Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 06-20-2024 - Ask The Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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06-20-2024 - Ask The Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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pay and a very pleasantive warning to you. You're listening to the power of
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patent and you can put it on your side. This morning, he goes
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a call three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three zero four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Deale Cooper are filling in for Jeff
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Jenkins this morning. Jeff is across the hallway. Of course, you've probably
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just heard him when the morning news. Who's filling in for Chris Lawrence.
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So that thing works out pretty well when the dominoes are in effect, and
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uh no domino here. We have Tom Payton in studio with us this morning,
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answering your questions about the law at three zero four three four five fifty
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eight fifty eight. You can follow along online Payton Lawfirm dot com. P
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E. Y T O. N. Peyton Lawfirm dot Com in Nitro,
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West Virginia. Tom, Good morning, How you doing this morning? How
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are you? I'm okay, man, it's uh, We're almost through this
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hot week, this this steamy hot week. We're getting through it. I
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got a busy day, I'm here, and then I got a few appointments
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and then actually end up I have a member gas golf tournament. So well
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this weekend seeing this after doing so that we'll see how that goes at least
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as not as hot as it was like Tuesday. Tuesday. Yeah, but
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I think the next couple days are going to be Tomorrow, I think it's
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supposed to be super hot, have some ivs on hand or something, so
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uh yeah, but better to have Chris. Hot water doesn't bother me.
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I can kind of a hot weather person and much better at having that than
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pouring rain or something like that. Agreed, we'll get through it, but
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glad to be here. Smooth traffic flowing today for every out there, and
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there's no traffic as there is is very out and so you know, it
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always makes it better when we were trying to get here from Tays Valley and
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I think all of the holidays are over now between or no West Virginia Day
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today, so we have a lot of people off for West Virginia Date.
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I didn't think about that because I'm getting off the Virginia Street exit. There
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was no line and there usually is a line. We're probably dude to West
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Virgia Day. Yeah, it's been nice all private employers, but yeah,
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everybody works for the state is off. So happy Birthday West Virginia, that's
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right, and happy happy traveling around downtown Charleston today for a lot of people,
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because it's gonna be a lot nicer as far as the things go,
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it's gonna be a lot less. You can give us a call this morning
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if you have any questions about the law for tom three zero four three four
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five fifty to fifty eight three zerre four three four five fifty. So what's
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going on, man, Yeah, we got smitting stuff from the legal field.
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I guess on the national level, where I think supreme courts a lot
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this maybe they're a lot us Supreme Court maybe their last day in session,
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which means usually or they're getting closed, so they're gonna have a flood of
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decisions. Probably. Oh, and so we got the one I heard on
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actually the news coming in on w W Metro News was the let see about
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the Trump immunity case. All right, that'll be an interesting one. There's
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so so much litigation involving Trump. I'm not even sure which ones this will
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affect. I don't know that. I don't think it will affect his conviction
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in the state case in New York where he's already convicted, the one the
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payoff case, and that was before he was president. I guess that was
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during the election or leading up to it. And right, so presidential immunity
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what he's seeking is I guess, absolute immunity for any behavior while he was
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in office. Right, And so that would affect the the documents case down
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in Florida, I think probably, And I don't know if the one in
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Georgia is that that may be a state case as well, but that was
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we'll see, but that will be interesting when to see how it comes out,
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you know, absolute immunity for anything you did while you're president, except
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I mean, I think there's always gonna be there's some statutory constitutional provision for
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some some crimes. But it'll be a monumental decision. We'll see how it
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comes out, so they'll probably, I think they'll probably. I can't imagine
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if a grant absolute immunity for most any criminal, what would be criminal behavior
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otherwise as a president? I mean, because I mean the concept of you
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just can't have people suing the president for why he's trying to operate run the
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country. But at the same time, there's got to be some balance,
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so you can't just do whatever you want and then claim absolute immunity. And
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so, you know, anything that involves real discretionary matters in running the government,
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I think that's going to involve immunity different types of community versus even absolute
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immunity. But if you get some of these friends things that really don't seem
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to have a or at best they have a loose can to your work in
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your official capacities president, I can't imagine they would grant immunity there, but
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they might We'll see, We'll see how it comes out. I'm a lay
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person. I don't know exactly how that would translate down the line, but
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it seems like a dangerous president to seeming that could be exploited. Yeah,
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I mean this is after the fact, so it wasn't. I mean,
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I'm sure former President Trump wasn't operating with some strategy that he's going to have
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absolute immunity afterward based on some legal opinion as he went along. Howes if
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you do? Was the question? I guess, right. So yeah,
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we'll see how that one turns out. So that's kind of on the national
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level. We have, you know, more fallout. I think I would
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call it from the the terrible case down in Boone County where the girl was
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found I guess almost in the skeletonal state from emaciated and she was homeschooled.
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And I guess now they've had the investigation, they've had the press conference there
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what a couple of thursdays ago. There's a couple of things about it.
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I mean, you got a state trooper that saw something in the home,
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but it was just to me, it was just something weird. It wasn't
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that alarming because it was he spoke to the girl, I think is the
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way I understand it, and there was an indication that she didn't like to
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come out. Maybe she had some mental health issue related to the COVID pandemic,
6:19
because it was after that and he went back to DHHR, the local
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DTHR office, which houses normally more than just child protective services. I mean,
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you have child support folks, you have social welfare benefit folks in there.
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So I don't know who he went and talked to. It appear as
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he was there and mentioned it, but it sounds like it was what the
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trooper saw wasn't enough, first of all, to make him take any investigatory
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action like a criminal activity. Two, he wasn't real formal in the way
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he turned it into. That's part of the you know, there was there
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another way he should have logged it in, so it got into some system.
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I don't know if you go and tell a CPS worker there your concerns.
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But it doesn't sound like he witness or saw something that was he felt
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was an emergency issue. So you assume the way he conveyed it to whoever
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was in that building, it wasn't conveyed as an emergency issue. And it's
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not a joke when you talk about not being able to fund proper CPS worker
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or having trained or have enough and so what you you know you can that's
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a general thing, and you'll see a lot of general problems because of that,
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but you're going to see some specific fallouts too, and I would say
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this would be one of them. I mean, imagine you're in Boone County
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and maybe I don't know what their CPS work account was back then, but
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I'm sure they don't have enough of account because they had a rampant, you
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know, drug problem there and opioids, and that's most of the time.
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Drug or alcohol abuse is what tem's you know, child abuse and neglect cases
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ultimately. But you know, if you're a worker down there in Boone County,
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a CPS worker, and you got all these calls coming in or reports
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and you got to go out and do these real rural areas. Sometimes they're
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females that have to go by themselves and things like that. So you've got
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information coming in that are where folks are indicating it is an emergency situation.
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Now, sometimes it's not. So if you have a trooper come in and
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mentioned this to you, But it doesn't seem too alarming. You just might
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want to check on them. But you've got somebody, a child found in
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a house where an abandoned meth lab is and you got to get them out
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of there and find a place to house them, and we don't have housing,
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and we don't know where to put them. When you're scrambling to get
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the court and fill out forms and papers so you can do it legally and
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actually have a right to have this child play somewhere, you can see in
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that scenario how what happened with this girl unfortunately could fall through the cracks.
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What that that's what will start to happen the same thing. It's it's it's
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it's now coming to fruition in the jails and the overcrowding and the neglect of
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those systems over who knows how long, and you're going to mean, that's
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what we're starting to see. And it's unfortunately, I think they're getting it
9:18
straightened out now. We've got you know, we have homeschool issue that's coming
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on, and and of course the governor's chimed in about it, and folks
9:26
that are promoters of homeschool. A lot of them don't. I mean they
9:31
want minimal government. That's right, and it's UH and and and there's choice.
9:39
So but at the same time, there's a duty on the on the
9:45
state UH to provide a proper educational system for all children. And so you
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know, in this case, apparently there hadn't been any assessments turned in for
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three years. I think that's pretty well established. No, I mean meaning
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when you and I didn't homeschool any my children. They went to public school.
10:05
But apparently, you know, you have to pass kind of pseudo standardized
10:11
test reybly the artist standardized test, some kind of achievement test to show that
10:13
you're making some progress, and then some assessment has turned into the what it's
10:18
supposed to be the government. Yeah, somebod I think you have so many
10:20
grades of self reporting and then there's benchmarks you have to turn in every so
10:24
often. Well I don't know what the frequency is, but I mean,
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if it's every year, for example, it doesn't come in, why is
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there not a mechanism to go check on that? Tell? Because because and
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it's it's this is going to be another one of those balancing acts where they're
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going to have to address some policy at the state House. I think,
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because, uh, you got folks that have certain beliefs or certain ways in
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which they they feel strongly about their children should be educated, and they educate
10:48
them at home, and they do a good job. But I have seen
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a lot over the years of you know, folks that their kids that are
11:01
very young age have truancy issues, or the parents have issues dealing with other
11:07
parents, dealing with teachers, having any involvement in the school system at all,
11:11
getting their children to school, not wanting their children to go to school
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because the child might say something about what's going on at home. So I
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see in some of my clients, I must say, but just generally seeing
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a lot of people. Know there is certainly a good number of folks who
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homeschool for the reasons I said, and not because they have some strong personal
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preference about the manner in which their child should be educated and they want to
11:39
do that and do it well. And so the system is that it is
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used as a tool, homeschooling system to hide from officials or other folks in
11:52
society that may expose a problem at home, for example. And so you
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definitely have to balance that out well, and it's an issue. I've seen
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it. It looks like it's happening and it's not. And when you have
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that scenario and then you don't have the resources to go and have regular checks,
12:13
I mean meaningful in person checks with these children when many of them are
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too young to they may ever have any unless they go to church or are
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in social activities that aren't connected with public school necessarily, then they may not
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have a lot of opportunity to reach out and if there's an issue, so
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we'll see what they do with that. I certainly think it needs to have
12:33
more oversight, and I've already seen at least two members of the legislature just
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absolutely well, one of them putting op ed in the in the Gauzette.
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I think against any more oversight. I think is why why if somebody comes
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into your home to do an in person report, they have to have an
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in person meeting with your child every What would be what are you scared of?
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Would be my question? That's as long as there we home school,
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I'm not scared of. I'm sure Slature can come up with and their attorneys
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there come up with some language that you know, says limits the purpose of
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that type of oversight, it doesn't overreach. But then we'll hear sliding scale
13:11
this and if they start, you know, but hopefully it doesn't get anywhere,
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but we'll we'll see how it plays out in the you know, probably
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won't have any movement on it till the regular session. But it's sad too.
13:22
It'll take one of these events to get something like that done. It
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wouldn't surprise me if there's some bill named after this. The her name was
13:28
Kennedy. So we'll we'll see how it comes about. But that's it's not
13:33
not that particular scenario, but that's and generally is in general, is not
13:37
surprising to me with the problems we've had in this system for a long time,
13:43
I mean a long time. Pred not to blame or put all that
13:46
all of it on Governor Justice's shoulders because these issues yea long before. The
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services have been underfunded for a long time. It's just it's it's an issue
13:56
that's getting more and more and it's weird to me. As far as the
13:58
homes thing, it's not about that, but different reasons that different people do
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it. I felt sort of like I was held hostage to do homeschooling because
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I didn't want to really send my kid to a public school because it seems
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like every time you turn around, there's less funding, less teachers, you
14:13
know, the race, and it almost seems like it's a self fulfilling prophecy.
14:16
It's like, oh, well, public schools aren't doing so well,
14:18
so you have to you have to do homeschooling, so let's take more funds
14:20
out of public school and send it to homeschooling. And the other thing is
14:24
I was in Michigan when they were going through their homeschool at school choice charter
14:28
school explosion, and it's and it's like that nobody learns from anything because all
14:33
of this has happened before. I mean, I saw all of that.
14:37
Maybe not the Miller case, but as far as the questions about just how
14:41
liberal we need to be with homeschooling and just how much we should give leadway
14:45
to all of this stuff has been tackled by other states that have done this.
14:48
I don't understand. I think what it is is nobody wants to talk
14:50
to critics. I think people that are proponents never want to talk to anybody
14:52
that might have some ideas, even if they're not. You know, they
14:56
don't want to say no homeschool. They they just have ideas that are from
14:58
a critical standpoint. I know if people talk like that, because all of
15:01
this has happened before. I've seen these stories before, and it was twenty
15:05
years ago. I don't understand why we're not prepared for more things like this.
15:07
We just don't fund it. Yeah, that's right, and well,
15:11
it takes an issue like this and it'll motivate them and we'll hear at least
15:13
some rumblings about it. We'll see whether the uter it's a supermajority. There's
15:18
obviously a factions within that whether they can get anything done or not. And
15:22
then you know, the other policy issue, and we've talked about a little
15:26
bit here because we've had some cases on it is the the transgender sports thing.
15:31
So we've got some young student athletes, females, I guess, you
15:37
know, protesting. I think a judge recently entered another preliminary injunction borrowing the
15:45
application of certain aspects of Title nine that have either been interpreted or being attempted
15:50
to be interpreted to let individuals who were born biological males play in sports with
15:56
biological females, and that's just a difficult policy. I think we'll work hopefully
16:02
we work through it. But you know, unfortunately it came along kind of
16:06
fruition through the court system when when we have an election year, and I
16:08
think that causes uh, some demagoguery and doubted that people. Well, yeah,
16:15
politicians use it as a as a tool in their their election. And
16:18
so you can always find almost every situation, you'll find problem somewhere. And
16:23
you find those issues where uh, there's the there's the person who swims in
16:29
college that's winning everything and she's been banned from I think the Olympics at this
16:33
point. So I think as a general concept, though most people, like
16:38
almost everybody, uh and certainly in West Virginia probably we have a little more
16:42
demographic maybe than a big municipal, certainly than a big municipality will agree that
16:48
somebody who was born biologically male, if it's a if you if somebody can
16:55
determine they have a competitive advantage because of that, then they shouldn't be playing
17:00
with the other girls in sports. I mean, I think that's kind of
17:04
a universal concept, and the problem is you get somewhere in between where somebody
17:08
is born a biological mail, but because of maybe hormone treatment or whatever,
17:15
they're just really effeminate and they don't seem to have any real competitive advantage and
17:22
just want to compete with humans that are more similar to them. And so
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to me, it seems like that's something that should be attempted to be accommodated
17:32
if it came from a policy standpoint and still protect the former situation I was
17:38
just talking about. So we'll see if the legislature, once they get past
17:42
the election, can kind of deal with that a little bit, because the
17:45
before you know, the legislature passed a law regarding it, which was over
17:51
overturned. The SSAC already had uh implemented fairly recently, though, I think
17:59
within the last few years, rules or regulations they would apply if a biological
18:06
male, for example, one to play with in a female sport, and
18:10
it was some factors related to is it going to affect competitiveness and that kind
18:15
of thing, and so I don't know if that ever really got into practice,
18:19
and so it seemed like they had a way. Now could that have
18:22
worked in practice? Is there are there factors that would let the s SAC
18:29
make meaningful decisions? That would work in that regards. For example, if
18:32
somebody is really masculine and went through male puberty, but now they're trying to
18:41
say they identify as a female and they clearly have a distinct competitive advantage in
18:48
whatever sport they want to play in, then the s SAC would say no.
18:51
And now you have a different situation like I just recited a minute ago,
18:55
then maybe the SSAC would say yes. But it's that individualized kind of
19:00
analysis that probably West Virginia could do or try to do, because they don't
19:06
we have a population. It's low enough to do that. I don't know
19:08
how you do that in some larger areas, but but we'll see how it
19:14
plays out. Because then you know, Leg's latter took that away from the
19:17
s s a c. And created a law, and then that was overturned.
19:19
It seems to me this is a debate that needs to take place one
19:22
way or the other. The thing that that that that I observe that we're
19:26
talking about individuals on the other end of this thing. Regardless of what you
19:30
feel, it's a person that's that that you're talking about, and in this
19:33
state, unfortunately, you're talking almost specifically about one person. So it's not
19:37
like you're protesting against something that you don't agree with. It's a national movement
19:42
and you're protesting against that movement where there's millions of people to spread the brunt
19:48
of that you're talking. It's basically, you know, half the state or
19:52
more focused in on basically one individual. And I kind of feel bad for
19:56
that, I do. And then it gets exploited in the political realman,
20:00
there's whole commercials about it. When is that really what we want to and
20:06
when you back off of it. I mean, and some people, I
20:08
mean, I'm into sports, you know, but but a lot of I
20:12
mean, that's probably the percentage that doesn't care who plays in what sport because
20:17
they don't care about sports anyway. I mean, it's not meaningful, but
20:19
it's certainly meaningful for a lot of people. So we'll see how that it's
20:25
going to have to be addressed. But yeah, it's it's it's such affects
20:27
such a small element of the population in West Virginia. Hopefully they'll have a
20:33
meaningful debate where they maybe listen to some science and some experts in the field
20:37
and see if they can come up with something that one is not in violation
20:41
of state or federal law and individual rights. And two that has some sense
20:48
of fairness about it. But it just maybe, and it may be,
20:51
you know, if s SACS factors were allowed to take place, it just
20:53
maybe they can't even do that analysis properly and it doesn't work at all,
20:56
and then you might have to go back to something more absolutely. But I
21:00
think you'll see this kind of work out, both on the federal and state
21:03
level, probably in the next two or three years, and hopefully we'll come
21:07
up with some it's just all over the place right now from a legal standpoint.
21:10
We got we got to come up with something. Let's ahead and take
21:11
a break. We do have a text question when we come back, so
21:14
from the three zero four four one five, I have your message here.
21:17
I'm going to talk to Tom about it hearing the break. We'll answer that
21:18
when we come back. If you'd like to get in as well, you
21:21
can give us a call this morning three zero four three four five fifty fifty
21:22
eight. You can also text over your questions to three zero four non three
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five five zero zero eight three zero four nine three five five zero zero eighth.
21:30
We're going to take a break and be back right after this. You're
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listening to ask the lawyer. Tom Payton is here from the Payton Law Firm
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in Nitro Online Patent Law Firm dot com. We'll be back right after this.
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messages and as far as that goes from the text line, threes are a
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four, four one five. What is the procedure to get a house deed
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put into a family member's name? Okay, so that's kind of a broad
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question, but I'll tell you one of the questions we get the most,
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probably once a week, is how do you get the deed into my name
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you get it deeded to you or you inherit it. And when you inherit
24:37
it, as long as the person's estate who passed away was probated properly.
24:42
You don't need to do anything to get titled when that estate closes, because
24:48
there's either been a will recorded that says you get it, or by the
24:52
law of intestate succession if the person did not have a will, if you
24:56
inherited it by virtue of intestates session, which is the legislature's made will for
25:03
you. If you don't bother to do one yourself, there is still paperwork
25:06
filed in the probate process that will show that you own it. So you
25:10
don't need a You don't need nine nine point nine percent of the time to
25:15
get the property quote deeded in your name when you inherit property. As long
25:19
as the probate was done correctly and the papers were filed in the county where
25:25
that land is, then you own it there. Now, if you go
25:29
to sell it, and you said, Tom, I'm going to sell this
25:30
property for ten grand to Dale, then I was all right, bring me
25:34
the deed where your dad got it, so I can use that to draft
25:37
the new one, and then I would recite within the deed to Dale.
25:45
Daddy passed away on this date, and then by virtue of his last one
25:48
testament which is on record at the courthouse in book blank at page blank,
25:52
or by virtue of intestinate succession, it passed to Johnny, and that's why
25:56
Johnny now owns it and candid it to Dale. So there's no that's when
26:00
a deed would be done whenever the person inherited it wants to transfer to somebody
26:03
else. Now, a lot of times folks forget or maybe they ask them
26:07
if the court else do doesn't know. But the taxes property taxes, So
26:14
if you want to get it out of the deceased person's name, you just
26:18
need to go over to the I think the sheriff or the assessor's office.
26:21
It's in Knall County there in the old courthouse, and just tell them that
26:23
you got it by inheritance. And if they need to see any documents,
26:26
you can provide them from a cross. The wills once they're amitted to probate,
26:30
and the estate documents, if it's intestate, are all recorded in the
26:34
same place deeds are recorded, so if he may goes to a title search,
26:37
they'll see that you own it because they'll see what the deceased person owned
26:41
when they passed away by public documents and then we'll see who got it because
26:47
as a result of them passing, and that's all you need right there.
26:49
So that's a very common question we get. I need to get the deed
26:52
my name because somebody's passed away and I inherited it. But almost universally I
26:56
tell folks the same thing I just said here. You don't need to do
27:00
that. But if you don't like seeing the name on the tax ticket,
27:02
which doesn't determine ownership, go tell the assessor or the sheriff's tax office that
27:07
it needs to be changed over to your name because you inherited it. If
27:10
they question it, you can just show him some documents that are literally across
27:12
the hallway in Kenall County, in same way in Putnam County. So I'm
27:19
not sure if that's where the texture is going. But otherwise, if you
27:23
and I get a lot of this, I want to put so and So's
27:26
name on my deed. Now keep in mind when you do that, unless
27:29
it's a transfer on death deed, which which is something we've talked about a
27:33
lot, you are giving up an interest in your property. You are deating
27:37
an ownership interest to somebody else. Even if you reserve a life estate,
27:40
you're still deeding them a remainder interest. If you make them joint owner,
27:44
then they own some fraction or percentage of the whole of your property. And
27:48
so you got to be careful with that because you can't just quote take it
27:52
back. You can't take Johnny's name off the deed. Now he can agree
27:56
to convey his interests back to you if you no longer want him to have
28:00
an interest in your property, but if he doesn't agree, almost universally,
28:03
you can't do anything about it. Now. Transferm death deeds are different.
28:07
Those I utilize quite a bit. The legislature authorized them, I think in
28:11
twenty fourteen twenty fifteen. They're different because we draft a deed, it's recorded
28:17
you basically within that deed say who your death beneficiary is of the land,
28:21
and it says expressly in the deed and in Western EU code that it has
28:25
no effect until you pass away. And in that case, you basically made
28:30
your land nonprobate, so it wouldn't go by a will, wouldn't be subject
28:33
to creditors' claims in the probate process, things like that. So it has
28:37
a lot of good aspects to it as long as you're wanting to do something
28:38
fairly simple, get it to one or two people, and you can do
28:41
those transform death deeds. What's different about them compared to all the deeds I
28:45
was talking about earlier is that unilatterally, meaning you yourself can go do another
28:51
deed without anybody's permission, without us asking anyone, even consulting the other beneficiary,
28:56
and just we can draft a new one and record it, and you
28:59
can change your beneficiary because they don't have any ownership interest in it until you
29:04
pass away, you don't need their permission to change it. You continue to
29:10
be taxed in your own name property tax, which is advantageous to a lot
29:12
of people because a lot of times they're older folks doing these deeds. And
29:15
so once you reach sixty something you get a home set exemption for your property
29:19
tax, or if you're just saying, well you get it, get it
29:22
as well. So that and that has some implications too, to help potentially
29:29
if you need to get long term care paid for by medicaid, and to
29:32
help you retain your home to pass it to your heirs. So transform death
29:36
deeds are good. But but yeah, if you want to deed some property
29:41
to a family member, whatever type of deed it is, then you have
29:48
You don't have to have a law of your best or they wouldn't advise you
29:49
to use these forms. They might work. They'll let you record them as
29:52
long as they're notarized. But you get a title problem and a deed because
29:56
you didn't word it right. It can be big issue in the future.
30:00
I mean you might in court involved lawsuits and that kind of thing, so
30:04
be careful using that. But if you want to to do a deed is
30:07
normally we'll have folks call our office. We have experienced staff so they can
30:11
kind of give the same information I've given here. If there's any issue,
30:14
I talked to the folks, but it doesn't normally involve even an in person
30:18
office conference. We can tell you what documents we need or we can guide
30:22
them for you, and then draft the deed and it's just a matter of
30:25
stopping by and signing it at your convenience because we're all notaries at our office
30:29
there and only the details of the of the client. This was back in
30:33
when I managed a mortgage company, but one of my employees had this this
30:37
situation where they had I think it was like four college roommates that when they
30:42
got out into the world or whatever, decided by a house together or whatever.
30:45
It was. None of them are related, all of them are on
30:48
the deed. And it was a mess. I mean, like when they
30:49
decided to like, something happened. There was a falling out, they sell
30:52
the house. I think there's some damage. There was like a whole bunch
30:55
of things. And it was this giant like two million dollar property or whatever
30:57
too. They were all like software developers or some my camera. Anyway,
31:00
it was a huge issue, and I just remember kind of I had to
31:03
follow it because I was managing the place. But the poor lady that was
31:04
working on it, she was pulling her hair out because she could never get
31:07
clearance to like to secure any kind of financing, because they could never get
31:11
everything straight up. I think they eventually somehow got it worked out, but
31:14
it was a long process. Man. Yeah, getting multiple owners into property
31:18
can be issue, I mean. And another thing is like in your situation,
31:23
if the four folks couldn't get along, somebody wanted to live there,
31:26
somebody wanted to sell it, somebody wanted to buy the other ones out,
31:30
and it comes to fruition because maybe one of them shocked up there and nobody
31:33
else get anything out of it. Then you get what's called a partition suit
31:37
in West Virginia and I don't know about Michigan. And that's where the judge
31:41
will decide whether it can be divvied up like a puzzle piece, which is
31:45
very difficult because land is not like a tabletop, but I've seen it done.
31:49
Usually it's when people agree, folks agree, and there's multiple there's acreage
31:53
if you can't split a house four ways, obviously, or the judge can
31:56
allot it to one of the owners and say, all right, you want
32:00
it, I'll let you have it, but we're going to go to proper
32:04
praise value and if you only own fifty percent, you got to pay the
32:07
other fifty percent into court and we'll give it to the other heirs and then
32:09
you'll own the property. Or the judge can order it sold at a public
32:14
sale, which happens a lot a lot of times when I get in those
32:15
cases. Once, once everyone understands that this is the process that's now going
32:22
to happen, you're not going to be able to continue to live there forever
32:25
for free and not have tenants and pay your other owner's rent or things like
32:31
that. Then usually folks get along because they realize this is inevitable and you
32:37
know, for example, I don't have a lawyer do what is in essence
32:40
foreclosure type sale in the courtiuse steps. Are you better off knowing it's going
32:45
to be sold just to go hire a experience realtor to take care of it?
32:47
You know, And everybody just kind of get agree. But you know,
32:51
we've done a lot of those cases over the years, and you want
32:53
to avoid that, and a lot of times you can avoid lawsuits once everybody
32:58
understands, you know, talks to their own lawyers, so they're not skeptical,
33:01
but their other owner's lawyers are telling them, but that is the law
33:06
in West Virginia, and they realize that and usually usually get along. Threes
33:09
are four three four, five fifty eight fifteen. If you want to get
33:12
out, if you want to get one before we have to get out of
33:14
here today, three zero four, three four five fifty to fifteen. If
33:15
you have any questions about law for Tom Payton from the Paton Law Firm,
33:19
you still text in a question as well. Three zero four nine through five
33:21
five zero zero eight you were talking about this right before we went on there.
33:24
We may not we only have about four minutes left. We may not
33:27
be able to get into it too much. You had an interesting case that
33:30
you were telling me a little bit about that involved eminent domain. Yeah,
33:31
so we got one penny I oxually you tried to squeeze it in the last
33:35
two weeks when I was here on so eminent domain condemnation. You know,
33:37
we got Jefferson Road beIN expanded over here. Cross Lanes obviously has the main
33:43
drag through cross Lanes has been bogged up for my adult lifetime. I think,
33:47
so they're expanding that. Those are kind of obvious roads that need to
33:52
be done. So when the government comes in and tries to enforce emminent domain,
33:55
it's where they can come and take your private person's property for just compensation.
34:01
And then there's a lot of litigation about what just compensation is. And
34:07
generally when the Department of Transportation comes in, does it take I've litigated a
34:10
lot of these over the years. You get you have a jury of twelve
34:15
freeholders to decide the value of the take if you ever get to a jury
34:20
trial. But almost universally those are fights over. You know, it's not
34:23
whether the DOT can come and take your property. Two examples I gave are
34:28
obvious needs for expansion of roads, and so it turns into what are what
34:32
can I get from my client, and let's do the best we can and
34:36
get out of this thing. And there's a process. The DOH will say,
34:39
hey, we think you're entitled to five thousand dollars. So then they
34:44
come and they file that in court when they file their case trying to take
34:46
your property, and then generally I can get that from my clients, and
34:50
it's mostly just kind of a battle of what more are the entitled to as
34:53
we go. I got kind of an interesting case in Putnam right now,
34:55
we'll see how it plays out. It's done in Buffalo. There's a some
35:00
kind of engines named Vandalia that bought just well over one hundred acres from what
35:06
is in essence the power company down there, and it's kind of a mystery
35:08
what they're even doing. I'm not sure, but it has a lot of
35:10
governmental official connections and it's rather odd, has some Washington d C. Connections
35:16
with some venture capitalists interested on it. So I was looking at the So
35:21
they're trying to take my clients three homes in Buffalo, some of them generational
35:27
homes that have been there for one the generation, to take most of their
35:30
well not most of but a significant portion of their front yards into a very
35:35
small tributary off the main road. And it's kind of a mystery. They
35:37
don't want their home, their yards to be taken. So it appears that
35:42
the DOT is trying to expand this what is a residential type road right now
35:47
to help this mystery company that bought one hundred and some acres in the back
35:52
end. But that company, when they bought their land, also bought an
35:55
eighty foot wide right away that gets them to the same place that DUH is
36:00
trying to get them through. So we're gonna see how this one plays out.
36:01
We'll kind of watch it. It just kind of smells funny right now,
36:06
and we'll see if we can get some more details on it. But
36:09
it's odd why the Department of Transportation would be trying to take my client's property
36:15
when this private entity, which looks like has major connections to venture capitalists in
36:20
Washington, d C. Have their own ability to build a road right to
36:22
the main road. And you know, I guess some of the angst I
36:25
have. I mean, I'm the president of the YMCA down in Tays Valley
36:30
and it's volunteer and I've been on the board there for a long time well
36:35
probably close to two decades, and we have a great staff and work really
36:38
hard. We're making progress and we have a nice camp. For example,
36:43
it's out Church Camp Road. Well all we get are not all we get,
36:46
but we get regular complaints just how bad the road is, it's turn
36:51
in, when to turn in their damaged car, or information to us.
36:53
So that's not our road, that's the government's right state. So we've got
37:00
what appears to be DHS serving some you know, for profit entity that we
37:06
don't even know. I don't even know what the goal is and what's happening.
37:09
And there's no traffic, there's not heavy traffic in and out of there
37:12
right now. And then we've got a road that's probably five airplane miles away
37:17
that serves hundreds and hundreds of children in Puttenham County where nobody's left behind for
37:22
financial circumstances, and we can't get the road improved. So we'll monitor that,
37:27
but I just think it needs a little sunshine and we'll see what where
37:30
it goes from there, and we'll get a little more detail about these governmental
37:34
connections as we follow it through and see how the case goes. But it's
37:37
a difficult hurdle. It's hard to keep the government from taking your property and
37:40
eminent domain and we're running into that. But I think this has some un
37:44
and I've never challenged the right to take before, but I am in this,
37:47
one of my clients are, and I think we have some unique facts
37:51
that may help us help us and we'll see how that plays out. That
37:55
is, that's an interesting story. You'll be able to keep us up to
37:58
date on that as things going along. Paidal Law Firm in Nitro, West
38:00
Virginia three zero four seven five five fifty five fifty six seven five five fifty
38:04
five fifty six here every Thursday when ask the Law your five ADW CHS The
38:07
Voice of Charleston, Tom, thank you so much for your time, great
38:09
being here. We'll check in with you next week. Have a great day
38:12
everyone. Dave Allen's up next on five eighty Live. This is five ADW
38:15
CHS The Voice of Charleston. Five awc ands AL twenty six point five.
38:28
That's on Charleston one oh four point five Cross Lane on WVRC Media station.
38:34
We're proud to live here too,