Coca-Cola family feud explodes: Battle with priest over secret island paradise beloved by the Kennedys… and uncle’s twisted threat to tear down their home
A dispute has broken out among descendants of the Coca-Cola-linked Candler family over control of High Point, a secluded seven-house retreat on Cumberland Island off the Georgia coast that has served as a family holiday haven since the 1920s. One branch of the family, led by Episcopal priest Sam Candler through an entity called Lumar LLC, has been negotiating a land deal with the National Park Service that could return the compound to private family control, while another branch fears being shut out entirely once the arrangement is finalised.
David Ball, 71, accuses his relatives of striking the deal secretly over two decades and has threatened to bulldoze his own mother's house on the property rather than let it fall under his cousins' control. His nephew, John Ball, 41, who still holidays at High Point, described the situation to the Daily Mail as a "chaotic mess" driven by wounded pride and mistrust, though he stopped short of blaming the Lumar side, saying they had simply acted first to protect their interests amid a shrinking number of available weeks at the historic compound.
- Coca-Cola dynasty family feuds over Cumberland Island retreat High Point
- One branch struck secret land deal with National Park Service
- Relative threatens to bulldoze his mother's house over dispute
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High Point is a small, private cluster of seven houses on Cumberland Island, a remote barrier island off the Georgia coast that has partly become a national park. The retreat has belonged since the 1920s to the extended family descended from the founders of Coca-Cola, and it has long been a favourite escape for wealthy and well-connected visitors, including members of the Kennedy family. Because much of Cumberland Island is now federally protected land, any private use of the site depends on agreements with the National Park Service, which is why questions over who controls High Point carry real legal and financial weight.
The dispute involves different branches of the same extended family, some of whom feel they have been sidelined in talks over the property's future. One side, associated with an entity called Lumar LLC and linked to an Episcopal priest in the family, has reportedly been negotiating with park authorities over an arrangement that could keep the compound under private family use. Other relatives say they were kept in the dark about these discussions and fear losing access to a place tied to generations of shared family history.
At its core, the row reflects a common tension in families that jointly inherit valuable property: as generations multiply and personal ties loosen, agreeing on who gets to use, manage or benefit from that property becomes harder, especially when a powerful outside body like a national park authority is also involved. Because the Candler name is closely tied to one of the world's best-known brands, the disagreement has drawn attention beyond the family itself.