Bank’s attorneys file new motion as fight over proceeds from $18 fee continues

Attorneys for Bank OZK are digging in their heels in the fight over more than $2 million collected from property owners in six north Arkansas counties through an $18 fee included on real estate tax assessments.

The $18 fee is no longer being collected after judges in all six counties, including Carroll, ruled that the fee amounted to an illegal tax. However, $2,339,686.59 that already had been collected has since been delivered to Bank OZK, trustee for the bondholders who bought more than $12 million in bonds issued by the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District in 2005 to finance the purchase of a now-defunct landfill in Baxter County.

Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson has ordered that $433,987.10 collected from local taxpayers be deposited into the circuit court registry and ordered that Bank OZK be fined $500 a day for contempt until the funds are deposited.

On Aug. 18, Bank OZK attorney Lance Miller filed a motion in Pulaski County Circuit Court — where Bank OZK’s original lawsuit against the solid waste district ultimately resulted in the imposition of the $18 fee — seeking an injunction that would stop attorneys from pursuing claims in other courts for the money collected through the fee.

Attorneys Matt Bishop and Wendy Howerton, who filed separate class-action lawsuits in each affected county to challenge the $18 assessment, filed a response to Miller’s motion on Aug. 21, arguing that his request for an injunction should be denied.