Cite as 2024 Ark. App. 209

ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS

DIVISION II

No. CV-21-282

MMSC, LLC

APPELLANT

V.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS; 

QUORUM COURT OF WASHINGTON 

COUNTY, ARKANSAS; JOSEPH K. 

WOOD, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY 

AS COUNTY JUDGE; DINAH 

DICKERSON; CAROLINE COX; 

STEPHENIE FOSTER; MARTY 

MATLOCK; AND THE HIGHLAND 

COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

APPELLEES

Opinion Delivered March 27, 2024

APPEAL FROM THE WASHINGTON

COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT 

[NO. 72CV-19-1297]

HONORABLE JOHN C. THREET, 

JUDGE

REMANDED

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Judge

This case involves the denial of a conditional-use permit for surface mining in 

Washington County. In 2018, MMSC, LLC (“MMSC” or “appellant”), applied for a 

conditional-use permit to operate a red-dirt mine on approximately twenty acres in 

Washington County. On February 14, 2019, the Washington County planning board 

denied MMSC’s conditional-use permit. On April 18, 2019, the quorum court voted to 

affirm the planning board’s decision and memorialized that decision in an ordinance. 
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MMSC appealed the quorum court’s action to the Washington County circuit court. 

At that point, Dinah Dickerson, Caroline Cox, Stephenie Foster, Marty Matlock, and the 

Highland Community Association moved to intervene, and the circuit court granted that 

motion. 

On February 11, 2021, the circuit court held a final hearing in the matter and entered 

its final order on March 17, 2021. The circuit court ruled in favor of the appellees—the 

quorum court and the intervenors—holding that the decision to adopt an ordinance denying 

appellant’s request for a conditional-use permit was not arbitrary, capricious, or 

unreasonable. The circuit court also held that Arkansas Code Annotated section 14-17-211

(Repl. 2013) is unconstitutional because it is a violation of the separation-of-powers clause 

in the Arkansas Constitution. 

The appellant filed a timely notice of appeal, and the electronic record was lodged on 

June 23, 2021. It is 7,091 pages. The first 61 pages are various motions, responses, and replies 

that are individually bookmarked. The final 449 pages are also motions, responses, replies, 

orders, and letters that are individually bookmarked. The middle 6,581 pages are 

bookmarked simply as “Administrative Records Exhibit.” 

The 6,581-page “Administrative Records Exhibit” appears to include documents from 

the Washington County planning office and planning board, maps, e-mails, deeds, and at 

least one affidavit. The documents are not bookmarked, nor is it clear what pleading or other 

portion of the record they are related to.
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Arkansas Rule of Appellate Procedure–Civil 7(b)(1) requires that “[t]he record shall 

be saved as searchable and bookmarked portable document format (PDF) files. Bookmarks 

shall be made to each document in the record and at the beginning of each witness’s 

testimony.”

Last year, this court remanded a case for additional factual findings. Duensing v. Ark.

State Med. Bd., 2023 Ark. App. 226, at 4–5, 666 S.W.3d 133, 136. At the end of the opinion, 

the court noted that pages 11 through 457 of the electronic record 

includes the transcript from the Board hearing. However, none of the 

documents or testimony are bookmarked, and the documents do not appear 

in any type of order. Before a subsequent appeal, we urge the parties to review 

the rules on electronic records and record contents. . . .[A]nd counsel should 

carefully review the rules and ensure no other deficiencies exist.

Id. at 7, 666 S.W.3d at 138. 

The same deficiencies are present in this electronic record but on a larger scale. Pages 

62 through 6,642 are not bookmarked, and the documents do not appear in any type of 

order.

For this reason, we remand this case to correct the electronic record. The electronic 

record must comply with Rule 7(b)(1) and be refiled within sixty days.

Remanded.

HARRISON, C.J., and THYER, J. agree.

Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP, by: Joshua A. Ashley, Kael K. Bowling, and Martin A. 

Kasten, for appellant.
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Noland Law Firm, PA, by: Ross Noland; and Brian Lester and Garrett Harlan, Washington 

County Attorneys, for appellees.