Wednesday's Internet Edition, May 14, 2008.
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Joyce Conrad is seated between attorneys William Powell (left) and Larry Skeen at a Monday hearing in Roane Circuit Court. Conrad said she is planning on selling her farm to return more than $200,000 she paid herself from the Hazeldeane Gordon estate. Conrad serves as executrix of the estate that Gordon left to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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Publisher - A woman who allegedly took more than $200,000 from an estate will sell her farm to pay the money back.
Joyce Conrad serves as executrix of the estate of Hazeldeane Gordon, who left the bulk of her $2.5 million estate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Conrad wrote checks to herself out of the estate totaling $300,000. After those payments were questioned by a fiduciary commissioner, former county clerk Loretta Knapp, the Roane County Commission ruled Conrad would have to pay most of the money back.
Conrad filed an appeal in Roane Circuit Court and last month Judge Tom Evans upheld the county commission’s decision. Evans said the estate would have to be repaid more than $202,000, plus interest. As of last August, the figure with the interest had already climbed to more than $208,000.
Conrad said she would sell her farm to pay the money back.
At a hearing in circuit court Monday, Conrad asked that the case be continued to give her more time to sell the farm.
Conrad said she was keeping her home and 5 acres on Seaman Fork and selling the remaining 132 acres to a neighbor.
She presented Evans with a proposed sales contract.
In the discussion that followed, Evans said the proposed sales price was $275,000.
Parkersburg attorney William Powell represented Conrad, while Ripley attorney Larry Skeen, who sat with Conrad and Powell, said he represented the estate.
Knapp was on the opposite side of the room, along with Spencer attorney Anita Ashley.
Knapp told Evans that she had spoken with a representative of St. Jude’s, who said he wanted Conrad removed as executrix.
Evans said the hospital would have to file a motion before he could make a ruling.
The hospital did not have a representative at the hearing and has not filed anything with the court.
Ashley questioned whether the contract would actually lead to a sale. She said there had been an earlier sales contract that was not fulfilled.
“My problem is that it’s contingent on financing,” Ashley said. “There’s no evidence they have even applied for financing.”
Conrad said the sale was set to close on or before June 10, and she had other opportunities to sell the property if that sale did not go through.
“I’m getting two more back-up contracts,” Conrad told the judge.
Evans agreed to Conrad’s request for a continuance to allow her time to sell the property. At the same time, he said there needed to be some kind of guarantee that the estate would be repaid.
He said Conrad could sign a consent judgment that could be placed on record, or she could agree to have a lien placed against the property.
Ashley said she preferred the consent judgment, since she did not know if there were already other liens on the property.
Conrad said there were no liens on the property she was planning to sell.
Evans agreed to continue the case, but said Conrad would have to give the estate a lien on the property in the amount owed to the estate. Evans said he would appoint Ashley as the trustee under the deed of trust.
Evans continued the case until June 16, the week after the property sale is supposed to be complete.
