Court: Tenn. Department Will Keep Donated Property

Dec. 02--Two decades after a grateful couple donated land for a new fire station in Karns, deed holders upset over new fire subscription service fees tried to take it back, court records show.

The effort by Jack Stevens and Emmett G. Stevens Jr. to wrest back the 28-acre gift to the Karns Fire Department has failed, with the state Court of Appeals ruling this past week the pair's beef over the agency's decision to charge for its firefighting services did not rate a reneging of the original donation deal.

The legal brouhaha resolved by the appellate court has its roots in a fire some three decades ago at the Karns home of Dewey and Irene Hickman. So grateful were the Hickmans for the Karns Fire Department's help that years later -- in 1992 -- the couple gifted the agency acreage to build a substation in Ball Camp "because a railroad track separated the community from the existing fire station in Karns," Appellate Judge John W. McClarty wrote in the opinion.

The Hickmans held onto the deed but so long as the fire department continued to "exist and function" as a firefighting agency, the land where a two-bay substation ultimately was constructed would remain in the control of the Karns department. As time went by, the Hickmans deeded the property to the Stevenses, although the opinion does not detail the circumstances. The move had no effect on the donated 28-acre parcel, however.

At the time the Hickmans donated the land, Karns was an all-volunteer organization. As the Karns community grew, so too did the agency, hiring a handful of paid personnel to supplement the volunteer forces. In January 2011, the fire department began a subscription service wherein homeowners who paid the annual fee would bear no additional cost if a blaze actually broke out. Nonsubscribers still received fire service but had to pay for the agency's work in the event of a fire.

According to the opinion, the subscription system boosted the agency's coffers fivefold -- from $300,000 annually to $1.5 million -- and allowed the department to upgrade equipment and hire more paid staffers.

The move to subscription services angered the Stevenses, who filed suit in Knox County Chancery Court, arguing the fire department had reneged on the terms of the original donation with its new fees and paid personnel. Fire department attorney Jack W. Piper Jr. countered the Hickmans placed no restrictions on their gift of land other than requiring the agency to function as a firefighting force. Chancellor Mike Moyers sided with the fire department.

In the appellate court ruling, McClarty wrote that the fire department's decision to charge for its services did not violate the terms of the Hickmans' donation. The language in the donation document, he wrote, made clear the only way the gifted land would revert to the deed holders is if the fire department closed up shop at the Ball Camp substation, refused to provide fire services to nonsubscribers or quit fighting fires altogether.

"The record reflects that the Hickmans executed the deed in gratitude for the work of the volunteer firefighters and to provide a fire station for the Ball Camp community," the judge penned. "At present, (the) fire department continues to provide services for the community and continues to be staffed by volunteer firefighters in addition to paid personnel, who ensure that (the) fire department is an effective resource for the community.

"Even the switch to subscription based services has not jeopardized the availability of (the) fire department for the community as long as (the) fire department provides services to everyone, regardless of the home occupant's subscription status," McClarty wrote.

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