News

Estate targets Neill's Lake Summit boathouse

By Bill Moss, Published: October 9, 2013

A Lake Summit boat dock owned by convicted attorney Sam Neill is headed for auction on the courthouse steps as payment to one of the estates Neill was convicted of defrauding.

Neill is serving time in federal prison after his conviction on charges that he stole more than $3 million from clients whose estates he had agreed to handle.
The administrator for the Ruth D. Danis estate, Columbus attorney Phillip R. Feagan, brought a foreclosure lawsuit against Neill and his wife, Nancy K. Hayes, after they defaulted on a promissory note secured by the boat house and dock.
Feagan's lawsuit to foreclose on the boat dock was similar to a lawsuit he brought to gain possession of undeveloped Lake Summit lots Neill owned and currently valued at $310,000.
From July 2008 to September 2011, Neill signed five promissory notes agreeing to repay the Danis estate a total of $925,000. In his guilty plea in Henderson County Superior Court, Neill admitted to stealing $850,000 from the estate.
In a court filingon Sept. 25, Feagan said Neill received a credit against the debt of $750,000 for the larger Lake Summit property, which the estate also foreclosed on. That leaves a debt of $379,637, interest of $1,820 and attorney fees of $15,000, the attorney said in the affidavit.
The sale at the courthouse was set for 11 a.m. on Oct. 24.
Henderson County tax records show the property is assessed at $86,300, including $37,700 for the boathouse.