The Arkansas Court of Appeals says a claim against the owner of a 2005 plane that crashed in Louisiana, killing him and four others on board, can proceed.

The court reversed a Craighead County Circuit judge's decision to deny a claim against the estate of Robert Landry Sr., an eye doctor who owned a twin-engine airplane that crashed near New Roads, Louisiana, in June 2005. The court ordered new hearings in the case.

The claim had been filed by Mark Banks, the administrator of the estate of Dayna Banks, a schoolteacher who was killed in the crash.

A Craighead County judge had rejected the claim against the Landry estate because he said it did not contain an amount of claim, specific names of the plaintiffs and defendants in the wrongful death claim or other pertinent information.

The appeals court, however, said that the Banks estate complied with the law and the claim could proceed.

Appeals Court Judge Sam Heffley, in a dissenting opinion joined by Judge Wendell Griffen, said that Mark Banks had only filed an affidavit of claim and not an actual claim as required by law.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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