DIVISION III
ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
OLLY NEAL, Judge
CA06-292
October 4, 2006
RALPH S. LACOTTS, II AND
AN APPEAL FROM THE ARKANSAS
JON BARTON LACOTTS
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
APPELLANTS [PR-01-5]
v.
HONORABLE JOHN W. COLE,
KELLI KOEN, ET. AL.
JUDGE
APPELLEES
AFFIRMED
Appellants, Ralph S. LaCotts, II, and Jon Barton LaCotts, bring this appeal from an
August 23, 2005, order of the Arkansas County Circuit Court finding that the Last Will and
Testament of Clarence Elmer LaCotts, Jr. (Mr. LaCotts) was not ambiguous and that the will
did not confer unto appellants an exclusive right to hunt certain property that was devised in
the will. On appeal, appellants argue: (1) the trial court’s failure to give effect to the prior
agreed order was contrary to the doctrine of res judicata and clearly erroneous; (2) the trial
court’s construction of the will was contrary to the testator’s intention and clearly erroneous
because the decedent’s real property was incorrectly described in the testator’s will; (3) the
trial court’s construction of the will concerning the appellants’ right to commercial hunting
and use and occupancy of a hunting lodge was contrary to the testator’s intention and clearly
2
erroneous.
Appellants are Mr. LaCotts’s grandsons. The appellees are five of his six
granddaughters, his daughter Kay Whitcomb, and Mr. LaCotts’s estate. Mr. LaCotts died
on February 6, 2001. He was survived by Kay Whitcomb, who served as the executrix of his
estate, and eight grandchildren.
At the time of his death, Mr. LaCotts owned three separate and distinct tracts of land
that, at their simplest, can best be described as: (1) 269.9 acres of duck-hunting property; (2)
38.8 acres that included his home, the home of appell