Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 07/13/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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07/13/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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one and this is five A w CHS The Voice of Charleston. Good Thursday
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morning. I'm Jeff Jenkins with Tom Peyton of the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
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That means lines are open for you to give a call to Tom about
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a legal issue. Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
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h four three four or five fifty a fifty eight. You've got a question
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about a property boundary issue. You've got a question about injury and from an
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accident, all of those things and more. Thomas here to take your questions.
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Hey, you going good? How are you doing? Jo? I'm
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doing well? Go ahead to be here? Yeah? Place to go is
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Nitro? Are you getting them here? But yeah, boundary disputes. We
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do a lot of civil litigation fighting against automobile insurance companies on behalf of regular
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people and folks that get physically hurt or or financially hurt. So we do
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a lot of different things. And if you have a question about something,
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feel free to give us a call here. But if you want to make
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an inquiry not on the radio, then you can and send us a message
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right through our website, comes right to our lawyers, actual lawyers computers,
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and then we respond that same day or the next day if we can or
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can you give us a call at the office at three or four seven five
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five five five five six or good Nitro stop by town eight one first avenue
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for st Avenue is the main drag through Nitros. So you got the ruroad
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tracks on one side and then our office on the other side. And you
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know we're not always available when you just happen to stop buy but staff should
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be there between eight and five and they can answer some of your basic questions
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or convey a message to me. And if Dad or are there, then
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we'll be glad to come out and chat with you for a few minutes see
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if we can help you out. Most of what a call don't ultimately need
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a lawyers need a little information, and we do a lot of different things,
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so we can generally help in a lot of wide variety of matters.
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If we can't, we've been around long enough. We generally have a network
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of attorneys that we're acquainted with that we can send you to if you do
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something that's really complicated to state planning, for example, involves the state tax
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issues. Now, unfortunately, I don't have very many clients that have that
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issue because you know, there's really no there is no state tax in West
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Virginia, and then there's a large exemption currently under the federal state tax.
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I think it's like twelve million dollars or something like that, so you don't
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have to worry about a state Most of my clients don't have to worry about
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a state tax. People ask about it and wonder about it, but it's
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something we don't really do much with But yeah, Will's deeds do decent amount
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of socecurity, disability, most of the things that regular people need. Don't
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do bankruptcy, you don't do income tax work. But beyond that, we
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generally can can handle it. But again, the most significant part of our
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scope of work or folks have been hurt in some way, a lot of
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automobile accident cases, tractor trailer cases, things like that. Yeah, I
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and another thing, and Tom won't talk about this there neither worries to add
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Harvey. But another thing the Painton Law Firm does is community investment. So
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over the years there's just been a lot of investment in the community, community
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events, community efforts, programs, run participated in things around the community.
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Because I mean, that's kind of one of the reasons we do a lot
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of different things and don't just have people costs. Say now we do injury
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work. Only we could do that, I mean, we could get by,
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We might even make more money if we did that. But you know,
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you feel it. I just think it's probably old school and it's how
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Dad is too. You know, the lawyers in a suburberrey and folks need
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a lawyer. Regular folks that if they didn't have somebody answering these general questions,
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they would be at a disadvantage in what they're trying to do. And
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so we're not doing that. And then you know, we just kind of
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made a we don't have a whole lot of billboards. We obviously do a
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lot of radio advertising with w VRC, that's right, that's right, and
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have for a long time, and we like it obviously, or we would
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change, but we don't put a lot of money and we don't have any
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TV ads right now. So we kind of steer some of that money into
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community, community involvement, and we like to do what we can. We
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sponsor a whole slew of different sports teams and local y and things like that,
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and then we try and get involved too. Yeah, you know,
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everybody's busy, and but if you're a professional out there and you have some
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knowledge or experience, it's helpful. It's good to you know, we try
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and serve on local boards and one state bar board right now. You know,
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it was on local private club, but it's all the golf club.
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You know, ran that board for five years and now I'm actually the president
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or the chairperson of the d want Try County Y MCA down Scott Depot.
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We're doing really good things down there, trying to get things, uh upgraded
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and improving. So yeah, we mean it's important to do that. We
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enjoy doing that. So it's it's twofold and actually self interesting wise. Obviously,
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getting signs out in sponsorships for local folks um close to the geographic area
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of our offices is also advertising in a way, but at least it gives
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you a well you're in the community and more eastern one. It's just a
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physical building, but it's invested, all right. Joe's on the line with
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Tom Peyton. Joe, thanks for calling. Go here. You're on with
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Tom. Morning felt Joe. You got a little bit of you're hoping.
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Oh hang up, turn off your radio if you're listening to your radio.
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Okay, go ahead, just talk to that might be better there. Okay,
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Um, Harvey ahead, is a question for you on proper populne excuse
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the proper line. Yeah, I got a family property has been in the
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family for two hundred years. Um, A main boundary on the property that's
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been there for two hundred years, and there's a fence that's it's well over
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one hundred years old and its established line at property. Yeah done, I
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surveyed method's two hundred years ago. Right, That fence line has been the
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established line between the two properties for all that as long as I can remember,
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my grandfather can remember his father. They come in survey it and with
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new modern survey methods this and that it shows that's property line is off.
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Fence line is probably thirteen hundred fourteen undred feet long, is off by five
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or six feet. There's the fence line hold presidents because it was an established
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line by the old survey methods. And how does that hold up in litigational
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property lines? Yeah, so it's it's factually specific. So it's hard to
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tell for sure. But first of all, surveying is all the properties in
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State of Westernia, for example land. Unfortunately, if you look at all
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the legal descriptions and deeds or whatever the source of the title is, they're
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not going to match up like puzzle pieces all the time. It'd be nice
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if they did, but you're going to have overlaps and that kind of thing
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because it wasn't put together like patchwork. And so when you have those situations,
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usually the surveyors will get together. If there's competing surveys, see if
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they can work something out between their their clients who ever hired them now in
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relation if they can't, which is maybe where you are. There's there's a
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hierarchy for determining a boundary and really important. I don't know how if you
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have a fence that would be lasting two hundred years, but I guess if
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it keeps getting repaired over and over again. But monuments are really important in
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legal descriptions. So if that fence was referenced in some of those original deeds
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you're talking eighteen hundreds, I guess or nineteen hundred, then that's pretty definitive
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that that's where the line is. Without talking to the surveyor, I don't
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know, but to get a line different than what it's been for the last
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two hundred years, if it was described the way it was using the described
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using the fence as a boundary. Surveys can change over time. One you
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know, a lot of the old descriptions will say like with the meanders of
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a creek, which of course that changes over time. Actually, if you
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use magnetic north, I mean north changes a little bit over time, which
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can change angles on the surveys. So what you're saying isn't isn't unusual?
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Now if in fact, you and your family and the adjoining property owner over
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time have always considered that fence the boundary, so that whatever the nature of
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the land is, somebody on your side equation so you, but even in
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history, have used that area as if they owned it openly. Obviously where
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it would it appear, you know, somebody else claiming it should take some
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action to remove you as a trespasser or at least reach some agreement. Then
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your side of the equation probably owns up to that fence line by what's called
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adverse possession anyway, and you know you got to have that kind of use
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for ten years. Sounds like this extends way beyond that, depending on the
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nature of the property there. If it's a forest, it's a little more
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difficult. But again the fence helps you with that. Who's been maintaining the
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fence. So based on what you've told me, I think you're probably going
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to be okay. The problem is I can tell you to on blue in
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the face that it's my opinion that you own it by adverse possession. That's
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not going to be good enough. To get good title to you. You
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will have to if the other side won't agree, and you know, do
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another survey noting the fence is the line and some deed work to clarify that.
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Since there's now apparently a controversy, then you've got to file a lawsuit
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to try and prove adverse possession. And that's the only way really to get
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ownership via adverse possession. You know, lawyer can't just do I can't write
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in my title letter to you, oh yeah, but you know there's a
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boundary issue. But you know he owns it by adverse possession, So I
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think it's good to get Banks aren't going to rely on that, purchasers aren't
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going to rely on that. You've got to go to court and get it
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established absent some agreement with your neighbor. Now, just because a survey came
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up that way doesn't necessarily mean there's a controversy. I mean, if it's
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recorded, then it creates a problem because the public's they're seeing it and seeing
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this boundary that's different than what you believe is the actual boundary. All that
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can be straightened out if you talk to the neighbor. I guess are the
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joining property enders and see if you can just reach some agreement on where the
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boundary line should be, and then a supplemental survey can be done, probably
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by the same surveyor, and it it get recorded and some d work done
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to clarify that this gray area or the area in dispute is in fact from
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the fence over by your side and fence the other way by the other side.
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So you're I think in the long run, based on what you've told
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me, you should be fine. There's a lot of factors for adverse possession
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and there's some defenses, so it's not something easy to say you own it
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by that, but you certainly have at least the minimal evidence needed to sort
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of claim of adverse possession. And if everyone has relied upon that fence line
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as the boundary over decades, then you should be fine in the long run.
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Okay, you have help. Do you think jokes that help? Yeah?
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Sure does appreciate it. Thank you, ask thanks to line all right
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eight thirty two on five eighths the voice of Charleston. Tom Payton's with us,
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and you can call like Joe did and Tom can answer your call three
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h four three four five fifty eight fifty eight, three oh four three four
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five fifty eight fifty eight and the lines are open, will tick her one
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and only break and backing them on with Tom Payton here on five eighty w
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of patent on your side, the power of paton It's a thirty five on
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five eight wcaj as divorce. The Charleston lines are open. Three or four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight three h four three four five fifty eight
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fifty eight. Jeff Jenkins with you and Tom Payton of the Payton Law Firm
15:28
in Nitro and Tom can take your calls. Okay. The big illegal news
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of the of the since last since Saturday night when I got got some from
15:37
a nine thirty on Saturday night, received some information that Bob Huggins had informed
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w VU by letter from a Cleveland attorney, David Campbell, that he indeed
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did not resign and was demanding reinstatement. And then immediately I think ww received
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the letter on Friday or late on Friday, but w didn't release any of
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that until they had their response at the same time, which is probably smart
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to do, and they released both of those at the same time. Then
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we've had some another letter or another response. But anyway, Yeah, people
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know the gist of the star. Interesting legal issue. Yeah, I think
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it was Bob Huggins made his first appearance in court when I was here last
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Thursday. I don't know, so back to Yeah, he had got to
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do I charged, So what he's going to get out of it? He
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had made it, Yeah, July third is when he made it and wave
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the prelimb okay, But then there was this talk about this alternate resolution.
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Yeah, I think I think that's gonna happened, so that let's talk about
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that first a little bit. Of course, that doesn't mean something didn't happen.
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It doesn't change the facts. Just because he would ultimately have his criminal
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charge dismissed. Um, I'm kind of surprised they'll let him do it,
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and with that high blood alcohol level. But Pennsylvania's law, so in West
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Virginia we have the same macchanism for it, and I'm not sure Pennsylvania is
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DUI specific or just non violent crime specific. It made us be for everybody.
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As a nonvolent crime, you get some kind of pre trial diversion.
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But in West Virginia you have to blow blow a point one five on the
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toximeter thing. So Bob Huggins blue point to one. Now, if you
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can argue it was invalid for some reason to level, then you can get
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down below. In West Virginia if you and if you have a first offense,
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then you can do the same thing Bob Huggins is doing. Basically,
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you concede and have consequences with your driver's license and you have um a treatment.
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Um of course you've got to go to. Now, Westernia doesn't require
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any type of impatie. I'm not I'm still unclear where Bob Huggins is or
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went for his quote rehabilitation. It was like a state it's an out of
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state impatient. Impatient he's staying there. Yeah, so that's that's not required
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in West Virginia. But you have to take what they call the DUI treatment
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course. It's offered by a few eid or see. I mean that says
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where Pennsylvania requires in there something like that. But he's gonna beyond that,
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he's gonna be okay. Okay. So then then if you do that and
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you wait a year and you don't get any more trouble, Um, you've
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done your license restriction. Um, then you get you can come back to
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court and have the d UI dismissed and it actually expunged, so it doesn't
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show when your criminal record anymore. It still shows when you're driving record where
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you had your license revoked for a period of time because of it, but
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that doesn't change the other length facts of what happened. I mean, it
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still happened. What happened. So anyway, UM, now we got this
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I guess are we call it a new attorney because since his resignation Rocky Genola,
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which I think used to play football at W long years ago, he's
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been I guess Huggins attorney and a lot of dealings with W. And then
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we got Bob fitz Simmons, who I think Svember the Willing area that's also
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represented Bob Huggins dealing with the university and they're basically working out the logistics of
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the retirement dered deferred payments under the contract, etc. Then all of a
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sudden, we get a letter from some lawyer from Cleveland that Bob Huggins has
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apparently hired, claiming, well, he didn't really retire, And I've read
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his letters and I've read w has a Stephanie Taylor and general account. Yeah,
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and I've been really impressed with her letters because you know, maybe it's
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just your style, but it's pretty, it's real straightforward. And if you
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think you have a claim to tell us, why because you don't based on
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what you just told us, basically is what she's saying, and this is
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not going to get anywhere on behalf of mister Huggins, I don't believe.
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So. Basically, the lawyers saying that this contract requires mister Huggins to send
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in his resignation to particular individuals in a right or large essentially nonprofit government quasi
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governmental organization. He's got to send it to two particular individuals, one of
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the two, and it has to be by certified registered mail, and the
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contract references that on notices, and they have some specific language in relation to
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a resignation in that regard. But he's the lawyer's claiming that's the only way
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I guess he could resign or something, I'm not sure. And he's also
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claiming then if these statements put out attributed to Bob Huggins were not authorized by
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Bob Huggins. It's a misrepresentation what happened. It was basically a university lying
20:23
to the public about it. Then he's also complaining that I guess that he
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sent an email with the resignation information either typed into it or attached and happened
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to come from his wife's email address, which his new lawyer now criticized and
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says, well, that's unacceptable. But the problem is, and there's there's
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some gray area here because some of us he said, she said, But
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when Stephanie Titter went back, I mean she write types things in her letter
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that lead you to believe she is looking at screens of emails or texts where
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she's dealing with mister Huggins law at the time by the time he resigned and
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they are conversing obviously to one confirmed Bob Huggins is resigning, and to then
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put out public statements that are approved by Coach Huggins, so he they have
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information from his lawyer where the lawyer said, okay, in response to what
21:25
was the final draft, I mean there'd been other ones about the public statement
21:27
that was given and his lawyer says, okay, I think the lawyer for
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mister Huggins, I asked the university if they would accept an email letter from
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June Huggins email because Bob Huggins doesn't use email, which is a whole other
21:48
point in this day and age. But fine, I mean some people don't
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use email. I think that's almost impossible to do business very well if you
21:56
don't these days. But so then it was they permitted him to send it
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by email at his request, not and so then you go back. The
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contract says, well notice is sent certified me out of these individuals will be
22:11
sufficient. But somehow this lawyer in Cleveland thinks that means that it's insufficient unless
22:18
he sends certified mail. And that's not what the contract says. And the
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lawyer for Bob Huggins out of Cleveland cited like five or six cases. It
22:30
is kind of a launder list of case here that you've got to comply with
22:33
the specific terms of a contract. And well I looked up the first two
22:37
from out of state and there's completely different language, completely different factual scenarios.
22:42
I mean, you're talking about notices you got to give to cancel. You
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know, large commercial contracts involving commodities and the delivery of services and things,
22:51
and and you're and you're talking about cases where there's some dispute whether a person
22:59
really there's some gray area, and whether the one of the parties actually wanted
23:03
to take action. So the case, now, the five or so cases
23:08
he cited, only looked up the first two and they basically it's it didn't
23:14
take a snippet out of that case. It's a sentence and try and say
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it stands for a legal proposition, But when you read the actual case,
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it just doesn't. It's not synonymous with the facts of the Huggins matter,
23:29
so it's not going to really carry any weight. And I'm surprised a lawyer
23:33
with any experience, when they know the media is going to be reading it,
23:34
would even put something like that in a letter, because I think younger
23:40
lawyers kind of get stuck doing that sometimes. I mean, I was wanted
23:44
as well, But you have to go back and read the case and get
23:47
context for what you're trying to say, because just taking a sentence out of
23:51
a case doesn't mean it's going to have any real persuasive authority In relationship this
23:56
issue, But you know, I don't think it's going to go anywhere.
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I think I think there's Huggins would have a case here. A case doesn't
24:07
mean he would win. If there was some gray area about his resignation,
24:11
and if he said I'll just quit, and then the universe as aught we
24:15
overheard you say that, So that's your resignation, we accept it. Or
24:21
he sent an email saying maybe I'll you know, I'm just gonna quit rather
24:23
than face this, or or I'm going to resign, or something that's equivocal,
24:29
then he might have an argument, but he has no argument based on
24:33
the facts as I understand them. Yeah, they asked them, They asked
24:36
the Huggins people asked university for an example some language that should be used in
24:42
the resignation, right, and they gave it to him. Yeah, that's
24:47
it's. It's it's unless there's something I don't know. I hope this doesn't
24:51
get into litigation, because I think it's the university did nothing wrong in this
24:55
factual scenario as I understand it. The lawyer in Cleveland's trying to spend the
24:57
facts a certain way, but it's not going to work because the facts are
25:00
the facts, and then just look tom at the actions of Huggins. Sure,
25:07
so you got you got different. So, first of all, the
25:08
language of the contract if you read it specifically, and it has to specifically
25:12
be enforced, and there's no way in the world you can ever modify via
25:17
conduct, he's still going to lose because you know, some of these other
25:21
cases, even his own lawyer cited, have stricter mandatory like you shall give
25:26
notice of this particular event in this particular manner. That's not what it says
25:32
in this case. It says it will be sufficient. So if there was
25:34
an argument about whether they know if w wasn't willing to acknowledge his resignation too,
25:41
it's reverse it. They say, well, we never got that email
25:45
or something like that. Then Huggins would have wanted to have made sure he
25:49
sent it certified registered mail so he could enforce it against w VU. But
25:55
w has a right to waive that requirement, which they obviously did actually as
26:00
an accommodation to coach Huggins versus sitting there and have him do a letter,
26:06
have as a lawyer to a letter and send it certified mail. Right that
26:07
protects them more than him. I mean, it's further right, that's right.
26:11
It can go both ways, I guess, and but in this scenario,
26:15
it certainly protects them. And there was no question about his resignation,
26:18
so it's not necessary. So they're gonna lose, you know, Bob Huggins
26:23
will lose based on the language in the contract. Under this factual scenario,
26:27
then you have what you've been alluding to, which is other legal principles that
26:33
wouldn't allow him to enforce it anyway, because he's he should be what's called
26:37
a solid press type it stop. It's us stop e stopped. So when
26:41
you promise something or make statements or take actions that another person reasonably relies upon
26:48
and then to their detriment, they've so Huggins has represented. And when you
26:52
when you have a lawyer that is clearly your lawyer and has been for time
26:56
for some time, and you have a third party like the university, relying
27:00
on what your lawyer says, and they have no reason to believe that lawyer
27:03
doesn't have authority, you're pretty much stuck with it what your lawyer says,
27:07
because the third party has to be able to rely on what your attorney says
27:10
or else will never get anything done because W really can't contact Huggins directly once
27:15
he knows he's got a lawyer handling this matter. So when the lawyer says,
27:19
okay, this is good or makes representations on behalf of mister Huggins,
27:23
WU is entitled to rely upon that unless they have reason to believe it's the
27:27
lawyers a fraud or something, and then it Huggins relief would then be go
27:30
back against your own lawyers, so that they did something you didn't have authority
27:33
for, you can sue him, I guess for all these problems. So
27:37
that's why you see in the language of ww's response, his long standing attorney
27:41
right, yeah, there was no this is not submit popped out of woodwork
27:44
where they needed to confirm is this guy really represent Bob Huggins. No,
27:48
So they're they're perfectly legally permitted to rely upon what Bob Huggins attorneys are saying
27:56
to them. So he can't just disavow what is a lawyers say and say
28:00
it doesn't mean anything. And his lawyers clearly agreed to the language of the
28:04
resignation letter and we're solidifying the resignation. So because w's relied on all that.
28:11
Now we've had it's been twenty some days or whatever, they've taken a
28:15
lot of action and reliance upon that. That legal principle of a stopple is
28:19
gonna, in my opinion, allowed W to win this case right off the
28:23
bat. Anyway, So you've got the contract language, you got stopple,
28:27
you got W, you know, waiving via their conduct as well any potential
28:34
obligation there was to send a more formal notice via certified male. I mean
28:40
that's the And Stephen Taylor points out by asking questions about this lawyers, So
28:44
I mean, was June Huggins just impersonating or I mean doing something shouldn't have
28:49
authority to do and his lawyers were also doing something they didn't have authority to
28:53
do. I mean, that's all what's going to come about if we're getting
28:56
a lawsuit, because there's people's depositions will be taken. I mean to testify
29:00
the oath about what happened, and I think it's just going to be a
29:03
monumental waste of time. It's in the NaSTA. Was a USA Today article
29:07
yesterday the day before made it look awful. I just I'm disappointed in it.
29:12
I don't know, maybe they're lawyer in Cleveland, they know more than
29:15
me about it, and maybe I don't think it's an attempt to extract extra
29:19
money from the university. If it is, he might be a successful there.
29:22
I guess if they don't want to deal with this litigation. I don't
29:26
get the feeling that you know, W's attitudes that they're going to pay anything
29:32
as a result of these letters being sent by his lawyer. But there,
29:36
you know I've seen of course, you read social media stuff and you want
29:38
to I mean, I like, you know, I guess you get a
29:42
lot of people that still want to Bob Huggins to stay around. I don't
29:45
think that could really happen in the real world under the circumstances, at least
29:48
not for now and now never. He'll never be able to come back,
29:52
I don't. Yeah, and and and say that in some way that they
30:00
Huggins would win, and you laid out the case of White can't and won't
30:03
on the resignation side, well then they could just fire it, right,
30:08
Yeah. I mean, I don't know what it says in the contract about
30:11
that, but I think when they amended his contract, what I got from
30:15
you know, when he had the who do the thing he did about Catholics
30:18
homophobic commental Cincinnati radio. That's right. So I guess he voluntarily agreed to
30:26
amend his contract terms. And I understand there was some language in there that
30:30
gave him maybe you know, you don't get any more strikes for example,
30:34
But there could be some good cause element to them terminating his contract. And
30:40
I think they would easily prove that under this scenario, because whether his dui
30:44
has dismissed has not changed the underlying facts, which some of them are pretty
30:48
objective and some of those are pretty bad. So use I remember he was
30:55
also in a in a vehicle least by his employer, in his employer's name
31:00
at the time. This is happening too, so there's there's a lot.
31:03
I mean, I don't think he wants to get into that. So what's
31:06
the play here? I mean, this is just is it? I mean,
31:08
you would think the Cleveland lawyer would know, you would think right that
31:12
this is a you know, I don't understand the play, Okay, So
31:18
I mean, I guess if you have a client that hires you and tells
31:22
you, I mean, this is not something I think Bob Huggins I don't
31:26
know, but I don't think this is some legal theory maneuver Bob Huggins thought
31:30
up. I don't think this is something that all of his lawyers and his
31:36
wife were in concoots with Bob Huggins with at the time. Let's let's do
31:40
all this and not send it by certified mail and hat then later a week
31:44
can come back and try and get reinstated. I don't think that happened,
31:48
you know, that's that's farcical. So I don't know what the play is.
31:53
I mean, I think he's gotten somehow connected with this attorney and he's
32:00
found some angle that I think is pretty much frivolous under the facts, and
32:07
Huggins must like that angle because they're running with it. But I don't know
32:09
what the play is. I mean, if he really thinks he's gonna get
32:15
his job back, I mean, I think that's not in reality at all.
32:20
I mean, that's don't think. I don't know. I'm having hard
32:22
trouble. I'm having a hard time figuring out the angle other than to continue
32:27
to keep there's obviously a feeling by Bob Huggins that we didn't have until this
32:35
past weekend or I didn't understand until this past weekend that he is upset about
32:40
the manner in which his separation from employment was handled. And now he's writing
32:47
back. I guess you would say, and it's just a media back and
32:51
forth. But I don't think it's it's hard when you're like he's living it
32:54
so he can't see it from the outside. And then he's all He's going
33:00
to have people because of who he is, that are going to support his
33:02
position pretty much no matter what his position is, not just his lawyer now,
33:07
but I mean like fans and acquaintances, and so I think I'm trying
33:15
to look at it from a pretty objective view, and I just don't see
33:19
anything here. And how much you would think some people, maybe the lawyers,
33:22
He's relied upon them for a long time, Mike tell him the same
33:28
thing. Yeah, well I'm thinking and now whether he'll listen or not,
33:31
because I know, I think what Bob fit Simmons notified w now it wasn't.
33:36
I don't sure it's anything. He may still be helping Bob Hopkins on
33:38
other matters, the criminal thing. There was a little one of Stephanie Taylor's
33:42
things was, you know, we've got these other lawyers talking to us about
33:45
your X, and now you're writing this Cleveland lawyer about why, and they're
33:50
not they're contradictory positions. So I need to know who his lawyer is.
33:54
And so I think that's kind of in response Bob It Simmons maybe was clarifying
34:00
ignore what I've done. I don't need these documents I've already requested about deferred
34:04
compensation. I'm not a lawyer on this anymore. So it doesn't mean there's
34:07
been a real breakdown between him and Huggins necessarily, but they're definitely needed to
34:10
be clarification. I mean, you can't have lawyer A for you and lawyer
34:15
B negotiating with person C and taking completely contrary positions on what they're making sense.
34:22
Plus, you know, if this gets into litigation, which Huggins has
34:24
threatened, then you know, most likely the lawyers that he's already had could
34:31
well potentially could be witnesses. Sure, yeah, because they're making representations on
34:35
his behalf. And we'll see. Maybe may not get that far because I
34:38
think devis entailed to overly upon all those representations. So I'm not sure why
34:43
so W could just stand its ground and it appears that they are in their
34:46
correspondence that we've seen like, yeah, okay, what yeah, I mean,
34:50
I just I think you just wait this one out and say if you
34:52
want to. Her letters are really good. They're to the point. She
34:58
actually cited one of Dad's case two from nine Pasqually Verse High Power Company about
35:05
unfortunately was a guy fellow that was killed electrocuted in the power plant down in
35:08
Mason County I think in the eighties. But there was some issue in that
35:13
one about whether he should have been working in the proper in that area of
35:16
the plant because to change the job in this location that location required written consent
35:21
of the parties, and nobody signed that. So it was an argument that
35:25
because he shouldn't have been there, there's a different legal standard for his protection
35:30
when he got injured. And the court West Virginia Supreme Court said, you
35:34
know, well, yeah, the written consent in a commercial contract is enforceable,
35:38
but unless it's waived by the conduct of the party. So, I
35:43
mean, even under West Virginia law going back to nineteen ninety one on the
35:47
case Dad had, you know, indicates you can modify even if the contract
35:52
said what the Cleveland lawyer wants it to say, which it doesn't. Their
35:55
conduct under Westvinia law can modify that written PROVI requirement of writing and certified males.
36:01
So she basically says, Stephanie Taylor, the general accounts will for WV.
36:06
You basically said at the end, if you've got any of the proposals,
36:09
you feel free to submit or references some kind of maybe we can do
36:14
something resolve this. Amica believing. I think she's I took that as almost
36:19
a tongue in cheeks, right, unless he wants to backtrack and get out
36:22
of this mess, which I think is all it's created, and it's not
36:27
helpful to the university, to Bob Huggins, or the state. So we'll
36:30
see how it. Yea, she said, in my opinion, all the
36:35
right things he accuses her. No it wasn't. I mean it's it's a
36:38
perfectly appropriate response to his letter, and then he's writing stuff that's meant for
36:45
the media. It's just all um, almost unfathomable from a legal standpoint to
36:51
me. Sometimes you getting cases and your client will tell you facts and you
36:53
get into it realized those aren't the facts, and say you've written letters that
36:57
don't correspond with the actual accent tend to be. But he's doubled down now
37:02
after they've written letters back telling him what the facts are. But yeah,
37:06
I think W just sits and sees what happens, and if they get sued,
37:12
they'll defend it and I'll the end of it. Now, like we
37:15
were talking off the air, I mean, I think if if the facts
37:19
were, you know, W came to coach Huggins and said, here,
37:23
by the end of the day, we're going to fire you and terminate your
37:29
contract where you're gonna have to resign, We'll let you do that, and
37:31
he resigns. Now, that might be an argument that he didn't really resign,
37:37
but he was actually fired. It's called a constructive discharge because if your
37:40
employer comes and tells you that you don't really have any choice. I mean,
37:45
you're just labeling in a resignation and getting the benefits of resignation versus the
37:49
potential penalties of termination, maybe termination for cause. But his lawyer hasn't argued
37:55
that at all in his letters, and and I don't know unto that scenario,
38:00
if it was a termination, it wouldn't give him his job back anyway.
38:04
So it's going to maybe be a damage his claim or something. But
38:07
that's the only of all the facts I've heard. That's the one little thing
38:12
I thought maybe Bob Huggins would have an argument about is that he didn't know
38:15
it was an involuntary resignation. But that's hard when you get a high level
38:20
professional employee, like the highest page state ployee. You know, if you
38:23
had a lower level employee, somebody less sophisticated, you'd be better off with
38:28
that argument. But he's got lawyers helping him and decided pick resignation as opposed
38:32
to somebody like, come in my office, secretary, here's your choice right
38:36
now. Then she would probably have a or he did he secretary that you
38:40
know they were actually discharged, didn't resign Peyton? Yeah, you got ten
38:44
seconds? All right? Goods give us a call to office three or four
38:46
seven five five five five six or if you are a website at Peyton Lawfirm
38:51
dot com. Okay, Tom Peyton, thanks a lot. ABC News is
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next. This is five AD WCHS h W C H S A F W
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