Legal Question in Business Law in Arkansas

Is a cheap land lease binding for future timber sales?

My mother inherited some property in 1999 from an older sister. The sister and her husband had entered into a 30 contract with a timber company in 1975 for a very nominal amount, about $1,000 per year, to lease the land and ''convey title to all timber then standing or later to be grown''. We have had an estimate of the present timbers value and was shocked to find out that the present value of the timber is approximately $150,000. The timber company has until 2005(30 years) to harvest the timber and we feel certain that they will do so before the lease expires.

Could this lease be construed by a court as to have been entered into by an unconscionable, large company and an unknowledgeable and naive land owner and found to be grossly unfair and one-sided and cancelled by the court? Even if the large company might produce evidence that my mothers sister and husband were eager participants to this agreement?


Asked on 11/17/01, 8:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Peter Bradie Bradie, Bradie & Bradie

Re: Is a cheap land lease binding for future timber sales?

In a word, no! A deal is a deal, and when the lease was written up in 1975 there was no way to tell what the timber value, if any, would have been 30 years from that date.

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Answered on 11/19/01, 10:45 am


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