Decision affirmed by Court of Appeals on Ballow land case

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In 2018, Drew County made statewide news when the case of Ballot vs. Bennett hit the media.

Willy B. Ballow, now in his 90’s, was involved in an accident in December 2017, that resulted in a stay at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff. Allegedly, long time neighbor Jack Bennett visited Ballow while he was in JRMC and convinced him to sign paperwork signing over ownership of 49 acres of land to Bennett.

The situation became public in the spring of 2018 when a local educator was attempting to assist Ballow in getting a new trailer to live in. Through this project, it was found that the 49 acres were not in Ballow’s name.

Judge Quincy Ross presided over the initial hearing in 2019 where a decision was made to return the land back to Ballow.

An appeal was filed by Bennett and his attorney but due to Covid-19 and severe back log, the Court of Appeals was unable to review this case until approximately one month ago.

A decision was released last week that the Arkansas Court of Appeals had affirmed the ruling made by Judge Ross and the land will be returned to Ballow.

“Not a lot has happened with this case in the past three years,” Ballow’s attorney Hani Hashem stated. “It had fallen off of the radar. I was notified about a month ago that the case was being reviewed.”

The case of Ballow vs. Bennett was reviewed by a three judge panel and a decision is made based on transcripts sent in from the initial case.

“Helping a man like him is why I became a lawyer,” Hashem added. “Mr. Ballow is such a pleasure to deal with, and he has such a unique story.”