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Nearly three months after Indiana Treasurer Daniel Elliott sued three Morgan County nonprofits over a disputed downtown Martinsville building, the case has cycled through six judges in two counties without any hearings on the underlying dispute.
The latest change came this week when Hendricks County Superior Court Judge Mark Smith accepted appointment as special judge, according to court records.
His assignment follows a succession of judicial recusals, change-of-judge requests and one judge’s decision to decline jurisdiction because of an already overloaded docket.
As of Wednesday, no hearings had been scheduled.
The lawsuit stems from a long-running dispute over a downtown Martinsville building that Elliott, his wife Laura Elliott and their business, The Source CoWork LLC, claim they were promised ownership of after investing roughly $250,000 to rehabilitate the property.
Instead, the building was transferred to two other Morgan County nonprofits, prompting the Elliotts to sue in April for ownership of the property or compensation for their alleged improvements.
Six judges later
Rather than litigating those competing claims, however, the case has so far been dominated by procedural questions over which judge will ultimately hear it.
The case was initially assigned to Morgan Superior Court Judge Sara Dungan, who declined to serve as special judge days later.
Morgan Superior Court Judge Brian Williams was then selected before the Elliott plaintiffs exercised their right under Indiana Trial Rule 76(B) to seek an automatic change of judge. The case was then reassigned to Morgan Superior Court Judge Dakota VanLeeuwen.
Weeks later, however, the Morgan County Public Library Foundation, one of the three nonprofit defendants named in the lawsuit, filed its own request for a change of judge.
Once Morgan County’s available judges had been exhausted, the case shifted to Hendricks County.
Judge Kathryn Kuehn was appointed first. After another defendant, the Morgan County Veterans Memorial, requested its own change of judge, Kuehn directed court staff to select another special judge because the parties could not agree on a replacement.
Hendricks County Superior Court Judge Travis Bauman-Crane was selected July 1 but declined jurisdiction five days later, writing that his court’s already heavy caseload had grown substantially because of increases in Child in Need of Services, juvenile delinquency and criminal filings.
“Given the Court’s existing caseload and scheduling demands,” Bauman-Crane wrote, he could not devote “the time and attention necessary to ensure the prompt, thorough, and fair adjudication of this matter” without affecting other pending cases.
Court records show Smith formally accepted the assignment Wednesday.
Indiana Trial Rule 76 generally allows each party in a civil case one automatic change of judge without alleging bias, provided the request is filed within the rule’s prescribed deadlines. Once granted, the parties have seven days to agree on a replacement before the court selects a special judge under Trial Rule 79.
Although Smith has accepted jurisdiction, the Morgan County History Center and Museum — the third nonprofit defendant in the case — has not yet exercised its right under Indiana Trial Rule 76 to seek an automatic change of judge. If it does, another special judge would have to be selected.
John Young, one of the attorneys representing the Elliotts, said the litigation has effectively been “in a holding pattern” as the parties wait for a judge to hear the case.
“Somebody, some judge is eventually going to get it,” Young said. “Maybe we have it now with this judge, but … we’ve just been in a holding pattern at this point, waiting for somebody to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll hear this case.’ We still have to see.”
Motion to dismiss awaits ruling
Although a judge has yet to weigh the substance of the Elliotts’ claims, one defendant has already challenged the lawsuit.
In a motion filed June 4, attorneys for the Morgan County Public Library Foundation argued the complaint should be dismissed because the foundation never owned the disputed property and therefore could not have conveyed it.
Instead, the filing contends the attached deed shows the Morgan County Public Library — not its affiliated foundation — transferred the property to the Morgan County Veterans Memorial.
The motion also argues that the Elliotts failed to name the proper party because the foundation “is not the real party in interest” and therefore fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
That motion remains pending.
Underlying dispute
The lawsuit claims the couple reached an agreement with the library in 2015 under which they would renovate the long-vacant building, operate a community co-working space and eventually receive ownership.
Instead, the complaint alleges the property was transferred first to the Veterans Memorial in September 2024 and then to the Morgan County History Center and Museum three months later without the Elliotts’ knowledge.
The plaintiffs are asking the court either to transfer ownership of the property to them or award damages equal to the value of their alleged improvements.
The defendants have disputed that any enforceable agreement existed.
The building came into the library’s possession in 2002 through a gift agreement that required the property first be offered to the Morgan County Veterans Memorial if the library no longer wanted it, according to reporting by the Morgan County Correspondent.
The Veterans Memorial later transferred the building to the Morgan County History Center and Museum after determining it lacked the resources to maintain it.
The Correspondent additionally reported that the library invested in preservation work years before the Elliotts occupied the property, using state grant funding and local matching dollars to complete roof repairs and exterior façade improvements.
The Elliotts, meanwhile, have maintained they later invested an additional $250,000 in renovations under what they contend was an agreement that would eventually transfer ownership of the property to them.
The pending case is also not the first property dispute involving the Elliott family in Morgan County.
In 2020, the couple filed a separate lawsuit seeking ownership of neighboring land through an adverse possession claim. That case ultimately ended in a settlement and was dismissed in 2022.
The Morgan County Correspondent reported that the dispute centered on a narrow strip of land connecting two Elliott-owned parcels and followed years of disagreements between the neighboring property owners.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: [email protected].
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