The chicken-and-egg problem that can stall an Arkansas dispensary sale

A Highway 9 license sat in court for five years because nobody could agree who had to move first: the seller, the bank, or the Medical Marijuana Commission.

Ozark Medical Care · October 11, 2026 · 6 minute read

A Mountain View dispensary was supposed to change hands before August 2020. Five years later, the Arkansas Court of Appeals still had not named a winner. It said the contract could not tell the parties who had to move first.

That is the Fiddler’s Green case. If you own, buy, or finance one of Arkansas’s scarce medical marijuana retail licenses, it is the most practical opinion the program has produced.

A sale set for August 2020

The store sits on Highway 9 in Mountain View. Lisa Murphy and Gregory Kent Thomas controlled Fiddler’s Green Medical Marijuana Dispensary. A separate company, Arkansas Property and Wealth Management Company, owned the land. Ryan Hansen and Jonathan Reeves asked to buy both, through companies they had not formed yet: Greystone Wellness for the store, Hilltop Real Estate for the property.

On June 27, 2020, the four signed an asset purchase agreement. The buyers’ lawyer drafted it. Earnest money was $20,000. The balance was due by wire at closing. Arkansas Business later reported the price as $3.8 million. The 2025 appellate opinion redacts the number.

Closing was the later of August 1, 2020, or five business days after the contingencies cleared. The buyers did not have to close until a lender funded the deal and the commission approved a license transfer. One clause at a time, that sounds ordinary. Together, the clauses lock.

The license will not move by itself

Arkansas does not sell these licenses off a shelf. Amendment 98 capped the program. The right to operate moves only if the commission approves a transfer application with the seller’s signature. Miss the noon deadline before a monthly meeting and the file slips a month.

In July 2020, the cutoff for the July 21 meeting was noon on July 17. Reeves sent the packet on July 16. Murphy did not sign. She wanted the money in escrow before she would start a transfer. The buyers’ lender would not close until the commission approved it. Investors J.T. Compton and Clint Mickle were the balance sheet, and they never signed.

The loop had four locks. The seller would not sign until the money was parked. The bank would not park the money until she signed. The commission could not approve an application that was never filed. The lender did not want to fund until the commission said yes.

On November 12, 2025, Judge Kenneth S. Hixson wrote the line worth taping to the wall. Read the closing sections together, he said, and the agreement created a “circular timeline under which neither party could fully perform”. He called it a chicken-and-egg standoff.

The banks would not hold the money

The institutions hit the same wall. On August 13, buyers’ counsel Chad Cumming emailed a rescue plan: Murphy would sign once the money was in escrow, a title company would hold the funds and the deed, and everyone would sign the morning of August 20, ahead of a noon deadline on August 21.

Murphy suggested Izard County Abstract. On August 17, Izard refused. It would not escrow the money or commit title on a medical marijuana dispensary.

Central Bank of Arkansas offered a loan-proceeds account. President Wade Ruckle said the funds were available, then later testified the bank would not fund the account until Murphy signed, and that he had been told the commission had already approved the deal. It had not. The loan, he said, probably also needed Compton and Mickle as guarantors.

On August 21, deadline morning, Murphy’s lawyer said she would not sign. She said a bank official had been threatening the day before; buyers’ counsel knew of no such call. She also wanted non-parties to sign, said the price split would break a 1031 exchange, and noted the land company was not on the contract.

She pointed them to Southern Bank. A banker told Cumming she thought the escrow was just rental property. Told it was marijuana, she had to ask counsel, and nothing would be ready by noon. Hiding the deal, he wrote, could mean trouble for the bank and criminal exposure for his clients.

Ordered sold, then sent back

The sale never closed. The buyers sued in Stone County on September 10, 2020.

On October 26, 2023, Circuit Judge Holly Meyer ordered specific performance. She held the contract unambiguous: sign first, then the buyers pay. She ordered the signed application and, if the commission approved, a sale at the contract price. The August 13 email was not an amendment.

In February 2024 she stayed her own order. A dispensary license is unique. If the store changed hands and the sellers later won, there was no clean way to put them back.

The Court of Appeals reversed on November 12, 2025. The contract was ambiguous. Maybe the seller signs when the buyer brings the money. Maybe the buyer pays only after the license moves. Both readings fit, so summary judgment was wrong. Ambiguity falls on the drafter, and the buyers’ side drafted the contract.

The court did not pick a winner. It did not decide whether the transfer could have been approved, or whether the buyers were ready to pay. As of October 2026 the published result is a remand, not a final sale. Listings still show the Highway 9 store open. Check the Stone County docket before you treat ownership as settled.

Your card did not change

Patients do not need a new card because of this case. You still need a qualifying condition, an Arkansas physician’s certification, and a $50 card from the Department of Health. The cap is still 2.5 ounces in any rolling 14 days. Active cards stood at 119,539 on October 3, 2026. This fight does not change the card in your wallet.

Five rules before you sign

1. Write the order of operations before anyone signs. Who files the transfer application, who funds escrow, and what happens if the bank or the commission says no. This contract scattered those steps until they contradicted each other. The court called that a circular timeline.
2. Name every owner. Here the land and the license sat in different companies, and that gap blew up on deadline day. If the seller cannot bind the company that owns the building, there is no deal.
3. Say medical marijuana dispensary on the first call to the title company and the bank. Here, one abstract firm walked away, and a second bank had been told the file was ordinary rental property. If the institution has never held cannabis money, you do not have a closing.
4. Respect noon. A late packet does not get a courtesy hearing. This sale missed July, then August. The lawsuit was filed in September.
5. And stop treating the license as an add-on. In Arkansas the license is the asset. That is why a muddy contract can freeze ownership for years while the doors stay open.

A seller wanted to see the money before she released the only document that could move a scarce license. The buyers needed that document before the bank would show the money. The state would not move until both of them did. The contract never solved that puzzle.

If you are buying or selling one of these licenses, solve the sequence on the first page. If you are a patient, the shorter version is enough. The Mountain View store is still a licensed dispensary, and the card is still what gets you in.

Questions operators ask

Is Fiddler’s Green still open?

Public listings in the fall of 2026 still show the licensed storefront at 16150 Highway 9 in Mountain View. The appeals court did not close the store. Confirm hours on the dispensary’s own channels before you drive.

Can you transfer an Arkansas dispensary license without the seller?

No. A transfer-of-ownership application needs the seller’s signature, and the Medical Marijuana Commission has to approve it. A contract alone does not move the right to operate.

Who won the Fiddler’s Green case?

Nobody, in the published opinion. On November 12, 2025, the Court of Appeals reversed a summary-judgment order that would have forced the sale, and sent the case back to Stone County because the contract was ambiguous.

Does this change my Arkansas medical marijuana card?

No. You still need a qualifying condition, a written certification from an Arkansas physician, and a $50 registry card. The purchase limit is still 2.5 ounces in any rolling 14 days.

Next steps

• Fiddler’s Green in Mountain View
• Arkansas dispensary directory
• Arkansas medical marijuana laws
• How to get an Arkansas medical marijuana card
• Work with Ozark Medical Care

Sources

• Murphy v. Hansen, 2025 Ark. App. 549 (Nov. 12, 2025), Stone County Circuit Court No. 69CV-20-57.
• Arkansas Times, Griffin Coop, “Judge stays ruling, allows appeal in Fiddler’s Green case,” Feb. 3, 2024.
• Arkansas Business, Oct. 30, 2023, report of the $3.8 million contract price. The 2025 appellate opinion redacts the dollar figure.
• Arkansas Department of Health, Medical Marijuana registry count, 119,539 active cards as of Oct. 3, 2026.
• Amendment 98, Arkansas Constitution; purchase limit 2.5 ounces per rolling 14 days; no home grow.

Disclaimer. This article is news and editorial content based on the published Arkansas Court of Appeals opinion, public court filings, and news reports. It is not legal advice and is not a court opinion. Allegations described here are as recounted in the opinion. The case was remanded and may have changed since publication; check the Stone County Circuit Court docket (No. 69CV-20-57) before relying on it.

Last reviewed: October 10, 2026