ESI dispute closed?

For a little while, it looked like a dispute over the 1998 sale of Compass Telecommunications Inc. of Siloam Springs to Rod Ford's ESI Group Inc. of Little Rock might finally have come to an end.

An arbitrator, John A. Davis III, ruled on Oct. 22 in favor of the owners of Compass, Denny and Susan Brown, and awarded them $150,000 plus interest.

But we have just learned that Ford is appealing that ruling.

If you remember, ESI bought the Siloam Springs voice and data systems integrator for an agreed sum of $1.8 million. The Browns were paid only $900,000 before ESI went out of business, thus the legal dispute.

That dispute went to arbitration because Ford thought the company was overvalued, which the Browns denied. They then had an audit done. As a result of the audit, ESI was supposed to pay the Browns $150,000, according to court records.

But ESI didn't pay, so the Browns sued the company and Ford in Washington County Circuit Court seeking the money. That case was again sent to arbitration, where the Browns got a second ruling in their favor.

Ford didn't immediately return a call for comment.

Ford, if you remember, dismantled ESI at the end of 1999, leaving behind the company's liabilities and using its assets to form a new venture called Einstein Systems Inc.

Stay tuned.