Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 09/24/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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09/24/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of 580 WCHS, its employees,
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Speaker 1: or WVRC Media.
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Speaker 2: In our courts, all men are created equal.
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Speaker 3: We're mass communicating.
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Speaker 4: Breaking rocks in a hot sun.
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Speaker 1: Up on the low heaven, the low world. You can
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Speaker 1: put the power of Peyton on your side this morning.
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Speaker 1: That's right. Tom Peyton is in studio with us this morning,
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Speaker 1: and you can give us a call from the Peyton
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Speaker 1: Law Firm online, peytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N, peytonlawfirm.com. Our phone number this morning, 304-345-5858, 304-935-5008.
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Speaker 1: Tom Peyton is here this morning. Tom, good morning. How
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Speaker 1: are you doing this morning? I'm doing great.
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Speaker 4: It was a little slow coming in. We got some
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Speaker 4: rain as soon as we got near the Dunbar Interstate Bridge,
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Speaker 4: or I guess the Jefferson Road exit there. So everybody
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Speaker 4: be careful out there. I had to start on a
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Speaker 4: somber note. We just had a really bad week this
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Speaker 4: week in the Dunbar area. Speaking of it, we had
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Speaker 4: two people, was it two or three people were killed
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Speaker 4: on a wreck on the Dunbar tollway?
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Speaker 1: I think a total of three.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's awful. And I know I saw that at
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Speaker 4: least one person was from Nitro, one person was from Hurricane.
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Speaker 4: So they haven't really released how the accident happened. You know,
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Speaker 4: there's Driving's one of those things, you can be as
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Speaker 4: careful as you can yourself, but you can't control other
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Speaker 4: people on the road. Now, I'll be interested to see
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Speaker 4: how that one, what law enforcement comes out with how
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Speaker 4: that happened, because it just, I don't know the speed
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Speaker 4: limit on the old Dunbar Toll Bridge, but gosh, it
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Speaker 4: can't be, I think it'd be more than 35, maybe 25.
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Speaker 4: With the safety mechanisms in automobiles these days, probably somebody
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Speaker 4: running hot rod and speeding are intoxicated, unfortunately. Um, of
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Speaker 4: course we do an awful lot of automobile accident cases. Um,
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Speaker 4: and you can't always prove it, but these days I
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Speaker 4: tell you that I would, I'll wager that half the
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Speaker 4: cases are distracted driving. Oh my goodness.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. It's gotta be. I was on the Boulevard the
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Speaker 1: other day and a guy was driving through weather and
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Speaker 1: I noticed him coming up behind me super fast. He's
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Speaker 1: probably going 70 on the Boulevard or something like that.
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Speaker 1: weaving in and out of traffic. And the light ahead
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Speaker 1: of me, he was still behind me. The light ahead
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Speaker 1: of me turned red. He just weaved in between me
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Speaker 1: and the other car and just straight ran the red light.
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Speaker 1: I looked over at him and he's just looking at
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Speaker 1: his steering wheel, like watching something. It's like every time
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Speaker 1: I look over at another car, now they're watching something
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Speaker 1: on their phone. I don't get it, man. I don't
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Speaker 1: know how you do it.
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Speaker 4: Of course, you got to be hands-free. The law, they
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Speaker 4: passed this law, I don't know, eight years ago or something.
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Speaker 4: So state law, it's not a secondary offense. So they can,
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Speaker 4: they can, pull you over for it. But, um, yeah,
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Speaker 4: if you're not, it's even.
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Speaker 5: I.
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Speaker 4: Haven't had to re look at the statute really since
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Speaker 4: it passed. I've had some clients call me that have
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Speaker 4: been charged with, uh, using a handheld while they were
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Speaker 4: driving and nobody's hired me to defend one of those
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Speaker 4: because the fines not doesn't justify hiring a lawyer to
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Speaker 4: defend it. But, um, yeah, to comply with the law,
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Speaker 4: even at like a, if you're stopped at a traffic
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Speaker 4: light or something, you're still not supposed to have your
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Speaker 4: phone on. And there's all kinds of things in between
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Speaker 4: where people have them on speaker, but still in their
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Speaker 4: hand or something like that. I learned, I, you know,
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Speaker 4: it's probably 15 years ago. Statute of limitations is long gone.
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Speaker 4: So I'm not incriminating myself.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: I caught myself, you know, might've been on the way
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Speaker 4: back from the radio, somewhere from Charleston, getting on the
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Speaker 4: on-ramp to head on I-64 West. uh over the bridge
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Speaker 4: there um going towards oakwood um and started to go
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Speaker 4: up the ramp of course you got to pick up
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Speaker 4: speed because you got to get over left pretty quickly
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Speaker 4: or else you got to stay in the right lane
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Speaker 4: and get get towards uh quarter g but i i
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Speaker 4: was looking down you know just for i thought a
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Speaker 4: fleeting second looked up and traffic was stopped slam on
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Speaker 4: the brakes oh my god but um i mean i
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Speaker 4: must have stopped an inch before i touched the car
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Speaker 4: in front of me but it was scary If I
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Speaker 4: would have looked up when I did, I would have
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Speaker 4: hit that car accelerating. And from that point on, I've
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Speaker 4: done my very best to comply with the law. It's hard,
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Speaker 4: you know, to not do that. But most cars these days,
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Speaker 4: I mean, you've got your phone on Bluetooth to it,
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Speaker 4: so there's not a whole lot of excuse for not
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Speaker 4: being hands-free. But I'll tell you, I think law enforcement
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Speaker 4: does a pretty good job of enforcing it. You see
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Speaker 4: a lot of– I look at magistrate court criminal records
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Speaker 4: quite often just have a witness or a opposition and
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Speaker 4: I'm doing a little investigation of them. And you see
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Speaker 4: a lot, a lot of tickets written for a failure
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Speaker 4: to use a hands-free electronic device in the car.
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Speaker 1: I'm no expert with it as a, as just like
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Speaker 1: a regular person out here watching law enforcement do things
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Speaker 1: like this. I would frankly probably prefer them to police
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Speaker 1: those people than the people going 10 miles over the
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Speaker 1: speed limit a lot of the time. I mean, it's like,
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Speaker 1: When you see people just blatantly going through red lights
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Speaker 1: and not paying attention.
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Speaker 4: Or swerving.
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Speaker 1: It's crazy how people just do that.
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Speaker 4: How many times have you seen swerving around in and
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Speaker 4: out of the lane a little bit and actually get
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Speaker 4: up and look over and they're staring at their phone.
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Speaker 4: And it's hard. I've had a few cases. I think
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Speaker 4: they've all been death cases, unfortunately, where we've been able
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Speaker 4: to get someone's phone or the police have. And then
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Speaker 4: we've kind of piggybacked on the law enforcement investigation. But,
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Speaker 4: you know, they seize them and do big data downloads
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Speaker 4: of the phone. But it's still really hard unless you've
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Speaker 4: got a witness to prove somebody's actually using the phone
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Speaker 4: at the time it happens because there's so many things
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Speaker 4: that stay– it's not going to be the right word
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Speaker 4: for the techies out there, but operational in the background
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Speaker 4: of your phone. So like, oh– Facebook messenger was on,
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Speaker 4: but it's hard.
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Speaker 1: Even if the screen was on, you could have been
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Speaker 1: using maps or something.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: And of course you can see when somebody hits send,
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Speaker 4: you know, when they send a text or maybe you
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Speaker 4: might be able to see when they read it, but
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Speaker 4: an accident, you know, collision can happen in a split second.
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Speaker 4: And so you don't know really what they're doing, but, uh,
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Speaker 4: and it's, it's normally that person's fault one way or another,
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Speaker 4: whether they're on their phone or not, it's just an
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Speaker 4: aggravating factor. So, you know, we'll see what, what, what
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Speaker 4: happened there. Hopefully the police will release some more information,
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Speaker 4: maybe an accident reconstruction on what happened on the Dunbar bridge.
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Speaker 4: And then, gosh, I think it was the same day.
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Speaker 4: A 12 year old was hit. Um, I haven't seen
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Speaker 4: really any details about how that happened either, but just awful. So, um, anyway,
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Speaker 4: moving on from that subject, but that's the kind of,
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Speaker 4: you know, if somebody's out there that had a family
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Speaker 4: member heard, or hopefully not, if somebody was killed, um,
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Speaker 4: that's the kind of case that we, we take on
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Speaker 4: on a regular basis and do well on. So, um,
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Speaker 4: it's never fun doing wrongful death cases. I mean, it's
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Speaker 4: kind of an odd thing. You're seeking money and compensation.
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Speaker 4: Obviously you can never bring a person back and you
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Speaker 4: can't value a human life. In fact, there's cases where,
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Speaker 4: you know, if you have a wrongful death case, hopefully
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Speaker 4: nobody listening really does, but you know, you can't control that.
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Speaker 4: But the, you know, you go to a trial and
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Speaker 4: I've tried multiple wrongful death cases. The compensation is really
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Speaker 4: about one. Well, if that person had some, obviously if
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Speaker 4: they were of working age and then you got some
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Speaker 4: income that's lost and the family's entitled to recover that, uh,
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Speaker 4: other than that, it's really compensation for the family members
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Speaker 4: and their grief and what they go through. You're not
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Speaker 4: allowed in West Virginia to argue the value of a life.
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Speaker 4: And it actually, that, um, the case that kind of
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Speaker 4: sets the standard for that in West Virginia was, uh,
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Speaker 4: in a closing argument, a lawyer will analogize the value
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Speaker 4: of high end racehorse, which, you know, this has been,
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Speaker 4: this case is like 50 years old, but even today
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Speaker 4: I'd say, I don't know what the winner of like
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Speaker 4: the Kentucky Derby would be worth. Uh, but it's, I'd
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Speaker 4: say it's well over I mean, it's $ 10 million probably
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Speaker 4: or more. So you're sitting, you know, that's, well, then
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Speaker 4: if a person was killed wrongfully, they got to be worth,
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Speaker 4: I mean, if a race, if a horse is worth that,
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Speaker 4: what's a human life worth? And that's, can't make that argument.
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Speaker 4: That was reversed and sent back. So that's not something
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Speaker 4: you can argue when you have a wrongful death case,
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Speaker 4: even though kind of logically.
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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, logically it sort of makes sense.
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Speaker 4: That's right.
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Speaker 1: I mean, is, is a, is a base human more
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Speaker 1: valuable than the most advanced horse?
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Speaker 4: I mean, right.
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Speaker 3: You know?
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I get it.
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Speaker 4: Yes. The answer is yes.
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Speaker 1: Of course it is.
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Speaker 4: But, which is why it's an enticing argument to make
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Speaker 4: for an attorney in a closing argument, but that is, uh,
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Speaker 4: not permitted in West Virginia. Probably not any other state either.
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Speaker 4: I don't know about other states, but, uh, but any event, Hey,
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Speaker 4: I got, uh, good and bad news, I guess. I've,
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Speaker 4: I was 2-0 in my WU football prediction, but now
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Speaker 4: I'm 2-1. You'll take that loss.
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Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
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Speaker 4: Now, then I have a prediction of I think I've
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Speaker 4: got like the next three or four games as winners.
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Speaker 4: So we'll see how it goes. But Mountaineers are looking good.
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Speaker 1: It'll be a key stretch right here. You've got to
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Speaker 1: win some of these games that maybe you're supposed to
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Speaker 1: win now.
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Speaker 4: That's right. And then Saturday night's a big game because
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Speaker 4: Oklahoma State, what, upset Oregon. So now it's turned into
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Speaker 4: quite the contest. And if we win, it we'll pop
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Speaker 4: in the top 25 for the first time in a
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Speaker 4: number of years.
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Speaker 1: What, 15 years?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's unbelievable, really.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: So we'll go and watch that game and cheer on
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Speaker 4: the Mountaineers. Hopefully they keep the ball rolling. Kind of
10:11
Speaker 4: a– I would say it's a little bit of a
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Speaker 4: trap game. You really shouldn't be overlooking Oklahoma State, but–
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Speaker 4: The target game was last week.
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Speaker 1: So you just sort of became a trap game after
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Speaker 1: winning that. That's right.
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Speaker 4: I think so. And but they'll have a nice I'm
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Speaker 4: sure we'll have it. Hopefully have a packed house. The
10:27
Speaker 4: weather looks good. Be a little cooler than it has
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Speaker 4: been lately, but dry. So should be a raucous crowd.
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Speaker 4: We're looking forward to that one. We've got a couple
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Speaker 4: of interesting cases pending before our Supreme Court this term.
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Speaker 4: So they'll be decided. They were argued this week, which
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Speaker 4: is why they're on Metro News headlines. But that means
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Speaker 4: once they're argued, they should be decided this term, meaning
10:52
Speaker 4: by December we'll get opinions. But one of them is
10:56
Speaker 4: the what legislatures attempt to micromanage this state board of education.
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Speaker 4: So a few years ago, 2022, 2023, the legislature passed
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Speaker 4: a law to get. a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
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Speaker 4: Of course, that has to be voted on in a
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Speaker 4: general election by all the voters. And the attempt was
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Speaker 4: to modify the language so that the legislature could, in essence,
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Speaker 4: control all rulemaking that would apply to the state Board
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Speaker 4: of Education. So I don't have the language in front
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Speaker 4: of me, but basically our Western Union Constitution gives the
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Speaker 4: Board of Education some autonomy. uh, in the way in
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Speaker 4: which it operates. The idea, I believe the concept was,
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Speaker 4: you know, try and make it as apolitical as possible. And, uh,
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Speaker 4: the voters, uh, rejected that, that amendment. Um, so, okay, well,
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Speaker 4: that's the will of the people, right? So carry on.
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Speaker 1: Well, no, no, no, no.
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Speaker 4: The legislature has decided that on this front, they know
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Speaker 4: better and it's fueled by special. I mean, I think
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Speaker 4: it's fueled by special interests and wanting to, do the
12:14
Speaker 4: opposite of what the concept was to keep it apolitical,
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Speaker 4: but now it's too.
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Speaker 1: Hyper-politicized.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so somebody can push their own special interests through
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Speaker 4: and impress it upon the State Board of Education. So
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Speaker 4: the legislature just passed a law saying they could do that,
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Speaker 4: a statute. Let's just disregard what the citizens wanted with
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Speaker 4: the Constitution. So the State Board of Education has resisted that,
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Speaker 4: and they want to continue to create their own rules.
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Speaker 4: I mean, the legislature has... control over budget i mean
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Speaker 4: there's different ways the legislature can still influence the state
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Speaker 4: board of education but as far as specific rulemaking and
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Speaker 4: really getting into the day-to-day operations of the state public
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Speaker 4: educational system um i think it's pretty long-standing law that
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Speaker 4: that the cost you the west virginia constitution vests the
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Speaker 4: rulemaking authority in state board of education but didn't stop
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Speaker 4: the legislature from moving forward and so that's being uh
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Speaker 4: It's filtered all the way up to the Western Supreme Court,
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Speaker 4: and they argued it this week. So it will be
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Speaker 4: interesting to see. The argument being that that law passed
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Speaker 4: by the legislature is unconstitutional, violates the Constitution, goes too far,
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Speaker 4: and encroaches upon the rulemaking authority vested in the State
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Speaker 4: Board of Education by the West Virginia Constitution. So we'll see. Now,
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Speaker 4: I think and I hope that the Western Supreme Court
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Speaker 4: just rules that law unconstitutional, period, and we're just back
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Speaker 4: to where we were before, because I think as a
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Speaker 4: principle matter, and it's in our constitution, that keeping the
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Speaker 4: state board of education as apolitical as possible is a
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Speaker 4: good thing. State board of education members are not elected.
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Speaker 4: They're appointed, I think, by the governor, but they're fairly
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Speaker 4: lengthy terms. And I believe they've got to have some,
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Speaker 4: it has to consist of members from both parties. So
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Speaker 4: that's the way it's set up. So we'll see how
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Speaker 4: that one comes out. We should hear about that one
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Speaker 4: here in the next couple months. And another interesting one
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Speaker 4: that you don't really think about, I've had to deal
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Speaker 4: with it a few times over the years, but churches
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Speaker 4: and their real property, their land, the building, who owns
14:22
Speaker 4: the church as far as the building and the structures
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Speaker 4: attached to the land? And you think, well, I guess
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Speaker 4: the members do. But, you know, members aren't really stockholders.
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Speaker 4: They can come and go as they please. And, of course,
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Speaker 4: they're hierarchies and bodies that elders, deacons, that kind of
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Speaker 4: thing that govern the individual churches. And then that all
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Speaker 4: filters up to most established religious organizations through a national framework.
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Speaker 4: And it's interesting. And where I've run into is doing
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Speaker 4: title work over the years. And churches in West Virginia
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Speaker 4: generally have, well, they have what's called trustees and usually
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Speaker 4: two or three individuals that are appointed trustees by the church.
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Speaker 4: And that's recorded in the record room, same place deeds are.
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Speaker 4: That way, if you need somebody to sign a deed
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Speaker 4: or something for a church, you know that, well, here's
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Speaker 4: the appointed trustees. They're the ones that have to sign
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Speaker 4: a deed. They have the authority under the statute in
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Speaker 4: West Virginia to do that. But the case, there's a
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Speaker 4: case on this subject. Well, and then generally, almost, without fail,
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Speaker 4: our court system will not get involved in the hierarchical
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Speaker 4: kind of governing structure of religious organizations because of the
15:49
Speaker 4: freedom of religion. So we're just not going to get
15:52
Speaker 4: into those title issues. So I've had some, a couple
15:56
Speaker 4: situations in my career where you're trying to figure out
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Speaker 4: who actually owns this now because the church isn't operational
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Speaker 4: and we've got a building sitting there on land and
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Speaker 4: you actually have to go and try and get Get
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Speaker 4: the governing documents from the national organization and have them
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Speaker 4: help you out and figure out who owns it now
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Speaker 4: and what happens with it and how do we dispose
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Speaker 4: of it. And the one pending before our Supreme Court now,
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Speaker 4: I think it's the Methodist Church. But there's a group
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Speaker 4: of individual congregations here in West Virginia. It's a number
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Speaker 4: of them. I think it's a dozen or more where
16:29
Speaker 4: they are– the members want to branch off from the
16:35
Speaker 4: national organization. But the national organization say, well, okay, I mean,
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Speaker 4: we can't make you be a member, but we own
16:42
Speaker 4: the land. Yeah, right. Yeah. And so, and that's based
16:46
Speaker 4: on established, you know, governing principles or documents with the,
16:52
Speaker 4: to the National Methodist Organization. So that was argued, I think, yesterday. Interesting, because,
16:59
Speaker 4: you know, there's a couple cases that, have established fairly
17:03
Speaker 4: clearly that the courts are not going to get involved
17:05
Speaker 4: in disputes about property or anything else in regard to
17:10
Speaker 4: the church hierarchy. And the churches are trying to spin
17:15
Speaker 4: it and say that there was some kind of fraud done.
17:17
Speaker 4: It takes it outside of the religious kind of exemption
17:19
Speaker 4: for courts to get involved. Hey, we got a call?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we have a caller that's called in
17:23
Speaker 1: this morning to talk to Tom Payton. Go ahead, caller.
17:25
Speaker 1: What's your first name? Bob. Hey there, Bob. What's going on?
17:29
Speaker 5: I wanted to ask Tom about the case with the
17:35
Speaker 5: Methodist church. My family were Methodist until they changed the discipline,
17:46
Speaker 5: and we left. My question is, when we joined the church,
17:53
Speaker 5: we agreed to support the church with our time together.
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Speaker 5: and our ties to live by the rules spelled out
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Speaker 5: in the discipline. The discipline is, I guess, the rule
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Speaker 5: book for the Methodist Church. Well, the problem started two
18:20
Speaker 5: years ago when the national hierarchy decided that that they
18:27
Speaker 5: would change the discipline to make gay marriage okay and
18:34
Speaker 5: to make clergy who are gay eligible to be clergy.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 1: And that's the dispute in the case.
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Speaker 4: I mean, it's not really the core issue in that
18:47
Speaker 4: Supreme Court case, but it's the underlying reason, I think,
18:52
Speaker 4: for the dispute.
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Speaker 5: Well, if we joined the church and agreed to live
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Speaker 5: by the discipline, and the church changed the discipline with
19:05
Speaker 5: things that we disagree with, don't we have a, for
19:10
Speaker 5: lack of a better way to put it, don't we
19:13
Speaker 5: have a breach of contract there with the church?
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Speaker 4: Well, they have a breach of contract case, I think,
19:23
Speaker 4: you know, because it's not, there's not really consideration back
19:27
Speaker 4: and forth for something like that. But you have a
19:31
Speaker 4: right to certainly leave the church. But when you become
19:34
Speaker 4: a member, you also, I think, consent to, it's just
19:41
Speaker 4: sort of like being a citizen of the United States
19:44
Speaker 4: in a way, although that's not going to be a
19:45
Speaker 4: great analogy because you have property rights and things like that.
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Speaker 4: But you do it as you know kind of assent
19:53
Speaker 4: to the not just what the individual members do to
19:58
Speaker 4: govern that particular church but you also agree to abide
20:02
Speaker 4: by what happens on the national level which I'm not
20:07
Speaker 4: familiar with I'm not intimately familiar with how the Methodist
20:11
Speaker 4: church works as far as representatives from certain regions or
20:14
Speaker 4: certain churches that get to the national level that can
20:16
Speaker 4: influence policy. But there's a body there that's making policy,
20:23
Speaker 4: and so I think you're just subject to that. Now,
20:26
Speaker 4: that's not the fraud that's being argued at the Supreme Court.
20:30
Speaker 4: What the national church did, seeing this coming, as I understand,
20:37
Speaker 4: they opened a window for churches to, if you do X, Y,
20:42
Speaker 4: and Z, because I think because of this very issue
20:45
Speaker 4: Bob's referencing, then we'll go ahead and relinquish ownership of
20:51
Speaker 4: the property, the land and the building to this new
20:56
Speaker 4: kind of independent, I guess, church or whatever it became
20:58
Speaker 4: after it was separated from the National Association. And so
21:05
Speaker 4: the folks that filed the lawsuit, the local congregations are
21:10
Speaker 4: claiming that there was misrepresentations made in that process, which
21:14
Speaker 4: caused them to miss that the window was for a
21:16
Speaker 4: limited period of time. So say you could do all
21:19
Speaker 4: these different requirements and it had to be done by
21:23
Speaker 4: some date in 2023. Their argument is, not Bob's argument,
21:27
Speaker 4: but their argument is that, well, in that process, things
21:30
Speaker 4: were misrepresented to us, and so we missed that window.
21:34
Speaker 4: And so their lawyer is arguing that, well, this is
21:38
Speaker 4: not anything to do with, courts invading the governance of
21:44
Speaker 4: religious organizations, this is a fraud case. And trying to
21:48
Speaker 4: pull it out of that kind of realm and get
21:51
Speaker 4: it out into a like a fraud type scenario where
21:56
Speaker 4: misrepresentations were made by X, Y, and Z that caused
22:00
Speaker 4: the local congregation to lose their right to own their
22:04
Speaker 4: land and their physical church. So, I don't know if
22:07
Speaker 4: that answers Bob's question, more of a conversation, but But yeah,
22:11
Speaker 4: it's interesting. So we'll see how that comes out. You know,
22:15
Speaker 4: trying to predict is difficult, but I would say, you know,
22:20
Speaker 4: the court will probably lean on not interfering with this one,
22:24
Speaker 4: unless there's something really, I mean, fraud's a serious, can be,
22:28
Speaker 4: I mean, it's an intentional misrepresentation to kind of trick
22:33
Speaker 4: someone and deprive the local congregation of their property. And it's,
22:37
Speaker 4: there's good evidence of it. The court might entertain that. Otherwise,
22:40
Speaker 4: I think this is probably going to go the way
22:41
Speaker 4: of the other disputes. I mean, I think there was
22:44
Speaker 4: a case that started in the nineties and you go
22:46
Speaker 4: back to maybe the seventies and it's, I think the
22:50
Speaker 4: court's going to want to revisit that interfering in or,
22:54
Speaker 4: or getting involved in the governing of the religious organizations.
22:59
Speaker 4: But if there's some sort of fraud, then, then that,
23:03
Speaker 4: that may put, I don't know what the underlying evidence
23:06
Speaker 4: is specifically about what It supports the fraud allegations, but
23:11
Speaker 4: we'll monitor it and see how it comes out. But
23:13
Speaker 4: an interesting issue, I thought. Hey, we've got to take
23:15
Speaker 4: a break. Yeah, we're going to do that. We're going
23:16
Speaker 4: to take our break. You can get in like Bob did.
23:18
Speaker 4: That leaves the phone line open for you, 304-345-5850. If
23:20
Speaker 4: you want to talk to Tom Payton from the Payton
23:22
Speaker 4: Law Firm, just kind of talking about topics that come
23:24
Speaker 4: up this morning. But if you have a specific question
23:26
Speaker 4: that you have for Tom about how the law and
23:28
Speaker 4: how it deals with you and how the Payton Law
23:29
Speaker 4: Firm can help you out, Give us a call this morning, 304-345-5858, 345-5858.
23:31
Speaker 1: You can also text. Text line number is 304-935-5008, 304-935-5008.
23:33
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23:34
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23:36
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23:38
Speaker 1: the Lawyer with the Payton Law Firm. Tom Payton is here.
23:51
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23:54
Speaker 1: break and be back right after this. I'm Dale Cooper.
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25:13
Speaker 1: to The Voice of Charleston, 580 WCHS. Thanks so much
25:15
Speaker 1: for tuning in. To ask the lawyer, Tom Payton is
25:17
Speaker 1: here from the Payton Law Firm online, paytonlawfirm.com. We have
25:20
Speaker 1: a phone call that just came in to talk to Tom.
25:23
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
25:23
Speaker 3: You're on the air.
25:23
Speaker 1: What's your first name, caller?
25:24
Speaker 2: Hey, Jim here.
25:26
Speaker 1: Hey there, Jim. What's going on?
25:28
Speaker 2: Well, I contacted the Payton Law Firm by email, and
25:33
Speaker 2: I got the answer that I expected. But I was
25:36
Speaker 2: involved in an accident about a month and a half
25:39
Speaker 2: ago on Quarter G. I was in the left-hand lane,
25:44
Speaker 2: the passing lane, at the top of the hill at
25:48
Speaker 2: Oakwood Road where the stoplight is. There was a woman
25:52
Speaker 2: in front of me, and behind me came an emergency
25:58
Speaker 2: vehicle with lights and sirens. So all of the traffic
26:04
Speaker 2: in the right lane did not move because... They were
26:08
Speaker 2: directly beside this emergency vehicle, so they stopped. The only
26:14
Speaker 2: way for him to get through us was for me
26:17
Speaker 2: and the lady in front of me to move out
26:20
Speaker 2: of his way. So she and I both, when the
26:24
Speaker 2: light turned green, we both took off. I immediately tried
26:31
Speaker 2: to pull over into the right lane to get out
26:34
Speaker 2: of his way. The lady in front of me stopped
26:39
Speaker 2: dead at that point. So I hit her in her
26:44
Speaker 2: right-hand corner, and I went down. I was on a motorcycle.
26:49
Speaker 2: I went down, and the paramedic who was in the
26:53
Speaker 2: emergency vehicle rushed up to me, and the rest is history.
26:58
Speaker 2: But the lady went ahead and contacted my insurance company
27:04
Speaker 2: to pay for her which were probably normally pretty slight,
27:11
Speaker 2: but in this day and age, every little bump costs $ 1, 000,
27:15
Speaker 2: you know. But, you know, I've always heard that if
27:20
Speaker 2: you hit someone in the rear 99.999% of the time,
27:25
Speaker 2: it's your fault, and there's no way out of it.
27:28
Speaker 2: All right, I understand that. But I feel that at worst,
27:33
Speaker 2: this was... a 50-50 situation where she should have taken
27:39
Speaker 2: responsibility for stopping dead in front of me in front
27:44
Speaker 2: of an emergency vehicle, and I should have not been
27:50
Speaker 2: as close as I was to her trying to get
27:53
Speaker 2: out of the way of the emergency vehicle. So, you know,
27:59
Speaker 2: my question was, If an emergency vehicle is behind you
28:05
Speaker 2: and you can move out of its way, would you
28:09
Speaker 2: stop dead in front of it and block it? But
28:15
Speaker 2: that doesn't seem to fly in this day and age
28:18
Speaker 2: because you hit them from the rear, right? So anyway,
28:22
Speaker 2: I just thought that, you know, there should be some
28:26
Speaker 2: instances where where a situation like this puts blame on
28:31
Speaker 2: both people instead of just one. And that's my story,
28:35
Speaker 2: and I'm sticking to it.
28:36
Speaker 4: Right. And that's—I remember our conversation about this, and I
28:40
Speaker 4: can't remember everything I said. But that's a good example
28:44
Speaker 4: of— and if it's 50-50 in West Virginia now, the legislature
28:50
Speaker 4: changed the law about 10 years ago. Each side would— like,
28:53
Speaker 4: let's say you were hurt physically significantly, and it got litigated.
28:58
Speaker 4: And then a jury would ultimately listen to both sides.
29:02
Speaker 4: I mean, probably would get to a jury and have
29:05
Speaker 4: a jury decide. And when juries decide this, it's not
29:08
Speaker 4: black and white, meaning you don't pick person A or
29:12
Speaker 4: person B. They'll assign, if they think both folks suffered
29:15
Speaker 4: some or were guilty of some negligence, then they'll sign
29:18
Speaker 4: a percentage. And if it comes out 50-50, then, for example,
29:23
Speaker 4: you would get half your medical bills back. And, of course,
29:27
Speaker 4: the other person could have a counterclaim on the same issue. But,
29:31
Speaker 4: you know, that's an interesting scenario. You know, you don't—and
29:35
Speaker 4: the other problem is that that may have been frustrating
29:38
Speaker 4: to you. I can't remember, but, you know— your automobile
29:40
Speaker 4: insurance controls whether they pay claims uh ultimately in west
29:47
Speaker 4: virginia so you you can pound your fist uh against
29:52
Speaker 4: the wall as hard as you want saying it wasn't
29:54
Speaker 4: your fault but if your insurance company decides we're not
29:56
Speaker 4: going to fight this we're going to go ahead and
29:58
Speaker 4: pay to have her vehicle fixed as if it were
30:00
Speaker 4: your fault, then you don't have any control over that,
30:04
Speaker 4: which there's a lot of frustration there. But you are generally,
30:08
Speaker 4: I mean, as a general matter, hitting somebody from behind, it's,
30:14
Speaker 4: you know, you have a duty not to fall too
30:16
Speaker 4: closely and pay attention. Now, you had kind of a
30:20
Speaker 4: more unique situation. I One, obviously, you should be getting
30:27
Speaker 4: out of the way of the emergency vehicle, not stopping
30:30
Speaker 4: in front of it. That's so you have somebody that's
30:34
Speaker 4: maybe stopping rather quickly in front of you in a
30:37
Speaker 4: place that makes absolutely no sense. I mean, there's, you know, so,
30:41
Speaker 4: you know, I think there a jury could easily find
30:44
Speaker 4: it 50 50. The problem is probably what our conversation
30:48
Speaker 4: involved was if it's a, you know, property damage, motorcycles
30:52
Speaker 4: damaged or vehicles damaged. no significant injuries, which I hope
30:56
Speaker 4: there weren't, then you can't, you know, jury trial is
31:00
Speaker 4: not like going on Judge Judy. I mean, it can
31:03
Speaker 4: cost some money, filing fees and other things. And, of course,
31:07
Speaker 4: the attorneys end up putting significant amounts of time in those,
31:10
Speaker 4: especially if you end up at a jury trial. So,
31:14
Speaker 4: although an interesting factual situation, I tend to agree with you,
31:19
Speaker 4: but you just can't afford to litigate some of those. Now,
31:23
Speaker 4: somebody was hurt significantly. That's the kind of thing you
31:26
Speaker 4: see play out. In fact, there was a wrongful death
31:27
Speaker 4: case here just a couple of years ago that settled
31:33
Speaker 4: where there was a, you know, the interstates have minimum
31:36
Speaker 4: speeds and one of these trucks was just barely, barely moving.
31:40
Speaker 4: And the vehicle behind it hit it, hit the truck
31:42
Speaker 4: from behind and killed the passenger in the vehicle. And
31:45
Speaker 4: that case was settled in favor of the family of
31:49
Speaker 4: the person who was killed in that vehicle. So there
31:52
Speaker 4: are exceptions to the general rule that if you hit
31:56
Speaker 4: somebody from behind, it's universally the person from behind's fault,
32:00
Speaker 4: but they're rare. So I, I, I agree with the
32:03
Speaker 4: caller on that one, but yeah, that would be, you know,
32:07
Speaker 4: if you have callers out there listening to you and then,
32:09
Speaker 4: you know, it doesn't have to be 50, 50. I've
32:11
Speaker 4: had cases where jurors come back. It just has to
32:13
Speaker 4: equal a hundred percent fault. If they find both, both people, uh,
32:18
Speaker 4: can had some negligence. And if it's 10%, one person's fault, 90%,
32:21
Speaker 4: the others, then, let's just take medical bills, then you
32:27
Speaker 4: would only recover 90% of your medical bills if the
32:32
Speaker 4: other person was 90% at fault. And that's where I've
32:34
Speaker 4: seen percentages all over the place. The jurors are told
32:39
Speaker 4: how it works. So I've had a couple cases over
32:41
Speaker 4: my career, difficult cases where the juror, when it used
32:46
Speaker 4: to be you had to get more than 50% on
32:49
Speaker 4: the other person, or if it was 50-50, you lost,
32:52
Speaker 4: you didn't get anything. where jurors would come back 49,
32:54
Speaker 4: 51% in favor of my client. They know exactly what
32:57
Speaker 4: they're doing. You know, well, this is maybe 50, 50,
33:01
Speaker 4: but we want to.
33:02
Speaker 1: Showing a little bit of.
33:03
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. This is a, well put one more percent
33:06
Speaker 4: over here. And then, and then they're told, and then
33:08
Speaker 4: the judge goes and reduces the damages after the fact.
33:11
Speaker 4: And I've, I've always been real careful on those where
33:14
Speaker 4: there might be negligence on both sides to make sure
33:16
Speaker 4: the jurors understand exactly how that works when I'm representing plaintiffs.
33:21
Speaker 4: But that's an interesting scenario.
33:22
Speaker 5: Yeah.
33:22
Speaker 1: Appreciate your phone call, Jim. And just a couple minutes
33:24
Speaker 1: left here. So we've got a text message in that
33:26
Speaker 1: kind of ties into this relatively well. So, Tom, speaking
33:30
Speaker 1: of wrongful death case, this comes from the 304552. Tom,
33:33
Speaker 1: speaking of a wrongful death case, are there any updates
33:37
Speaker 1: with the Angela Bourne case? Deployment of the spike strips
33:40
Speaker 1: with adjacent traffic seemed particularly egregious and not in the
33:43
Speaker 1: best interest of public safety. That's that accident that happened.
33:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know exactly what it is. It was actually
33:49
Speaker 4: she's I think grew up in St. Albans, but was
33:51
Speaker 4: living out in Clendenin maybe. But this is where there
33:53
Speaker 4: was a– I know we're running out of time, but
33:57
Speaker 4: police were chasing a vehicle. I mean, it was deemed
34:00
Speaker 4: a stolen vehicle, but I think it was a young
34:02
Speaker 4: person that had taken like his grandparents' car or something.
34:05
Speaker 4: But then there were– it was a chase on the interstate,
34:10
Speaker 4: high speed with spike strips laid out at Christmas. we
34:14
Speaker 4: weren't hired for that case. So I'm not involved in it.
34:16
Speaker 4: So I'm just seeing what's, what's on the news. And
34:18
Speaker 4: I'm not sure which law enforcement agency even laid out
34:20
Speaker 4: the spike strips, but you know, the allegations are negligence
34:24
Speaker 4: by law enforcement and putting spike strips out. And maybe
34:28
Speaker 4: it's continuing a chase like that at high speed and
34:30
Speaker 4: a high traffic area on the interstate. When, I mean,
34:33
Speaker 4: you don't have somebody that relatively low stakes.
34:36
Speaker 6: Yeah.
34:36
Speaker 4: No, he hadn't just robbed a bank or shot somebody
34:39
Speaker 4: or something like that. So that's, you know, I think that's,
34:41
Speaker 4: there's some questions there, but they're, Where it was going,
34:45
Speaker 4: as I understand, the last thing I saw was there's
34:47
Speaker 4: some allegations by law enforcement that, you know, there's immunity
34:51
Speaker 4: for certain actions and discretionary actions by government officials. And
34:55
Speaker 4: so there's an argument to try and have the case
34:58
Speaker 4: dismissed based upon.
34:59
Speaker 6: Is.
35:01
Speaker 1: That phone or qualified immunity? It's the same thing?
35:03
Speaker 4: Qualified immunity is one. And then there's, you know, other
35:07
Speaker 4: immunities for the state officials if there's state police involved.
35:11
Speaker 4: But— and then there's—yeah. So— I think it's still just pending.
35:16
Speaker 4: I haven't heard of any settlement. I'm sure we would
35:17
Speaker 4: have heard about that. There's some legal issues that I
35:21
Speaker 4: understand were briefed, but I haven't. It hasn't been dismissed,
35:25
Speaker 4: at least not as to all parties that were sued.
35:29
Speaker 4: I don't believe because I probably would have heard about
35:32
Speaker 4: that one. But yeah, it's a terrible case. Anyway, Ms.
35:34
Speaker 4: Bourne was not involved in it at all. She was
35:37
Speaker 4: just driving on the interstate. I think when they put
35:39
Speaker 4: the spike strips down, it caused the person that was
35:42
Speaker 4: running from the police to switch lanes or something and
35:45
Speaker 4: unfortunately hit her car who, you know, and then I
35:49
Speaker 4: think it caught on fire and she passed away, unfortunately. But,
35:54
Speaker 4: but yeah, we'll, you know, I do keep abreast of
35:56
Speaker 4: that one on the headlines because it happened in Putnam County.
35:59
Speaker 4: And of course it was a woman from St. Albans, but,
36:02
Speaker 4: but if we get any new news on that one
36:04
Speaker 4: that I'm aware of, I'll certainly pass it on here,
36:07
Speaker 4: but it's still pending as far as I know.
36:09
Speaker 1: Don't forget Peyton Law from every Monday right here on
36:12
Speaker 1: 580 WCHS Ask the Lawyer. Not Monday. Thursday. Why don't
36:16
Speaker 1: I say Monday? We can switch to Monday if you want.
36:18
Speaker 1: You've only been doing it for a couple decades here.
36:20
Speaker 1: I don't know how I could get that wrong.
36:21
Speaker 4: We were Wednesday when we first started.
36:23
Speaker 1: That's right. I remember the last Wednesday shows, I believe.
36:25
Speaker 1: I think I remember when it switched over to Thursday.
36:28
Speaker 4: A decade ago.
36:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, right. But every Thursday, Peyton Law Firm right
36:31
Speaker 1: here on 580 WCHS, part of Ask the Expert. Anything
36:36
Speaker 1: you want to tell folks before we get out of here?
36:37
Speaker 1: We have about 35 seconds or so. These calls are
36:40
Speaker 1: good on the automobile accidents.
36:41
Speaker 4: And just like the caller, if you have an issue,
36:44
Speaker 4: even if it's a case we don't take because you're not.