Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 10/17/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Unlock your dream property with meex Realty Group, where rich
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- 0:15Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
- 0:18Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five adwchs it's
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- 0:26Speaker 3: Put the power of paype on the side. We have
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- 0:41Speaker 4: Count out and the very place. A good morning to
- 0:43Speaker 4: you you're listening to.
- 0:44Speaker 5: Or you can put the power of patent on your
- 0:46Speaker 5: side in studio with me this morning is Tom Paton
- 0:49Speaker 5: from the Paton Law Firm. More information online Patent Lawfirm
- 0:51Speaker 5: dot com. That's with an Epathon Lawfirm dot com. Tom,
- 0:53Speaker 5: Good morning, how you doing this?
- 0:54Speaker 6: I'm doing great now I finally made it here.
- 0:57Speaker 7: We might have some extra listeners this morning because they're
- 0:59Speaker 7: going to be from the Huntington area heading east on
- 1:02Speaker 7: I sixty four.
- 1:02Speaker 6: They're going to be stuck in their car listening.
- 1:05Speaker 7: To hopefully our show. But no, it's just one of
- 1:07Speaker 7: those mornings. I think they're trying to kind of put
- 1:09Speaker 7: the finishing touches on the expansion of Interstate sixty four.
- 1:14Speaker 7: Of course, I drive it every day in that area
- 1:16Speaker 7: between Nitro and Hurricane, and their looks like they're putting
- 1:19Speaker 7: finishing touches. They're trying to clean up some of the
- 1:22Speaker 7: pavement on the side, but also putting in, you know,
- 1:24Speaker 7: finishing the drainage the signs. Gotta have cranes and equipment
- 1:28Speaker 7: in there doing some I think boring to get it
- 1:30Speaker 7: down to the rock, but it's causing them to close
- 1:34Speaker 7: one I didn't ended up not going that way because
- 1:37Speaker 7: I knew it was a parking lot on I sixty
- 1:39Speaker 7: four East this morning. But they've got maybe two of
- 1:42Speaker 7: the three lanes closed. So if you're planning to head
- 1:45Speaker 7: to Charleston, give yourself some extra time. I actually went
- 1:48Speaker 7: from Hurrican over Coal Mountain through Saint Albans and then
- 1:52Speaker 7: cross the Saint Almost Nitro Bridge back on the Institute
- 1:55Speaker 7: and got actually had an earlier appointment that I was
- 1:58Speaker 7: late for this morning. But anyway, that's my livetime weather report.
- 2:02Speaker 7: But other than that, doing great today. Glad to be here.
- 2:05Speaker 7: Dad covered it last week and things are pretty active
- 2:09Speaker 7: around the law firm. There's not a whole lot going
- 2:12Speaker 7: on from kind of waiting for some Western Supreme Court
- 2:15Speaker 7: cases to come out, but.
- 2:18Speaker 6: It's been a little slow.
- 2:19Speaker 7: Usually this time of year they start coming in because
- 2:21Speaker 7: there's you know, two terms in the Supreme Court here
- 2:24Speaker 7: and they begin in uh late August, September and in December.
- 2:28Speaker 7: So you see some of the cases that have been
- 2:30Speaker 7: argued earlier in the month of September and some decisions
- 2:34Speaker 7: coming out, but not a whole lot yet the uh really,
- 2:39Speaker 7: I guess the kind of events we've been following a
- 2:44Speaker 7: bet that that have come out in the last couple
- 2:45Speaker 7: of days in the news that have a little legal
- 2:47Speaker 7: aspect to them. As the you know, we talked about
- 2:50Speaker 7: the Greenbrier at least a portion of it being noticed
- 2:53Speaker 7: for foreclosure sale and then lossuit was filed and then
- 2:56Speaker 7: there were some terms reached whereby the Greenbrier had to
- 3:02Speaker 7: pay I think, pay off a debt in full by
- 3:06Speaker 7: October twenty fourth or twenty fifth, I believe, and that
- 3:10Speaker 7: was that was a deal reached, as I understand it,
- 3:12Speaker 7: back in August. Then curiously, and I know this station
- 3:18Speaker 7: reported it. Then there was a new notice of foreclosure,
- 3:20Speaker 7: but it was the same creditor that that was already there,
- 3:23Speaker 7: noticing that the foreclosure self were a day after the
- 3:27Speaker 7: payment was due, which gave me some concern. I'm not
- 3:34Speaker 7: a big Greenbrier officionado, but I certainly don't want to
- 3:37Speaker 7: see it be down because I think it is a
- 3:40Speaker 7: gym of the state. But then this week what's happened
- 3:43Speaker 7: is apparently that debt. I'm not sure the amount has
- 3:48Speaker 7: been cleared in some of the reports because we may
- 3:51Speaker 7: not know, but it's I thought it was around twenty
- 3:54Speaker 7: two million dollars. There's definitely millions of dollars. But apparently
- 3:58Speaker 7: the creditor that was moving forward with the foreclosure because
- 4:03Speaker 7: part of the Greenbrier Hotel was collateral for that loan,
- 4:06Speaker 7: has now been paid in full. I haven't seen that
- 4:09Speaker 7: that DTA trust is released or not. That's ADEDA trust
- 4:13Speaker 7: is just another name basically for a mortgage in West Virginia,
- 4:16Speaker 7: so it's the lean. It's recorded publicly at the courthouse.
- 4:21Speaker 7: Governor Justices kind of alluded to his family did some
- 4:23Speaker 7: things to get worked out. He referenced some confidentiality when
- 4:28Speaker 7: it was somebody asked, I think this week during a
- 4:31Speaker 7: presser how the payoff was funded, and we didn't really
- 4:37Speaker 7: get a clear answer. There was some reference to a
- 4:40Speaker 7: Fortress Equity Group or something to that effect, which is
- 4:44Speaker 7: a legitimate some sort of investment firm, international investment firm.
- 4:52Speaker 7: That it was some implication in his press or that
- 4:55Speaker 7: maybe they had been part of the funding, but nothing concrete.
- 4:59Speaker 7: I did read in and I haven't had a chance
- 5:01Speaker 7: to look it up myself, but w W Metro News
- 5:03Speaker 7: did report that I believe a new company has now
- 5:06Speaker 7: recorded a deed of trust, so presumably they also have
- 5:10Speaker 7: I haven't read what is collateral for that deed of trust.
- 5:13Speaker 7: So there's appears down in Greenberg County there's been a
- 5:16Speaker 7: new deed of trust recorded for presumably the new creditor
- 5:20Speaker 7: that assisted in funding the payoff of the old creditor,
- 5:24Speaker 7: and so there's it's still collateralized. But hopefully there are
- 5:28Speaker 7: terms that can be met to where we don't get
- 5:31Speaker 7: to the point that there's threats of you know, well,
- 5:34Speaker 7: there's actually notices of foreclosure sale because it was I
- 5:36Speaker 7: mean we were a week away I think in the
- 5:38Speaker 7: summertime from the foreclosures, So happening again just because the
- 5:41Speaker 7: sale would actually occur. It doesn't mean it could still
- 5:43Speaker 7: be halted after that, but it you know, it's much
- 5:46Speaker 7: harder after the sale goes through. So we'll see how
- 5:49Speaker 7: it happens, Governor or how it works out. Governor Justice
- 5:52Speaker 7: did reference, so it'll still be bumps in the road,
- 5:53Speaker 7: you know, his kind of country talk. It's not real technical,
- 5:56Speaker 7: but in any business, and they you know, obviously it's
- 5:59Speaker 7: not I think it's rather obviously at this point that
- 6:03Speaker 7: it's not doing well from a from a cash standpoint,
- 6:07Speaker 7: because there there are various tax lanes still in existence,
- 6:11Speaker 7: some of which involve sales tax that was collected but
- 6:15Speaker 7: not remitted. But maybe they're catching up on those, I'm
- 6:19Speaker 7: not sure, and they could they could be paying them
- 6:20Speaker 7: off with funding from the new lender. And they just
- 6:22Speaker 7: haven't had releases recorded debt or hasn't been reported. But uh,
- 6:27Speaker 7: that was good.
- 6:27Speaker 6: Good. The green buyer was, uh, save for now.
- 6:31Speaker 4: Is this in trying to equate this? This is all
- 6:33Speaker 4: high level you know, corporate.
- 6:34Speaker 5: Financing and things like that, trying to understand it from
- 6:37Speaker 5: skills that I understand is this sort of like a
- 6:39Speaker 5: corporate REFI like like a refile out of foreclosure type thing.
- 6:43Speaker 6: That's way I'm reading it.
- 6:44Speaker 7: So you know, it's it's much more complex than your
- 6:46Speaker 7: your basic mortgage. But you can get in the I mean,
- 6:49Speaker 7: you get in, you in your home and you have
- 6:53Speaker 7: a disability, or you're in a car wreck and hurt
- 6:56Speaker 7: and you can't work and and that kind of thing.
- 6:58Speaker 7: Then you know, you get behind on your payment. And
- 7:01Speaker 7: you know, generally, what I found is almost every lender
- 7:05Speaker 7: doesn't really want to be in the real estate business,
- 7:07Speaker 7: so they'll generally work with you. It's not like your
- 7:11Speaker 7: house is just instantaneously put on the OX and block
- 7:14Speaker 7: on foreclosure when you miss one payment. First of all,
- 7:17Speaker 7: it's your home you live in. There's some notices and
- 7:21Speaker 7: some opportunities to cure the default. You're entitled to you
- 7:24Speaker 7: under West Virginia law. And my experience has been that
- 7:28Speaker 7: if you do get chronically behind, it's months and months
- 7:32Speaker 7: before you actually have a foreclosure type sale, even on
- 7:36Speaker 7: a private home. Now, of course, anytime I believe in
- 7:41Speaker 7: West Virginia, anytime up to the foreclosure sale if you
- 7:44Speaker 7: can get the payoff complete payoff to that lender, then
- 7:50Speaker 7: they can't legally foreclose on the home.
- 7:54Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure that's right. So you know, if I.
- 7:57Speaker 7: Had gotten behind, you know, I got in a car accident,
- 7:59Speaker 7: I wasn't able to work, I hadn't paid my mortgage.
- 8:03Speaker 7: My house has noticed for foreclosure sale for next week.
- 8:07Speaker 7: If I could find any lender that would essentially loan
- 8:10Speaker 7: me the payoff amount, then I can pay off that note.
- 8:13Speaker 7: And essentially that's a refinance, which is what you were referencing.
- 8:17Speaker 7: And refinance is just essentially a payoff of the existing
- 8:21Speaker 7: debt using new debt. And and you know, you just
- 8:25Speaker 7: got to find a lender that's willing to do that.
- 8:27Speaker 7: And so that you know, the initial lender on the
- 8:29Speaker 7: Greenbrier that had is signed its note was JP Morgan
- 8:34Speaker 7: Chase Bank, And so that's a Now we've got another
- 8:37Speaker 7: lender that's certainly not as conventional or well known. I
- 8:41Speaker 7: mean I just googled them a little bit. I mean
- 8:43Speaker 7: large asset holding firm and billions and billions of dollars
- 8:47Speaker 7: as I read.
- 8:48Speaker 6: So, but you see those.
- 8:49Speaker 7: Alternative financing lenders in these rather large transactions that they
- 8:55Speaker 7: would never well, I can't imagine they would deal with
- 8:57Speaker 7: a conventional mortgage for a home or something like that.
- 9:00Speaker 7: But in essence, yes, now we don't know. I haven't
- 9:02Speaker 7: read the Data Trust. Sometimes the deeds of trust will
- 9:06Speaker 7: have the terms, so they'll have who the maybe there's
- 9:11Speaker 7: a different beneficiary than even the primary lender. They'll have
- 9:15Speaker 7: an interest rate, they'll have a principal due, even a
- 9:19Speaker 7: term meaning the number of years by which it's got
- 9:22Speaker 7: to be paid off. I haven't seen the Data Trust
- 9:24Speaker 7: to determine whether we have those details on that one
- 9:27Speaker 7: or not. But I presume they have a good grasp
- 9:32Speaker 7: of the finances of the Greenbrier.
- 9:35Speaker 6: Hotel, et cetera.
- 9:36Speaker 7: And so hopefully they've got some kind of payment plan
- 9:38Speaker 7: that can be met, because there's certainly some cash flow
- 9:40Speaker 7: issues down there.
- 9:41Speaker 5: But they're probably aggressive with enforcing certain benchmarks and stuff too.
- 9:44Speaker 5: Would imagine like make sure payment's like less leniency to
- 9:47Speaker 5: some degree, perhaps.
- 9:48Speaker 7: Yeah, And there's actually most mortgages are backed by the
- 9:53Speaker 7: FEDS ensured, and so there are you know, there's only
- 9:55Speaker 7: so much of a mortgage lender can do if you
- 9:58Speaker 7: get in default status. Because they do have some legal
- 10:01Speaker 7: obligations to enforce the note and foreclosed. I don't know
- 10:05Speaker 7: how that applies when you get into something like this
- 10:09Speaker 7: with the Greenbrier where it's not a consumer transaction. I
- 10:13Speaker 7: don't know if it's back this type of loan that
- 10:15Speaker 7: they've gotten is back by the FED, but admitioning to
- 10:18Speaker 7: see how it plays out, because obviously it was a
- 10:21Speaker 7: kind of an alternative funding source to get the Greenbrier
- 10:25Speaker 7: off the brink of foreclosure. And so then you have
- 10:27Speaker 7: Governor Justice who's running for US Senate. You know what
- 10:31Speaker 7: is required to be disclosed because he's a candidate for
- 10:36Speaker 7: US Senate.
- 10:36Speaker 6: I don't.
- 10:37Speaker 7: I have not had a case where I had to
- 10:38Speaker 7: get involved in the technicalities of that. So if he,
- 10:41Speaker 7: for example, what we've seen so far is that he
- 10:44Speaker 7: basically signs personal guarantees. I think most of his core
- 10:47Speaker 7: family members do as well for these notes, which is
- 10:50Speaker 7: not uncommon in a large commercial deal. There's nothing unusual
- 10:52Speaker 7: about that. But if you've got a large lender that
- 10:57Speaker 7: has international ties, to me, it seems like you know
- 11:02Speaker 7: who that lender is, who their principles are, how much
- 11:06Speaker 7: he owes what the terms are might be. Certainly it
- 11:08Speaker 7: would be relevant to me if I was trying to
- 11:10Speaker 7: decide who to vote for for a US Senate. Now,
- 11:13Speaker 7: whether that's required to be you know, that kind of
- 11:16Speaker 7: detail disclosed on the disclosure forms, probably not. There might
- 11:20Speaker 7: be an entity on there and it say you know,
- 11:23Speaker 7: he Owes and it's it's it's not even exact debt
- 11:27Speaker 7: as I understand it in the disclosures. It could be
- 11:29Speaker 7: you know, a range or something like that. So we
- 11:31Speaker 7: may see the official lender at some point. I don't
- 11:34Speaker 7: know if that would even be before the election next month,
- 11:38Speaker 7: but we'll see if some of that doesn't kind of
- 11:41Speaker 7: come out a little bit in the in the press,
- 11:45Speaker 7: because I mean, I would be interested to know, like sure,
- 11:47Speaker 7: because obviously it was a kind of a last minute
- 11:50Speaker 7: effort that worked apparently, but who's behind it? And you know,
- 11:55Speaker 7: I would think anytime you have a no matter how
- 11:59Speaker 7: wealthy you are, if you have a multimillion dollar debt
- 12:03Speaker 7: that you personally signed for and you're running for US Senate,
- 12:06Speaker 7: common sense would say the public needs to know who
- 12:09Speaker 7: that creditor is, just to make sure.
- 12:12Speaker 6: There's no.
- 12:15Speaker 7: Leverage there that would compromise a position in the US Senate.
- 12:18Speaker 7: But it may just show the lender, and I think
- 12:22Speaker 7: it's this Fortress Equity firm, and who's behind that and
- 12:27Speaker 7: the details we may never know.
- 12:28Speaker 5: It's really a good question, and you don't have to
- 12:31Speaker 5: be overly political or to try to turn it into
- 12:35Speaker 5: some sort of conspiracy or anything along those lines. It's
- 12:37Speaker 5: just the bottom line is is you're electing somebody, you know,
- 12:40Speaker 5: one of the fifty more powerful politicians in the country,
- 12:44Speaker 5: and or one hundred politicians in the country, I guess,
- 12:47Speaker 5: And it's kind of relevant that sort of thing, and
- 12:53Speaker 5: like who are you indebted to? Where did it come from?
- 12:54Speaker 5: Is there any foreign interests? What are those foreign interests?
- 12:57Speaker 5: Is that going to affect any votes in the Senate?
- 13:00Speaker 5: I mean, those are relevant questions regardless of politics or
- 13:03Speaker 5: anything else.
- 13:03Speaker 7: Ye'll be good for the public to know. But I
- 13:06Speaker 7: have a feeling and you know, there may be some
- 13:08Speaker 7: significant confidentiality agreement that arose from that transaction. I don't know,
- 13:13Speaker 7: so I think probably if I was predicting h then
- 13:17Speaker 7: you know, we'll get the name of a lender entity
- 13:20Speaker 7: probably at some point, and I doubt would get much
- 13:22Speaker 7: more than that.
- 13:23Speaker 6: Now.
- 13:24Speaker 7: I don't know what you know if if there's FBI
- 13:27Speaker 7: background checks and things like that when somebody actually gets
- 13:30Speaker 7: elected to the US Senate. Haven't been in that obviously
- 13:34Speaker 7: scenario before or had to deal with it. So I'm
- 13:36Speaker 7: not sure how that that works, either as far as
- 13:39Speaker 7: contacts or funding by you know, foreign countries or foreign
- 13:44Speaker 7: nationals somewhere.
- 13:45Speaker 6: But you know, we'll see how it plays out.
- 13:47Speaker 7: It's it's uh, it's the He's off the hot or
- 13:50Speaker 7: the Greenbrier's off the hot seat for now, which is
- 13:52Speaker 7: which is excellent.
- 13:52Speaker 4: Which is good, and it's good for the state.
- 13:54Speaker 5: I mean, you know, the state needs the Greenbrier, but
- 13:56Speaker 5: it likes the Greenbrier to be relevant anyway, Well.
- 13:58Speaker 7: The Greenbrier's is still a unique play and it just
- 14:02Speaker 7: doesn't reflect well, frankly on the state when that kind
- 14:05Speaker 7: of gym is for auction and you know it, you know,
- 14:10Speaker 7: people have events reserved there, you know into the next
- 14:13Speaker 7: year or so. And you know, I've got a couple
- 14:15Speaker 7: of things, at least one large meeting set for next
- 14:18Speaker 7: springing wondering what's going to happen here are they going
- 14:20Speaker 7: to try and you know, if they go bankrupt or
- 14:23Speaker 7: we're going have to renegotiate our deal for our stay
- 14:25Speaker 7: there and that kind of thing. So that seems to
- 14:27Speaker 7: be all off the table right now. And you know,
- 14:29Speaker 7: Governor Justice, as he usually is, was quite optimistic from
- 14:32Speaker 7: what I read, and that's good, and was talking about
- 14:34Speaker 7: maybe concentrating on putting some more resources into the Greenbrier.
- 14:39Speaker 7: It's got a cash problem, it appears, and so maybe
- 14:41Speaker 7: there can be some new looks at some things. I
- 14:44Speaker 7: don't know what the obviously I'm not in that business,
- 14:47Speaker 7: but you know, maybe some things can be revamped or
- 14:50Speaker 7: or just an interview on it. I mean, I don't
- 14:52Speaker 7: know how you attract more people or you need to
- 14:54Speaker 7: charge more or.
- 14:55Speaker 6: What there is.
- 14:55Speaker 4: Truth.
- 14:56Speaker 5: I know that when all this started coming about, I
- 14:58Speaker 5: was just kind of doing some research alone because I
- 15:00Speaker 5: the Greenbriar.
- 15:00Speaker 4: I've never overnight.
- 15:01Speaker 5: I've only been there a few times, relatively casually, a
- 15:03Speaker 5: few times for work, and so I was just doing
- 15:06Speaker 5: a little, you know, research on what have been going on.
- 15:08Speaker 5: But if you go to some of the popular booking
- 15:10Speaker 5: destination sites and you sort reviews by like most recent,
- 15:14Speaker 5: and they were very mixed in the last couple of
- 15:16Speaker 5: years as far as not so much with the location. Obviously,
- 15:19Speaker 5: people are like it's a beautiful location. It's the amenities
- 15:22Speaker 5: at the location and the modernization and things along those lines.
- 15:24Speaker 4: So maybe that's something to do.
- 15:25Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean they didn't have the casino before. Now
- 15:28Speaker 6: they do. I would say that.
- 15:29Speaker 7: I mean, I'm like I said, I kind of go
- 15:31Speaker 7: to the Greenbrier when I have to, if I have
- 15:32Speaker 7: a meeting or something to go to. But I've certainly
- 15:34Speaker 7: stayed there every night, and I'm not a gambler, and
- 15:37Speaker 7: so that doesn't really appeal to me. But I would say,
- 15:41Speaker 7: you know, in the last twenty years, probably just my reflection,
- 15:45Speaker 7: and you know, the dining is kind of not quite
- 15:47Speaker 7: what it used to be and that kind of thing.
- 15:49Speaker 7: But you know, yeah, Falconry, you got the bunker you
- 15:53Speaker 7: can still go through, and you've got off road jeep
- 15:58Speaker 7: rides and there's things. It's just for somebody is here
- 16:02Speaker 7: all the time. You know, once you do those things,
- 16:04Speaker 7: it's not quite as attractive as it as it was
- 16:07Speaker 7: the first.
- 16:07Speaker 6: Time you do them. So we'll see.
- 16:09Speaker 7: And then you still have great golf courses, but those
- 16:11Speaker 7: have even be reworked. Of course that some of that's
- 16:13Speaker 7: not you know, I don't know if that's really had
- 16:16Speaker 7: any finances. They had the flood go through, and then
- 16:18Speaker 7: they modified one of the golf courses and kind of
- 16:21Speaker 7: combined two of them and still really great, great courses,
- 16:24Speaker 7: I'm sure, but.
- 16:25Speaker 5: They do have to eat things like NFL football teams
- 16:27Speaker 5: will stay over there or some of their their their
- 16:30Speaker 5: off season training there and things like that.
- 16:31Speaker 4: That's a neat amenity.
- 16:33Speaker 6: Yeah, you think about you.
- 16:34Speaker 7: Know, Governor Justice gets beat up, but he I believe
- 16:37Speaker 7: it was the Saints that came in initially. I mean
- 16:38Speaker 7: they built an entire kind of indoor practice facility. And
- 16:43Speaker 7: actually this year, I think during the regular season, a
- 16:45Speaker 7: team from the West Coast played maybe Carolina or something,
- 16:49Speaker 7: and then they were going to play maybe the Commanders.
- 16:52Speaker 5: Watch Sportinneers or somebody I can't remember, yes, somebody else here.
- 16:56Speaker 6: So they stayed on the East coast and stayed.
- 16:58Speaker 7: At the Greenbrier for it for a few days and
- 17:00Speaker 7: got a little r and R while they were practicing,
- 17:02Speaker 7: and and you know, the Governor Justice got the PGA
- 17:06Speaker 7: Tour event here, which was when it was when the
- 17:08Speaker 7: Greenbrier Classic first open. I mean I went to every
- 17:11Speaker 7: single one of them and it was great, great, And
- 17:14Speaker 7: so he's done a lot of good things there and
- 17:16Speaker 7: hopefully you didn't get their cash flow problem resolved and
- 17:19Speaker 7: we won't be talking about this anymore, but we'll keep
- 17:22Speaker 7: monitoring it for now.
- 17:22Speaker 5: Yeah, it was nic seeing it on TV when there
- 17:24Speaker 5: would be like the PJA events and stuff like that.
- 17:25Speaker 5: You see the green Brown time. He was always nice
- 17:27Speaker 5: seeing that because they always put together nice packaging.
- 17:30Speaker 7: Year we had, I mean tiger woodskin played one maybe
- 17:33Speaker 7: two years. Didn't make the cut one year, but unfortunately
- 17:37Speaker 7: and then you know Phil Milks, he had the biggest
- 17:39Speaker 7: of the of the best from the PGA Tour playing
- 17:42Speaker 7: there in West Virginia, which was I didn't think I
- 17:44Speaker 7: would see that in my in my lifetime. And so
- 17:48Speaker 7: it's become much more competitive now, I think, as far
- 17:50Speaker 7: as the PGA Tour, so we don't have.
- 17:52Speaker 5: It anymore, but he's done a lot of good things
- 17:54Speaker 5: down there. Yeah, let's uh uh. Tom Payton is here
- 17:57Speaker 5: from the Peyton Law Firm. He gives Carll this winning
- 17:59Speaker 5: three zero fourth be four five fifty to fifty three four
- 18:01Speaker 5: five fifty to fifteen. You're also texting your questions three
- 18:03Speaker 5: zero four nine three five five zeros or eight three
- 18:05Speaker 5: zer of four nine three five five zeros or eight.
- 18:07Speaker 5: You're more than welcome to texting your questions this morning
- 18:09Speaker 5: as well. Peyton Law Firm located in Nitro, West Virginia.
- 18:11Speaker 5: You can find out more information online. It's Payton Law
- 18:13Speaker 5: Firm dot com, p E Y t O and Peyton
- 18:15Speaker 5: Lawfirm dot com. Let's go ahead. We talked about the
- 18:17Speaker 5: green right here. Let's go ahead and take a break.
- 18:18Speaker 5: We can come back and take phone calls. Take your
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- 20:56Speaker 5: four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three zero
- 20:58Speaker 5: four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. There's some
- 21:02Speaker 5: breaking news as far as judges and things like that
- 21:04Speaker 5: in Putnam County as well.
- 21:05Speaker 6: Yeah, so we had.
- 21:07Speaker 7: Had really a series of really good judges in Putnam
- 21:10Speaker 7: County and most recently it's been Judge to ours Phil Stowers,
- 21:15Speaker 7: who just won election again this past year. And then
- 21:19Speaker 7: Judge Joe Reader, who didn't have any competition actually in
- 21:23Speaker 7: the in the election and he's been there. Oh, I
- 21:25Speaker 7: think Judge Reader has been there since twenty sixteen.
- 21:27Speaker 6: Maybe he was.
- 21:30Speaker 7: Appointed in one a special election if I recall correctly.
- 21:33Speaker 6: But Judge Reader got he applied for and.
- 21:36Speaker 7: Was accepted to be the US magistrate judge down in
- 21:40Speaker 7: Huntington Division of the Southern District Court, Federal Court. And
- 21:44Speaker 7: so he left in ear least September. And then what
- 21:48Speaker 7: they do when you have a temporary you have a
- 21:52Speaker 7: temporary absence or opening, then they just appoint a senior
- 21:55Speaker 7: status judge and it was Judge Claudges, actually Russell Clodges,
- 21:59Speaker 7: who is from Morgantown, and so I actually had a
- 22:02Speaker 7: hearing with him yesterday. He's been coming down either two
- 22:06Speaker 7: or three times a week and holding court. And I've
- 22:09Speaker 7: had one matter with him, a criminal matter, which we
- 22:11Speaker 7: had yesterday, and it was actually we had had a
- 22:14Speaker 7: client who was alleged to have possessed a large amount
- 22:16Speaker 7: of marijuana and we reduced it down or got it
- 22:19Speaker 7: reduced down to a misdemeanor, and then we did the
- 22:20Speaker 7: plea deal yesterday And to Claude was very good. It's
- 22:24Speaker 7: probably not his favorite thing to be driving down to
- 22:26Speaker 7: Putnam County every week to handle hearings from Morgantown. But
- 22:30Speaker 7: in any event, so since September when Judge Reader left
- 22:35Speaker 7: to become the US Magister judge, then Folks put their
- 22:39Speaker 7: application in to become the judge at least temporarily, and
- 22:44Speaker 7: we had had a few candidates.
- 22:47Speaker 6: But Governor Justice announced.
- 22:49Speaker 7: Yesterday, i believe or the day before that Mark Sorse
- 22:52Speaker 7: has been appointed by Governor Justice to be a circuit judge.
- 22:56Speaker 7: And that's a really good appointment in my mind, because
- 22:59Speaker 7: I like somebody that it's even keel, and I've got
- 23:01Speaker 7: experience with Mark, and he's got a lot of experience.
- 23:03Speaker 7: So he served as the he was a private practitioner.
- 23:07Speaker 7: This was before I was practicing law, but I don't
- 23:11Speaker 7: know how long, for a number of years.
- 23:12Speaker 6: So I like that because he's.
- 23:14Speaker 7: Been dealing with you know, everyday people. And then he
- 23:17Speaker 7: was the prosecutor, the head, the elected prosecutor in Putnam
- 23:20Speaker 7: County for I think over twenty years. And when you're
- 23:24Speaker 7: in that position, you know, it's not just prosecuting crimes,
- 23:27Speaker 7: you know, you deal, you counsel, the county commission sometimes
- 23:30Speaker 7: and the share of and things like that. So uh,
- 23:34Speaker 7: at Mark, and you have to run for election, but
- 23:36Speaker 7: I don't recall any real close calls and elections, and
- 23:40Speaker 7: probably most of them nobody. He didn't even have opposition
- 23:43Speaker 7: when he ran. But then h and he's he's dabbled
- 23:46Speaker 7: in politics. I think he's run for some at least
- 23:49Speaker 7: one state wide office at one point, probably didn't have
- 23:52Speaker 7: enough name recognition across the state to.
- 23:54Speaker 6: Do very well.
- 23:54Speaker 7: But then he was appointed by Governor Justice like last
- 23:58Speaker 7: year or the year before as the direct tri pullman
- 24:00Speaker 7: security kind of over the I think that includes the
- 24:04Speaker 7: jail system, which was a real you know, it's been
- 24:06Speaker 7: a problem here. But anyway, he's appointed now, so Mark Sersaia,
- 24:11Speaker 7: I'm not sure when he gets sworn in, but he'll
- 24:13Speaker 7: be our new circuit judge down in Putnam County, which
- 24:16Speaker 7: should be I'm really anxious to practice in front of
- 24:21Speaker 7: him because I've done him for a long time, experienced
- 24:24Speaker 7: even kill person my manard, in my opinion, which is
- 24:28Speaker 7: a good attribute for for a judge, because you unpredictability
- 24:34Speaker 7: or big highs or big lows, or or sometimes difficult
- 24:37Speaker 7: to deal with from the bench. And I think Mark
- 24:41Speaker 7: will be doing a really good job.
- 24:42Speaker 6: Now.
- 24:42Speaker 7: I guess they'll have to presume that he'll have to
- 24:46Speaker 7: run in a special election next May, because again it's
- 24:49Speaker 7: all it's bipartisan, and so I think it'll be next May,
- 24:55Speaker 7: could be next November. I think it'll be next May.
- 24:57Speaker 7: They'll have to have a special election. We'll see if
- 24:59Speaker 7: he has any any competition or not. But he'll have
- 25:01Speaker 7: to finish out the term if he wins, which is
- 25:04Speaker 7: it's an eight year term and it should be just starting,
- 25:07Speaker 7: so he'll get basically a full term. In simmy he
- 25:10Speaker 7: wins that election, So that's sawy news for Putnam Gown
- 25:14Speaker 7: any good news. And we had some other really good
- 25:17Speaker 7: candidates as I understand it, but it would be real
- 25:20Speaker 7: difficult to beat Mark s Forse's qualifications.
- 25:23Speaker 5: It's a really important point that you bring up. And
- 25:25Speaker 5: obviously I come from a lay perspective. You're an attorney
- 25:28Speaker 5: that that argues cases in front of judges. Years and
- 25:31Speaker 5: years ago, I had a friend of mine, this young
- 25:34Speaker 5: lady who was recovering from various substance abuse issues, and
- 25:40Speaker 5: she had been cleaned for a while. She wasn't a
- 25:41Speaker 5: huge believer in the AA program. She had tried it
- 25:44Speaker 5: for a while, but she kind of found her own path.
- 25:46Speaker 5: One of the things that she did, and this is
- 25:48Speaker 5: one of the things that made her kind of unique,
- 25:50Speaker 5: is she would go to public hearings a lot, like
- 25:52Speaker 5: it was like a hobby of hers. I think she
- 25:55Speaker 5: spent some time in the core system a little bit,
- 25:57Speaker 5: you know, and she became fascinated little bit about the process.
- 25:59Speaker 5: Every once in a while, instead of an AA meeting, she
- 26:01Speaker 5: would go to the this was in Lansing mission. She
- 26:03Speaker 5: would go to the courthouses around their find public hearings
- 26:05Speaker 5: that she could say and it didn't matter to her
- 26:07Speaker 5: what it was necessarily, and occasionally I.
- 26:09Speaker 4: Would go with her.
- 26:09Speaker 5: But something you mentioned here a moment ago, as far
- 26:12Speaker 5: as a judge's emotions not getting too high they're almost
- 26:15Speaker 5: like executives of their court, you know, I mean they
- 26:17Speaker 5: control everything that's in there.
- 26:19Speaker 4: And something that I noticed people are used.
- 26:21Speaker 5: To, you know, maybe the law and order of things,
- 26:23Speaker 5: the TV of things, maybe even like my cousin Vinny,
- 26:26Speaker 5: you know where Fred Gwinn's up there, you know, being
- 26:29Speaker 5: the folksy country judge and stuff like that. What I found,
- 26:32Speaker 5: from my completely amateur opinion, the courtrooms with judges that
- 26:38Speaker 5: were more professional, buttoned up whatever it might be, you
- 26:42Speaker 5: could never really tell where they were as far as
- 26:46Speaker 5: until the end, and then like the revelation was actually
- 26:49Speaker 5: you could almost see the process of how fair they
- 26:51Speaker 5: were in the balancing of what they had to say
- 26:53Speaker 5: and things like that. I found that to be much
- 26:55Speaker 5: more satisfying than somebody that got a little their dander
- 26:58Speaker 5: up a little bit on the bench.
- 26:59Speaker 7: Yeah, but you know, judges are human, and so you see,
- 27:03Speaker 7: having done this for twenty some years, I've seen all
- 27:05Speaker 7: kinds of things from the bench, but.
- 27:10Speaker 6: Certainly they know there.
- 27:13Speaker 7: Are a referee in essence, and and they're new, they're neutral,
- 27:17Speaker 7: and so well they rule one way or the other
- 27:21Speaker 7: in the end. You know, a lot of times you
- 27:22Speaker 7: can't predict but yeah, it's you know, I'm not sure
- 27:26Speaker 7: I would have the temperament to be to be a judge.
- 27:29Speaker 7: I do some family law work, not a whole lot anymore,
- 27:31Speaker 7: And those are really difficult cases, and you got they're
- 27:35Speaker 7: oftentimes emotionally charged.
- 27:37Speaker 6: And you also have a lot.
- 27:38Speaker 7: Of folks in family courts that don't have lawyers because
- 27:40Speaker 7: there's you got child sport, you got custody, you got divorces,
- 27:44Speaker 7: You've got a lot of things where folks have to
- 27:47Speaker 7: go through that legal process, but they don't have the
- 27:50Speaker 7: funds to hire a lawyer because you don't normally get
- 27:52Speaker 7: an appointed attorney for matters in family court, which you know,
- 27:58Speaker 7: if you go in on your own trying to represent yourself.
- 28:00Speaker 7: It's hard for me to even understand it because I've
- 28:02Speaker 7: been a lawyer and around the law for so long.
- 28:04Speaker 7: But how do you know what's relevant to tell the judge?
- 28:08Speaker 7: I mean, you could think, all this thing that happened
- 28:11Speaker 7: two years ago is really still bothers me every day,
- 28:14Speaker 7: but it's really not significant to the proceeding that you're
- 28:18Speaker 7: in before that judge. And so you got a lot
- 28:19Speaker 7: of that kind of keeping things in control. And I've
- 28:23Speaker 7: seen some frustration out of family court judges.
- 28:25Speaker 6: And I don't blame him.
- 28:26Speaker 7: I don't think I could actually do that job very
- 28:28Speaker 7: well for very long because I would I would lose
- 28:31Speaker 7: patience probably. But and I've seen some you know, and
- 28:36Speaker 7: judges make errors. I mean I've seen cases where there
- 28:39Speaker 7: I've had cases where a judges ruled a certain way
- 28:43Speaker 7: in a criminal trial and uh, we objected, and after
- 28:48Speaker 7: the trial's over, my client was convicted. Then we file
- 28:50Speaker 7: a motion to reconsidering. The judge reads the law and decides, well,
- 28:53Speaker 7: he was wrong, and you get a tire new trial.
- 28:55Speaker 7: So you know, that's the But that's what judges do
- 29:00Speaker 7: than you know, standing by their guns. If they got
- 29:02Speaker 7: it wrong, they should change their change their stance. And
- 29:06Speaker 7: that's what really Canawllh County as well. I mean, I
- 29:10Speaker 7: think we have really good judges here as well. And
- 29:15Speaker 7: you know, electing judges I think has been pretty effective.
- 29:18Speaker 7: Not that I don't want, you know, like the judges
- 29:22Speaker 7: we have sitting up. It's a little disconcerting. We don't
- 29:25Speaker 7: have a whole lot of competition in some of our elections,
- 29:27Speaker 7: which I think helps, you know, bring the best of
- 29:31Speaker 7: the best to the top because you I mean, I
- 29:34Speaker 7: think in May, I don't know how many Knall County
- 29:36Speaker 7: seats were even contested, a whole quite a few were
- 29:40Speaker 7: in contest.
- 29:40Speaker 4: I remember an empty ballot.
- 29:42Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 29:42Speaker 7: Yeah, So but maybe we can hit on a little
- 29:47Speaker 7: bit what we do around the office. So we've been
- 29:48Speaker 7: talking about some other matters, so you know, if we
- 29:52Speaker 7: have regular listeners, I'm sure they know. But we do
- 29:54Speaker 7: a lot of deed work, a state planning reference, some
- 29:57Speaker 7: family law, and interview. I don't do much family law
- 30:00Speaker 7: an issue. I have done a lot of it in
- 30:02Speaker 7: my career, just not my favorite type of law to practice,
- 30:07Speaker 7: I guess you would say, but if you need informational
- 30:09Speaker 7: family you can send us an email or give us
- 30:10Speaker 7: a call and we'll help you if we can. And
- 30:12Speaker 7: I do take a few cases. I just don't like
- 30:14Speaker 7: to get too many of those on my on my
- 30:16Speaker 7: table at one time. So we might make an exception
- 30:19Speaker 7: and take the case if you have an issue. If not,
- 30:21Speaker 7: we can refer you to to lawyers that you do that
- 30:27Speaker 7: on the regular and are good at it. Do some
- 30:30Speaker 7: criminal defense too, kind of the same thing, not a
- 30:32Speaker 7: whole lot of it, fairly selective in the cases we take,
- 30:34Speaker 7: but bread and butter.
- 30:36Speaker 6: What we do.
- 30:37Speaker 7: We try cases. We like to try cases, kind of
- 30:39Speaker 7: like practicing and performing in the game, and you want
- 30:42Speaker 7: to play the game. And we tend to do pretty
- 30:45Speaker 7: well when Dad and I try cases. We quite tried
- 30:49Speaker 7: quite a few cases together, and I'm like, we have
- 30:54Speaker 7: done well.
- 30:54Speaker 6: I don't win or lose.
- 30:56Speaker 7: You know, you really can't keep those type tabs when
- 30:58Speaker 7: you have a case. I mean, you know, if you
- 31:00Speaker 7: try a lot of case civil cases for damages, if
- 31:02Speaker 7: you get X amount of dollars for your client, is
- 31:05Speaker 7: that winning or losing? I mean, you don't really know
- 31:08Speaker 7: unless you knew what was offered before you have your trial,
- 31:10Speaker 7: which of course we do.
- 31:12Speaker 9: Uh.
- 31:12Speaker 7: Then you know, it depends on how you view it.
- 31:15Speaker 7: But I I don't think we've had a case together
- 31:17Speaker 7: where we haven't had a good result when we went
- 31:19Speaker 7: all the way to trial. And so we have done
- 31:22Speaker 7: really good there. And nobody wins every case and and
- 31:26Speaker 7: and things like that. But uh, and and most of
- 31:28Speaker 7: our trials are from the civil side, on the plane
- 31:30Speaker 7: of side. So if you have been in an automobile
- 31:32Speaker 7: accident or you have a some kind of civil dispute, UH,
- 31:35Speaker 7: done done quite a few boundary dispute cases all the
- 31:39Speaker 7: way to jury trials. Or you've got an employment issue
- 31:43Speaker 7: meaning you're an employee and you you feel like you've
- 31:46Speaker 7: been wrongfully discharged, or you've had any adverse employment action
- 31:50Speaker 7: meaning you've been demoted or your pay cut or something.
- 31:52Speaker 7: And uh, you know, there is nat Will State in
- 31:55Speaker 7: West Virginia. So I get a lot of calls. Well,
- 31:58Speaker 7: you know, they said, I, for example, stole X, Y
- 32:02Speaker 7: and Z or a pencil or something from the office.
- 32:05Speaker 6: Then they fired me. Well and I didn't do that.
- 32:09Speaker 7: Well, okay, if you if you don't have a contract
- 32:13Speaker 7: for employment, and then they can basically discharge you for
- 32:17Speaker 7: any reason as long as it's not an illegal one.
- 32:19Speaker 7: And so if it turns out that you didn't steal
- 32:22Speaker 7: that pencil, you probably, depending on the circumstances, still don't
- 32:26Speaker 7: have a claim because even though it was wrong, it's
- 32:32Speaker 7: not a cause of action. So if I, you know,
- 32:36Speaker 7: I think one of my employees stole something minor and
- 32:38Speaker 7: I find out later they didn't, you know, I can
- 32:42Speaker 7: certainly rehire them if they're willing to come back and
- 32:44Speaker 7: work for me, But there isn't a cause of action
- 32:47Speaker 7: generally for something like.
- 32:48Speaker 5: That and that manager or owner or whoever could have
- 32:51Speaker 5: could have easily have just laid them off or fired
- 32:53Speaker 5: them without a reason.
- 32:54Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 32:56Speaker 7: Yeah, they don't have to give any reason at all.
- 32:57Speaker 7: And a lot of times you don't get a reason.
- 32:59Speaker 7: They're all is a reason, but as the employee or
- 33:03Speaker 7: former employee, you don't always know what that reason is. Now,
- 33:07Speaker 7: if you file for unemployment and your employer writes a response,
- 33:11Speaker 7: then oftentimes you'll you'll find that out. But we do
- 33:14Speaker 7: do a decent number of employment cases, and you know,
- 33:18Speaker 7: it's all about well a lot of them are you know,
- 33:22Speaker 7: proving what the motive of the employer was, and if
- 33:25Speaker 7: it was you know, based on age, race, all the
- 33:29Speaker 7: protected class matters, or if you're a whistleblower for example,
- 33:33Speaker 7: sometimes you have a claim then that's when you have
- 33:38Speaker 7: a cause of action despite the fact you're an at
- 33:40Speaker 7: will employee. And of course proving motive is uh. I've
- 33:44Speaker 7: had some cases like this, but not very many where
- 33:47Speaker 7: you know, it's expressed, the discriminatory, illegal conduct or motive
- 33:52Speaker 7: is expressed, you know, and you see it more now
- 33:54Speaker 7: because we've got texting and emailing and things like that.
- 33:58Speaker 7: Otherwise it's basically by implication. A lot of times any
- 34:03Speaker 7: use circumstantial evidence to prove your case. Also done a
- 34:05Speaker 7: decent number of wage and hour cases which you're interesting
- 34:09Speaker 7: as well, whether somebody is getting paid their overtime that
- 34:11Speaker 7: they're entitled to, and some misclassification cases where which is
- 34:16Speaker 7: kind of there's been some changes in the law recently
- 34:19Speaker 7: in that regard. So if I you know, we've talked
- 34:21Speaker 7: about this a little bit before, but if you want
- 34:23Speaker 7: to make an employee as an employer, you're going to
- 34:25Speaker 7: have an employee bee salary. So in essence, in a nutshell,
- 34:30Speaker 7: that means they're going to get paid x amount per year,
- 34:35Speaker 7: fifty thousand dollars per year. They got a meet for
- 34:39Speaker 7: you to then they can work more than forty hours
- 34:43Speaker 7: a week and you don't.
- 34:43Speaker 6: Have to pay them time and a half.
- 34:45Speaker 7: It's just they get their salary and whatever their benefits
- 34:48Speaker 7: are now they're supposed to be. There's certain factors before
- 34:51Speaker 7: you can categorize somebody like that, Like basically somebody running
- 34:54Speaker 7: a cash register at a convenience store or a local
- 34:58Speaker 7: restaurant really shouldn't be salary because it's not autonomous enough,
- 35:04Speaker 7: it's not kind of a professional enough.
- 35:06Speaker 6: To be categorized that way.
- 35:07Speaker 7: But what's changed here this summer, and before you can
- 35:10Speaker 7: categorize somebody as salary, they have to make a bottom
- 35:15Speaker 7: line certain amount that went up to forty three thy
- 35:18Speaker 7: five hundred this summer. Now, unless it changes as of
- 35:21Speaker 7: January this coming year, it goes to fifty some thousand dollars.
- 35:24Speaker 7: I don't have like maybe fifty three something like that.
- 35:26Speaker 7: So anybody in that gray air or that margin there
- 35:31Speaker 7: between forty three and fifty three is either going to
- 35:35Speaker 7: have to start getting paid time and a half if
- 35:37Speaker 7: they work overtime, or they're going to have to get
- 35:39Speaker 7: a race.
- 35:40Speaker 5: There was a ton of movement in this area in
- 35:42Speaker 5: twenty sixteen, right before the presidential election. Around around there,
- 35:46Speaker 5: there was so much of the assumption that Clinton would
- 35:49Speaker 5: win the election, and Obama had put in some rules
- 35:53Speaker 5: about overtime where they were lowering the threshold where you
- 35:56Speaker 5: had to be paid overtime, so trying to help out
- 35:58Speaker 5: workers right and ended up not going through. From the
- 36:01Speaker 5: corporate level. I saw some incidental raises go through before
- 36:06Speaker 5: the end of the year, getting people up to that
- 36:08Speaker 5: threshold so they wouldn't have to worry about their overtime
- 36:10Speaker 5: and then it ended up the company.
- 36:12Speaker 6: Yes, do it.
- 36:13Speaker 7: As an employee, you have two basic choices. You either
- 36:15Speaker 7: start making the salary employee if they're you know, keep
- 36:20Speaker 7: track of their hours and due time and a half
- 36:22Speaker 7: if they work more than forty hours a week, which
- 36:24Speaker 7: can be hard in certain certain professions, or you're gonna
- 36:27Speaker 7: have to bump them up to the fifty some thousand
- 36:29Speaker 7: dollars amount. So all your employees out there that are
- 36:31Speaker 7: in that range, keep that in mind because it's coming
- 36:33Speaker 7: in January, unless you know, I guess it could be
- 36:36Speaker 7: modified depending on who wins the election, right.
- 36:38Speaker 5: Right, don't forget to advocate for yourself though, don't forget
- 36:41Speaker 5: to advocate for yourself.
- 36:41Speaker 6: Yeah, just to remind your there's going to be some
- 36:43Speaker 6: employers that aren't.
- 36:44Speaker 7: Aware of that, probably too, and so if they have
- 36:47Speaker 7: a payroll service, it should be reminding them.
- 36:48Speaker 6: But there could be some that slipped through the cracks.
- 36:51Speaker 4: The Payton Law Firm.
- 36:51Speaker 5: Thanks for turning in Peyton Law Firm back here every
- 36:54Speaker 5: Thursday morning at eight twenty either Tom or Harvey stopping
- 36:56Speaker 5: buy Payton Lawfirm dot com.
- 36:57Speaker 4: Tom thinks a bunch for coming in.
- 36:58Speaker 6: I appreciate you enjoyed it. Wait until next time.
- 37:00Speaker 4: I have a great day everyone. On five ah w
- 37:02Speaker 4: c HS, the Voice of Charleston