Attorneys for the family suing Madison County for $250 million over a decades-long land dispute fired back at opposing counsel last Friday in another motion opposing the defendants' emergency motion for sanctions and claim to the property.
Kevin and Robert Matthews, representing the estates of their parents, Pierce and Carrie Matthews, respectively, have been locked in a legal battle for nearly a quarter century to reclaim their family's 22-acre ancestral farm. The Matthewses and their counsel, Rick Kornis and Franklin Eaton, dispute the 2001 court order that allowed the private sale of the land on Winchester Road in Huntsville. Several retailers, including Aldi, CVS, and more, currently occupy the land.
The defendants in the case believe they are the rightful owners of the land and that the issue was settled in August 2023 by a final judgment issued by Circuit Court Judge George Day. The defendants filed an emergency motion on December 16 seeking sanctions against the Matthews plaintiffs for continuing to pursue their claim to the land, calling their actions and claims "reprehensible and false" based on "conspiracy theories."
Kornis and Eaton filed a response to the emergency motion Friday, claiming the defendants lived in a "Twilight Zone" since they had nothing to support their claim to the land and the court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the issue.
"Remember the Twilight Zone, where the character entered a world of fantasy or illusion," the motion read. "Petitioners have certainly entered that zone where they project ownership via records the Circuit Court Clerk has certified do not exist, the Tax Assessor has no record of, and the title insurance company, Stewart Title, allegedly insuring their title has certified under oath it has no records of."
The Matthews attorneys argue that the current land occupants have used a "dead man's deed" to claim title on the Matthews land, referring to Peirce Matthews, who died in 1997, well before the January 2001 court order.
"Every sentient lawyer knows that a dead man cannot convey title," Kornis and Eaton said in the motion. "Therefore, the petitioners cannot base their claims of ownership on the Pierce Matthews Deed. He was not alive in 2001 when the Clerk's Deed was created."
The defendant's emergency motion and continued claim to the property hangs on a May 20 ruling, as Kornis and Eaton have argued, which set aside an April 25 order by Madison County Probate Judge Frank Barger that voided and expunged all deeds after 2001, effectively reverting the land back to the Matthews.
Kornis and Eaton claim the defendants had ample notice of the April 25 hearing but only chose to get involved after the ruling didn't go their way. The Matthews further claim the May 20 order was sought via ex parte communications between the defendant lawyers, Judge Day and Judge Barger.
Finally, Kornis and Eaton argued in the motion that the relief and sanctions sought by the defendants should be dismissed with prejudice — along with the case entirely — for violating the Matthews family's First Amendment Constitutional rights.
"The Petitioners make no effort to justify, under the Constitution, the prior restraint of the Matthews' Free Speech and therefore First Amendment rights," the motion stated. "The failure to offer any constitutional analysis is even more pointed given that the Petitioners can prove literally no ownership interest in the property. Absent any attempt at constitutional justification, the 'emergency' Motion becomes merely another symbol of the Petitioners' desperation and desire for the Court to fall prey to the reality of their Twilight Zone. The Motion, indeed the entire action, should be rejected without more and dismissed with prejudice for lack of jurisdiction."
Kornis and Eaton emergency motion response
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on X and Facebook.
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
