Three sisters have filed suit against their brother, who they claim forged their signatures on documents that revoked their interest in land and mineral rights.
Cleta Menossi, Cinda M. Johnson and Julie A. Moody filed a lawsuit Feb. 6 in the Madison County Circuit Court against David Allen Smith.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim they were supposed to receive an undivided interest in three separate pieces of land in Christian County, and in one piece of land in Collier County, Fla., when their father and mother died.
On Sept. 21, 2011, the plaintiffs’ father, Norman Glenwood Smith, died. Therefore, one-half of the interest in the estate should have belonged to the women and their brother, defendant David Allen Smith.
However, without the women’s knowledge, a quit-claim deed had been filed in Christian County in October of 2007 that purportedly handed the sisters’ interest in the land to only their brother. In addition, following her husband’s death on Dec. 11, 2011, Norma Jean Smith resigned her position as trustee so David Allen Smith could become trustee, according to the complaint.
An original conveyance and corrective conveyance of mineral rights were recorded in Christian County in 2012 with the plaintiffs’ signatures supposedly on the documents. However, they contend they had no knowledge of the documents’ existence. They say their signatures were forged so they also lost mineral rights.
The plaintiffs seek a constructive trust to be assessed against David Allen Smith’s assets and want the court to remove the trustee and appointment of a successor trustee. They also seek actual damages of more than $50,000, attorneys’ fees and other relief the court deems just.
They will be represented by J. Thomas Long and Philip J. Lading of Sandberg, Phoenix and von Gontard in Alton.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 14-L-192.