Court Opinion

ID: 9377968
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-09 14:02:00.036147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:18.323921
License: Public Domain

Cite as 2023 Ark. App. 136
                   ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
                                       DIVISION II
                                       No. CV-22-270

                                                Opinion Delivered March   8, 2023
 IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF
                                                APPEAL FROM THE PULASKI
 ADOLPH JOHNSON
                                                COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT,
                                                THIRTEENTH DIVISION
 STEPHANIE JOHNSON,
                                                [NO. 60PR-20-1967]
 INDIVIDUALLY; AND GWENDOLYN
 AKINS, AS HER NEXT FRIEND
                       APPELLANTS HONORABLE W. MICHAEL REIF,
                                  JUDGE
 V.

 FELECIA PARKER-GREEN                     REMANDED TO SETTLE AND
                                 APPELLEE SUPPLEMENT THE RECORD

                             CINDY GRACE THYER, Judge

       Stephanie Johnson, individually; and Gwendolyn Akins, as her next friend, appeal

the Pulaski County Circuit Court’s order finding Felecia Parker-Green to be a legitimate heir

of Adolph Johnson, deceased. More specifically, Johnson and Akins claim that Parker-Green

failed to commence an action or assert a claim against Adolph Johnson’s estate within 180

days of his death as required by Arkansas Code Annotated section 28-9-209 (Repl. 2012) to

be considered an heir. Because our record does not contain all the documents necessary for

our review, we order supplementation of the record.

       Adolph Johnson died intestate on November 23, 2017. It is undisputed that

Stephanie Johnson is Adolph Johnson’s legitimate child and is an heir to his estate. Felecia
Parker-Green, along with Tony Lavell Nelson and Anna Louise Lewis, are the alleged

illegitimate children of Adolph Johnson and also claim to be heirs to his estate.

       At the time of his death, Adolph Johnson had an estate valued at less than $100,000.

An affidavit for collection of small estate by distributees was filed in the Pulaski County

Circuit Court (case No. 60PR-18-59) on January 10, 2018, and on March 22, 2018, Parker-

Green objected to the filing, claiming she, Nelson, and Lewis are also Adolph Johnson’s

children and are entitled to inherit a portion of his estate. The small-estate case was

subsequently dismissed on October 2, 2020, because it was not the proper forum to litigate

contested matters.

       On October 9, 2020, Johnson and Akins filed a petition for the administration of

the estate of Adolph Johnson and asked the court to find that Johnson is the only legitimate

child of Adolph Johnson (case No. 60PR-20-1967). A hearing to determine heirship was held

on January 27, 2022. After the hearing, the circuit court held that Parker-Green had filed a

claim against the estate within 180 days of Adolph Johnson’s death, thereby satisfying the

statutory requirements to be deemed an heir. The court then declared Stephanie Johnson

and Felecia Parker-Green to be the sole legitimate heirs of Adolph Johnson for purposes of

his estate.

       In making its determination that Parker-Green had satisfied the statutory

requirements for heirship, the court relied, at least in part, on documents filed in the prior

companion case, In re Estate of Adolph Johnson, No. 60PR-18-59. Although appellants

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designated the pleadings in the companion case in their notice of appeal, those documents

were not included in the record below and have not been included in our record on appeal.

       If anything material to either party is omitted from the record, by error or by accident,

we may direct that the omission be corrected and, if necessary, that a supplemental record

be certified and transmitted. See Ark. R. App. P.–Civ. 6(e). As the pleadings in In re Estate

of Adolph Johnson, No. 60PR-18-59, are critical to our appellate review of this case, we remand

the case to the circuit court to settle the record to include those pleadings considered by the

circuit court and designated in appellant’s notice of appeal. Upon completion of the record

below, appellants shall then transmit a certified copy of the supplemental record to the clerk

of our court. Appellants have fifteen calendar days in which to settle and supplement the

record.

       Remanded to settle and supplement the record.

       WOOD and BROWN, JJ., agree.

       Bennie O’Neal, for appellants.

       One brief only.

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