Opinion
4:16-CV-108 (CDL)
03-02-2023
SABAL TRAIL TRANSMISSION, LLC, Plaintiff, v. 1.27 ACRES OF LAND, MORE OR LESS, IN MITCHELL COUNTY, GEORGIA, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
CLAY D. LAND U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE
The Court issued an order granting disbursement of funds on February 22, 2023 (ECF No. 75). That order contained a scrivener's error, so it is vacated and replaced with this order.
The Court previously found that the Natural Gas Act gave Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC the right to condemn easements over Defendants' property and that the just compensation for the easements was $2,700. Sabal Trail deposited that amount, plus interest, into the Court's registry in 2017. The total amount deposited was $2,927.84. The Court instructed Defendants to apply for a distribution of the award, and several individuals who claim an interest in the property submitted information to the Court. Order (Apr. 27, 2018), ECF No. 67. As far as the Court could determine based on the information presented, title to the property remains in the Estate of Elijah Moore. Id. at 5. The Estate of Elijah Moore had not been probated, and there was no administrator of the estate, so the Court ordered that the just compensation award remain in the Court's registry to allow the Estate of Elijah Moore to be administered and the heirs be determined by the Probate Court.
Kim McArthur and John D. Wheeler have now been appointed coadministrators of the Estate of Elijah Moore, and they seek disbursement of the just compensation award to the Estate of Elijah Moore so it can be distributed among the heirs of Elijah Moore. The Court hereby orders that the just compensation award funds, plus any interest that accrued while the funds were held in the Court's registry, be disbursed to the Law Office of Lawton C. Heard, Jr., as attorney for the co-administrators of the Estate of Elijah Moore.
IT IS SO ORDERED.