Private property owners file petitions to nullify liens in Fourth District Court
Two civil court actions were filed June 23 in Fourth District Court against a self-styled sovereign citizen who ventured into Millard County last year and filed numerous bogus liens and other questionable property records, speciously claiming ownership to more than 8,300 acres of public and private property.
Nathan DeWayne Nearman, who is currently being sought by Utah County authorities on a felony arrest warrant, is a named defendant in the two civil actions brought by county landowners who hope the court will void the liens and prohibit Nearman from filing future fraudulent claims. One set of plaintiffs is also seeking monetary damages.
One complaint, filed by Delta attorney Todd Anderson on behalf of about half-a-dozen plaintiffs, says Nearman filed nine wrongful liens total, using instruments such as homestead declarations, land patent updates, title registrations and other minutiae of property ownership transferrals.
The records in question are replete with faux legal-sounding jargon and other inane utterances that could cloud the titles to the property if owners don’t seek a judge’s help in voiding them.
Besides private property, Nearman, with the help of numerous “witnesses” and at least one associate, also tried to claim ownership to land managed by the state Division of Wildlife Resources as well as the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.
Anderson previously told the Chronicle Progress he was waiting to file suit against Nearman until state authorities also filed on behalf of the government entities impacted. It was unclear at press deadline whether the state was set to file their own civil cases anytime soon.
Regardless, Anderson’s clients are seeking treble damages, about $3,000, for each wrongful lien filed against their property, amounting to $27,000. However, the complaint also alleges Nearman—he was named as a defendant along with a person named Luke Benjamin Eyre, a Utah company named Nathan Nearman LLC, as well as Nathan DeWayne Nearman as trustee of Turning Green Trust—reasonably knew his liens were filed fraudulently, a violation of a statute that allows plaintiffs to seek as much as $10,000 per wrongful lien, or $90,000 in this case. Anderson is also seeking attorney’s fees and any other “relief” a judge might find.
The second civil action was filed by Salt Lake City attorney Matthew Ball on behalf of a brother and sister who are trustees for a local family trust. Nearman is the only named defendant.
The filing doesn’t contain an actual complaint seeking damages but is more a court petition seeking nullification of the liens along with an affidavit by one of the trustees.
“Neither my brother…nor I authorized or approved of Nearman’s recording the Wrongful Liens. Indeed, I do not know Nearman and I know of no basis upon which he could legitimately claim an interest in the Property,” the sworn affidavit reads.
The document goes on to detail to the court which liens were questionable and how the trustees attempted to get Nearman to voluntarily remove them, a requirement of state law before a lawsuit can be brought. The affidavit also lists the eight fraudulent documents filed against the plaintiffs’ property, which includes a homestead declaration, affidavit of adverse possession, notification of change of trustee, a quitclaim deed and other bogus documents.
Nearman’s foray into Millard County follows numerous similar episodes in other areas of the state. A number of wrongful lien petitions have been filed against him in Utah courts by multiple plaintiffs, including one in April 2019, one in May 2019, and one in February 2020.
Nearman was charged with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony, by Utah County authorities in December 2021 in relation to one dubiously concocted property dispute. That involved Nearman allegedly using a group of armed men in an attempt to evict a property owner from a home in Springville he similarly claimed was his. Police discovered Near- man near the property at one point—his group had posted “no trespass” signs and an eviction notice on the home— with a 40-caliber pistol, two AR-15 rifles and 400 rounds of ammo, according to court records.
“The defendant stated that he had the locks changed and put up the (eviction and no trespassing) signs. When asked why he was armed, the defendant stated that he was prepared to engage in a violent encounter,” a Utah County Sheriff’s Office investigator recorded in a probable cause statement about the incident. A case was filed by Utah County prosecutors in August 2022, but it languished until a judge told prosecutors in March to either drop the criminal charge or issue an arrest warrant for Nearman. The warrant was issued in April, but Nearman seems nowhere to be found as of June 30.
Nearman’s only answer to the charge was a convoluted screed sent to the judge and made part of the court record last September, demanding that authorities cease and “decist” from pursuing the Springville case.
