018 by iPhone
Late last year, a 90+ year old Drew County resident was involved in a serious automobile accident.
The WWII veteran Wiley Ballow was visited in a Pine Bluff hospital, by his neighbor, Jack Bennett.
That is where the stories begin to differ.
KATV’s “7 on your Side” interviewed Mr. Ballow, earlier this week, reporting that Bennett had convinced Ballow to sign over ownership of 49 acres of hardwood, along with his homestead, in exchange for payment of $1. The properties value has been estimated to be up to $200,000, unofficially.
Court documents (shown below) indicate that the men had been neighbors and friends for several decades.
MLive has reviewed court documents, representing both sides of the case, and this is what we have found…
Both men agree that an ownership document was signed. However, they disagree as to who’s idea it was for the document.
In researching the 24 pages of the court case’s document, the final paragraph of the response seems to sum up the situation, very well. It should be pointed out that this document (including this statement) was filed with the Drew County circuit court on May 10.
According to the response, filed on behalf of Mr. Bennett, he has offered to deed the property back to Ballow “upon receipt of a voluntary written and signed“ request that he do so, accompanied by a statement from Ballow declaring that this is his wish, and that he “is not being influenced by Sherry Knight or others associated with her.”
Regardless of property ownership, a fund has been up set up at Citizens Bank to assist Mr. Ballow to improve his living situation.
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Posted Friday. June 22, 2018
The last document in the court file is an affidavit, from Wiley Ballow. That document seems to meet Jack Bennett’s requested requirements for him to willingly rescind the property deed back to Mr. Ballow. That document is posted here.
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Posted June 26, 2018.
Following last weeks articles on this subject, Bennett’s attorney, Cliff Gibson, filed an amended answer to the Circuit Court, requesting an additional stipulation to their earlier proposal to reconvey the property to Mr. Ballow.
In addition to the statement from Mr. Balliw, they have added their request for a professional to evaluate him, and confirm that he is not under the influence from a third party, in his attempt to regain ownership of the property in question.
This request had been submitted to Ballow’s attorney, Hani Hashem, but was entered into the court record, Friday.
Any further updates in the case, hopefully including its resolution, will be posted on MonticelloLive.com as they become available.
