Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 12/07/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

Transcript

12/07/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

0:00
Our area's most beautiful properties deserve the finest Wilters Meeks Realty Group. We focus
0:05
on buying and selling residential and commercial properties throughout the Tri State area. Contact
0:09
Meeks Realty Group online at Meeks dot us or call three oh four four four
0:13
zero one one zero one. The views and opinions expressed on this program do
0:18
not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight whs it's employees or WVRC
0:24
Media. Put the power of Payton on the side. We have a court
0:31
room experience that you need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight
0:38
for your rights when you need action. Count on us. Put the power
0:46
of patron on your side. The power of paying. All right is h
0:52
one right, It's eight twenty two. We're rolling here, we're rolling.
1:02
Tom Payton is here, Teff Jenkins with you, the paint law firm in
1:07
Nitro. Tom is settled in and little traffic issue this morning. Yell,
1:12
we were I was going to say rolling, I was rolling, but barely
1:15
rolling on the way in yeah, sixteen year so it's not a it's not
1:19
a wreck. They've got something going on with the bridge before the Virginia Street
1:23
exit heading eastbound, so it goes down to one lane, which I didn't
1:27
see construction, but they got a little spot there. So you know,
1:30
everybody coming into Charleston, if you can move over to the left. It's
1:34
the volume, right, that's what Right, It's just so many people coming
1:38
through and U I mean that's always the classic debate. And I've heard people
1:42
are you both ways? Should? You know? Are people that stay in
1:46
the lane that's going to be closed cheeters if they go up the line then
1:49
get in at the last minute? Or is that the way you're supposed to
1:53
They call that the zipper right? You know, I tend to I feel
1:57
bad going up the right side cutting in, so I tend to be one
2:00
that gets over into the state the through lane a little bit earlier than later.
2:06
You know. I ran to that the other night. We had our
2:07
first basketball game of the year. You guys are community sponsors some things.
2:10
At Nitro High School. We had our first basketball game of the year down
2:14
Nitro played Poka, right, and we were on the air with that,
2:17
and I got into that at the Nitro exit, and I mean it was
2:22
like six o'clock, you know, game Stars A seven. I was there,
2:24
like I was at that exit, like at twenty to six right and
2:30
just all down yeah, westboundett all the all the trucks getting off at night,
2:32
right, so they go to the pilot there or right at night,
2:37
and I mean there's dozens of trucks that stay there overnight, and you know
2:42
the exit backs up, yeah, and you can't. And and then what
2:45
happened was there was a truck on twenty five right heading toward the pilot there
2:51
and he just got stopped in the intersection. So the blocks, everybody blocks
2:55
everybody. So the light goes through several turns and no one's moved. Yeah,
3:00
it was drying it. And when it backs up on the interstate like
3:01
that, it's just dangerous. And then really I was right on the edge,
3:05
different point, but the same area when you're heading Western I sixty four.
3:10
I mean that design for the Nitro exit ramp is negligent. I mean,
3:16
I just haven't asked an engineer, but it's common sense because it makes
3:20
it appear as if to stay on the interstate you keep going down the exit.
3:24
And so we've had I mean every day tractor trailer jackknife there because they
3:30
they if they're not familiar with it, you have to make a real quick
3:34
to the left when I was actually I went to the all of the Mountaineer
3:38
basketball game against Saint John's and drove back and at night, you know,
3:40
there's a pickup truck in front of me. So I slowed down because I
3:44
knew, here we come to this Problemary Well, he didn't it's midnight or
3:49
something. He didn't recognize itun ttil last minute and jerks over to the left
3:53
and comes about four feet over my lane. If I wouldn't have known that,
3:55
he might hit sideswipe me and then we got another one there. It's
3:59
just it's awful. Hopefully they they've been doing some paving there. I'm hoping
4:01
they'll shift those lanes back over right to the left and then then make a
4:06
better exit ramp where you actually have a little I don't know if you call
4:11
it a merge out, but I think that's supposed to be an exit lane
4:14
eventually. Right that that whole right is supposed to be an exit lane.
4:17
Sure I can jump before it was an exit only yeah lane right for a
4:23
long time until this. I mean it's temporary, but it's been like that
4:27
now for like two months maybe, and it's just uh, yeah, it's
4:30
a little dicey. I was right on the edge trying to get off,
4:32
and then you got cars behind me that are coming right at me, and
4:36
then they're shifting real fast like well from what you were talking about. But
4:41
anyway, that's uh, the hazards of driving. Yeah, we really can't
4:46
complain around here. What we think of is traffic at big city folks,
4:48
wouldn't they would laugh at it, would laugh at us. Yeah. Well,
4:51
the numbers to call, and the line is open. The number to
4:54
call three or four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Anything about
4:57
the law. Thomas here to answer your questions. Three four or three four
5:00
five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty
5:06
eight. Yeah, maybe we'll get some calls. Staying really busy around the
5:10
office there. We actually you know, we rarely have turnover in our office.
5:13
We have a lot of uh, steady employment, and we don't have
5:16
a lot of employees five maybe plus me and dad. But we had little
5:21
turnover. So we got a new if you call our office here, we
5:26
got a new employee, Vivian. So she's uh, she's only been there
5:30
for a few days, so hopefully she'll hang in there. But uh yeah,
5:34
I guess she lives on the west side. Oh so she's supposed to
5:39
start day one, well, no, don't have any water, don't have
5:43
any heat. Then they get it back on and of course it's been ten
5:45
days or something without it at all. Well, then it goes back out
5:48
again, and then it's dealing with utilities. You know, Well we'll be
5:51
here between eight am and five pm. It's like, well, great,
5:55
that ups. Then at one time it was well, we can't make it
5:58
there. Today she comes into work, well, gets home, Well there's
6:00
a tag we'd been here, you weren't here, so we can't. But
6:03
that's interesting to see how that plays out. Of course, the lawsuits are
6:06
filed on this immediately, and that's let me ask you this. I want
6:11
to ask you. This is as Western American Water came out this week and
6:17
said, hey, we offer our customers up to two thousand dollars in damages
6:21
if they can prove or you know, if you file certain things. You
6:25
know. Just but the question has come in and I think there's been and
6:30
I talked to the water company about this too. Okay, does that then
6:33
preclude anybody from being part of the class action because I think you know what
6:40
I mean, if you get damages from them, can you actually be part
6:43
of the class action depends on how it's characterized when paid, I think any
6:47
documents that go along with that. Now, if you because I think it's
6:53
annoyance property damage right there, well what you're going to have is and this
6:58
is remember the water contamination case. Yes, there were cases. I mean
7:01
there we found a lot of individual claims, mostly frolks from Putnam County,
7:04
some small businesses, and then they kind of got absorbed in the entire proceedings
7:11
that ended up overlapping federal court at state court. That kind of thing.
7:15
You really I prefer individual claims, but you really ended up having to have
7:20
kind of a class action in that situation because liability whose fault it was ultimately
7:25
was extremely complicated because there were a lot of players. And this one,
7:29
I think between Mountaineer Gas and the water company, they're gonna I mean,
7:33
by by offering money already they're already sort of at least by implication emitting some
7:39
faults. So individual claims will be viable here. But if certainly, if
7:47
you have an attorney, and even if you don't if I believe if they
7:53
have you sign a valid release in exchange for the money, it could preclude
7:58
a claim against whichever entity paid that amount of money. Now, that can
8:03
get complicated if the class gets certified, and then you know, because then
8:07
in essence, there's a representative plaintiff that kind of represents everybody else in the
8:13
same circumstance. And I'm not sure you know, water company, for example,
8:16
could go around that process and get releases signed. Now, at the
8:20
same time, it might be just a good faith like, let's let's limit
8:26
our damages here and get these folks that we now have some significant inconvenience,
8:31
some money and it's just like an advance, so they don't require any release
8:37
document to be signed. And then what would happen. Let's presume it's an
8:41
individual claim like the employee I have, you know, she has us file
8:46
a claim on her own individual behalf, and we move for well, we
8:48
think it's a twenty thousand dollars claim because of what she had to go through
8:52
and that kind of thing. Well, if she already got two thousand dollars
8:56
but didn't sign any release, in essence is going to act as an off
9:00
set of for damages in the future and it helps limit I mean, the
9:03
aggravation and convenience from this can continue on if somebody has to replace an appliance
9:07
it doesn't have money or has to put on the credit cards of if the
9:11
water company can and I have no idea what their strategy is, but if
9:13
they get out there quickly like they're trying to do and offer these folks some
9:18
money, no strings attached, then you know it limits the aggravation claim these
9:24
folks would have later because they got some money to help them get thrick.
9:26
Then okay, so let me read what their document says. Okay, So
9:31
if you the way I understand it, if you decide to get the two,
9:35
if you decided to try to get some of that two thousand dollars up
9:39
to two thousand dollars, you're releasing certain damages annoyance out of pocket, but
9:45
not others property damage. Okay, So they're what they're saying is they are
9:50
not releasing other parties that are involved in the class litigation. Right, So,
9:52
if you get money from the water company and then you have aggravation,
10:00
annoyance and convenience are what they call general damages, you can't really in West
10:03
Virginia. You don't quantify that in front of a jury. You don't say,
10:07
hey, we want ten thousand dollars for aggravation, annoyance and convenience.
10:09
You just the evidence comes in, You provide documents or testimony by what you
10:13
went through. Then six people go back in a room and decide what should
10:18
that person get as compensation for aggravation, annoyance and convenience. Then you have
10:24
what we call special damages. That's where you can tell the jury you want
10:26
a specific amount. An injury case is physical injury, it's ordinarily medical bills
10:31
and lost wages. Here you could have lost wages if somebody was not able
10:37
to attend to work because they had to stay around and wait for somebody,
10:41
and you could have, you know, maybe you had to buy new appliances
10:43
or something like that. So in that document or that language you just read,
10:48
they're saying, if you accept the two grand you've got to probably sign
10:52
a document releasing the water company only from those aggravation, annoyance and convenience damages,
10:56
but not damages you can put hard numbers on, like out of pocket
11:01
expenses you actually pay, So that way you could probably submit that later.
11:07
With that again, is limiting that aggravation part by if you can't have if
11:11
you don't have a stove for two months because you can't afford to buy one,
11:15
this maybe you can get this two grand and buy it, and then
11:18
you're going to eliminate that inconvenience you would otherwise have for the following two months.
11:22
Not also only applies to the water company. Now you don't get to
11:26
recover. I mean, if you if you had to replace a stove for
11:28
two thousand dollars and you get money for that from the water company, you
11:33
can't sue somebody else to get the same amount. Again, but it leaves,
11:37
uh, you know, if the gas company or some other entity has
11:41
some liability, getting money from the water company isn't going to prevent you from
11:46
continuing on with a full claim against the others. Right, Okay, So
11:50
so it's may be in an attempt by the water company, it's a mitigation,
11:54
right, they're trying to miss it. That's right, damage to mitigate,
11:56
which is just a fancy term for trying limit the damages and to cut
12:01
their losses. Sure, well, everybody has a duty. Usually that's a
12:05
Usually that is a a name that applies to the injured person. They have
12:09
a like if you lose your job and you think you were wrongfully discharged in
12:13
West Virginia, you generally have a duty to mitigate, meaning you can't sit
12:16
around and do nothing. You've got to try and look for a comparable job
12:20
in order to complain claim all those lost wages when you were out of work.
12:24
So you have to mitigate your damage. Do reasonably doesn't mean you don't
12:28
have to take a job, but to work here doing what you do.
12:31
You don't have a duty to take a job at McDonald's, and you don't
12:35
have a duty to move to California to get a comparable job. It's it's
12:37
reasonableness. But but yes, that's right, they're trying. They're well,
12:41
you know, you never know in the corporate boardrooms what they're talking about,
12:46
at least not to get in lawsuits sometimes, but yes, to help people
12:50
and then to it will naturally then potentially limit aggravation and anoints in convenient because
12:56
that's more objective by a jury. Right, it's not a maybe object there's
13:01
the wrong word. But I mean, you're going to present but it's not
13:03
like a hard fast that you know what I mean. I mean aggravation damage.
13:07
Yes, that's more subject subjected, not objective subjective, yes, right,
13:11
right, because there's no there's no formula for right. So the water
13:13
company wouldn't know what a jury might do with some of those, that's right.
13:16
I mean, those are the you know, if you're you're out of
13:18
pockets, you can put hard numbers on. So let's say the stove costs
13:22
two thousand dollars. Where you go to a jury trial, your lawyer can
13:24
say, look, here's this invoice that we had to pay two thousand dollars.
13:28
So you can tell two thousand dollars. But then aggravation wins in convenience,
13:31
And except in very rare circumstances, you can't say, and we want
13:35
ten thousand dollars for aggravation. That's why cases settle a lot of times,
13:39
because nobody can predict with really much certainty at all, what those six people
13:46
will think about the situation when they go back to deliberate in a room by
13:50
themselves, and the jury instructions telling him what aggravation ooints inconvenience means aren't any
13:56
more really than just the words right. They don't I mean, I guess
14:00
it's common sense what aggravation points inconvenience, meaning I agree with that, But
14:03
you don't know whether those six folks are going to go back there and think,
14:05
oh, well, I've been through worse. You know, a hundred
14:09
bucks is for ten bucks a day or something, or whether they're going to
14:13
feel really bad for somebody and and then give them ten thousand dollars or you
14:18
know, there's no real cap on it. If it gets too high and
14:22
it's outrageous, then a judge can come back and limit it. But for
14:24
the most part, it's it's up to the jury. I mean, I've
14:26
had I had a jury trial up in Morgantown, the really bad when the
14:31
wrongful death hit and run, and the jury wrote a question back and it
14:33
was, is there a limit to how much we can award? Of course
14:39
that sounded good to me, and and we just said no, as long
14:43
as it's based on the evidence you can because in that case there's as you
14:48
can imagine, when a family members killed, it's awful. You know,
14:50
you put numbers on it as far as lost wages for the person, but
14:54
you know, motionless stress and grieving and that kind of thing, and so
14:58
there's and it was a punitive damn just element to that claim because it was
15:01
a front driver that hit and ran and then lied about it initially. So
15:07
but they yeah. So that's when we're sitting back there waiting. We don't
15:11
know whether the jury's going to come back with you know, they think a
15:15
lot of money based on the evidence. Is a million dollars or seven six
15:20
million dollars this kind to where they came back. It's going to the line.
15:22
Jerry is on. Jerry, you're on with Tom Peyton. Go ahead,
15:26
Hey, good morning, Oh, go ahead, Jerry. I'm sorry,
15:28
go Jerry, Good morning, Jerry, Okay, good morning. What
15:31
I find interesting about this is that we pay the highest water rates in the
15:37
nation. I don't know why we do. There are states that have no
15:43
water. I mean they have to bring it from three, four or five
15:46
hundred miles away. The water company has water in their backyard, and yet
15:52
we have the highest rates. Now, when the water company tried to poison
15:56
us many years as well, wasn't that many years ago? They sent checks
16:00
out to all of us and we all knew what was going to happen.
16:04
They were going to raise the rates to recoup all that money they sent to
16:10
us and the PSC allowed it. Now this round they'll probably you know,
16:17
send these checks out and then they're going to raise the rates and then the
16:21
PSC is going to allow it again. This is an endless cycle that you
16:26
know, the water company can do no wrong because they always come out ahead
16:30
by raising our rates. And it seems to me there should be some way
16:37
to stop this water company from doing what they're doing. And you know,
16:42
one of the problems is they continue to purchase these little water companies out in
16:48
pod On, West Virginia, fifty miles away, while right here in their
16:52
backyard they have water lines that are one hundred years old. And this is
17:00
not new. I mean about every couple of years you see a water line
17:03
blowing up on some street. And it seems to me that somebody should have
17:11
the power to say, look, fix your water lines in your own backyard
17:15
before you go out and buy other water companies. Right. Well, what
17:19
they mean monopoly, So you know you have to rely on the regulatory agency,
17:26
which is the PSC, to help with with that. I mean,
17:30
you can't go as far as public water. Most where you live, you
17:33
have one choice, that's it. And so actually have a rate hike pending
17:37
request right now with bad triming for them, had had the case presented this
17:41
week, right, So yeah, that's and I thought when they settled the
17:45
claims about the water contamination, the PSC did try to. I mean they
17:51
dug into it to see if the subsequent rate hikes, you know, they
17:55
just trying to pass off what they had to pay in that case. And
17:56
I thought they tried to. I mean, it depends. Hey listen,
18:00
it's here's here, And Jerry makes a point, yes, because what happens
18:06
is West Virginie does have a lot of small towns that had their own water
18:11
systems that there's no one that lives there anymore. Heart. I mean,
18:15
you know, they've lost population, they don't have the tax base, and
18:18
they've had they need the money, and they the water company will come in
18:21
and buy out the local and the PSC says, these are failing systems and
18:26
these people need pottable water, you know, and and so they they there's
18:30
two sides of every story now, infrastructure and and yes, I think what
18:34
I see just from folks calling me it's kind of a patch it when there's
18:41
a problem attitude versus any real comprehensive you know, uh, modification or update
18:49
of all the lines that service public water. And I think that has been
18:56
I've read about it in the paper of the last decade or eight years since
19:00
the water contamination case. But again I think it's well, if we do
19:06
all that, here's what it's going to cost, and that kind of thing,
19:08
and so then results in a rate hike. And I think there's only
19:11
so much you're limited somewhat. I mean, you can't say, well,
19:15
because you know some CEO is making twenty million dollars a year, then you
19:19
know you shouldn't get a rad hike. It just doesn't work that way.
19:22
It seems like it could, but it can't. So well, let's see
19:26
if we got another call, and if we do, we take this call.
19:30
Well, let's see here, all right, let's take this call here
19:33
as seem as I can get my Tommy is on the phone. Tommy,
19:36
go ahead with tom go ahead? All right. You know, on the
19:38
water thing, they were allegedly they could not put the settlement money for the
19:47
chemical spill. That wasn't legally allowed to be an expense for them. They
19:52
could lift all their expenses before the state board. But that's not one of
19:59
them. Now, I can't say that exactly how that gets figured out.
20:06
I'm calling because I have I'm part of a class action suit against insurance companies
20:14
health insurance, and I can't get to people who filed the suit and sent
20:21
me paperwork letting me know I'm one of the victims. To really comment intelligently,
20:30
you speak to a customer service rep who has virtually no answers to any
20:34
question. It's been over a year. It was August of twenty two where
20:41
some of the bigger plaintiffs, you know, maybe labor unions or small businesses,
20:48
rejected a settlement that a judge was willing to approve. How much longer
20:57
might I have to wait? See, I'm at the point where I'd like
21:00
to call the insurance company and deal with them myself. But then I don't
21:07
want them to say, oh, I will give you a thousand dollars when
21:08
the other guy could get me ten. You know, right, how long
21:15
should it take? Considering that August of twenty two was the point where their
21:22
negotiations sort of broke down, right, I don't know, because I don't
21:26
know. I mean, well, how long could it take for the process?
21:27
I mean it could take years longer. It depends on how complicated it
21:32
is and get in case. I mean, if it's if there are always
21:36
ability to settle cases up to you, I mean anytime you can settle a
21:38
case, even after a verdict, you can settle a case for a lesser
21:41
amount. But it's you know, it's one of those things class actions are
21:49
and your experience team probably I'm sure it's one of these big national firms.
21:55
And you know, it's not like our office where you call and you know,
21:59
I know you're case when you call, when you tell me your name,
22:00
and if you say I got a case with you, I say,
22:03
well, I know. I mean, he's not the biggest law firm in
22:06
the country that doesn't know, you know, pay attention to your case.
22:10
But in class actions, and I'm not, lets say, critician criticizing law
22:14
firms, because there's a place for that on some of these class actions.
22:15
But and you have to have them because for for example, your you're claim
22:19
Tommy might be I mean, you might get five hundred dollars out of it.
22:23
I don't know what the deal is, but you know you couldn't hire
22:26
a lawyer to prosecute that claim on your own individually, because I mean,
22:32
you'd eat that award up in costs, unless it's a fee shifting case where
22:34
your lawyer can get their their fees pays on top of what they get you,
22:38
which otherwise you're kind of stuck with staying in it and just waiting for
22:45
the process to go through. You don't have a lot of say when they're
22:48
settlment. It's mostly the lawyers negotiating because you have a representative plaintiff or two
22:53
you know, a real human presuming it's that type of injury that deals with
22:59
the lawyers somewhat. But ultimately, any settlements like that have to be approved
23:03
by the court, and then of course you can go and complain or say
23:07
you don't like the settlement, and the court will either approve it anyway or
23:11
reject it. And then you can opt out of class action settlements and pursue
23:15
your own individual claim if you want. But on depending on the nature of
23:19
the claim, it sometimes that can make like these these water company claims.
23:25
At least my employee, I told them, well, just don't do anything
23:26
right now. I don't sign up with anybody, just let's just monitor the
23:29
situation. I mean, we might file some some of the you know's there's
23:33
very quick filings on these because as you've seen over the years, Jeff,
23:37
you know, sometimes there's a battle between the law firms of who's going to
23:41
be the head counsel because they tend to they get to control it and be
23:45
involved in it. And certainly who files first is at least a factor in
23:48
that. And so you see I mean number three or four quote class act.
23:52
They aren't there filed as class actions, but they aren't a class action
23:55
really until the judge certifies it as a class And with this type case where
24:00
there's I don't think liability, you shouldn't have to spend tens of thousands of
24:03
dollars in experts to figure out what happened here, because the utilities are going
24:07
to figure it out. And mount In your Gas has already foiled a lawsuit
24:11
against the water company. So these are these have potential to have some decent
24:17
individualized claims. And that's what I told mom. Let's hold off and let's
24:21
see I mean, she's still not done with the mess, and then we'll
24:23
analyze it. And you know, if we get you know, twenty thirty
24:27
cases, individual ones, we hand them on an individual basis, and we'll
24:30
be able to go through and say, well, how many days did you
24:33
not have water heat? How did that affect your life individually? Because if
24:40
you stay in a class action, they're never completely fair because there's no way
24:44
to analyze every individual's specific situation. So you get what I call a matrix
24:48
where it's like, you know, if you've had that's how it was with
24:52
the water company thing, and and you know it's like if you didn't have
24:55
heat for this long, you're going to be in this category and get this
24:57
amount of money, et cetera, et cetera. And that's based how it
25:00
works. But all that is very complicated. And if like Tommy may have
25:03
a class action involving a million people, I don't know, and so that
25:07
that's gonna take. I don't know how many we had that were involved in
25:11
the settlement the water contamination. I know those hearings after an agreement was essentially
25:15
reached in principle, and it took another year and a half basically because Judge
25:19
Copenhaer was working really hard. One thing about Judge Copeninger, he's pragmatic and
25:23
so he really it was delayed somewhat to some of the lawyer's frustration and the
25:29
and the citizens, but he was he wanted to get it as fair as
25:32
possible. Yeah, several hundred thousand, that's right. Yeah. So and
25:36
that took a year and a half even or a year at least more than
25:37
a year, I believe, to get start getting money out after the agreement
25:44
had been reached. So should Tommy be and Tommy should just be patient?
25:47
Yeah, I mean that's what I think you have to do. You can
25:48
keep calling them. I mean, it doesn't hurt to try and get a
25:52
status, but I don't think you're going to be able to. And if
25:56
you signed up with a lawyer, you know, the the the at fault
26:00
party is not going to talk to you directly if you have a lawyer.
26:03
That's or they're not supposed to. That's a big problem if they try and
26:07
do that. So if you didn't sign up with a lawyer, nothing prevents
26:08
you from calling the at fault party and trying to settle with them yourself.
26:12
They're gonna have you sign a release and it'll be over and and and that's
26:18
it. But otherwise you just kind of have to hang in there and then
26:21
and wait and see and and but yeah, if you got a million people,
26:26
you know, certainly years, it could be potentially. Yeah, all
26:29
right, Tommy, Okay, thanks for the call. We're gonna take our
26:32
break. It's eight forty eight good calls this morning. Three O four three
26:36
four five fifty eight fifty eight. The number to call lines are open.
26:38
Tom Peyton's with his Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three oh four three four five
26:41
fifty eight fifty back in the moments on five eight WCHS. Pepperonie Grill is
26:48
Back. Is this week's fifty to fifty Friday. You want pizzas, wings,
26:51
pasta pork parking hot dogs Now one's wiler do list is soup and grumpche
26:55
special including Homemak Chilly and don't forget about the Pepperoni wrongs get too large,
26:59
too toppy Pizzas in a cheese bread for twenty two ninety nine and wings are
27:02
only sixty nine cents Thursday through Saturday. Order online at Pepperoni Grills dot com.
27:07
Friday at nineymwcchsntwork dot com and click the fifty to fifty Friday buttons.
27:11
You get fifty percent off gift certificates for Pepperoni grow curacy of the WCCHS family
27:15
of networks. Immerse yourself in premium nationwide coverage, contract, free plans and
27:22
always for reactivation with Consumer Cellular Now at your local Target. While you're there,
27:26
check out our newest phone, the Iris Flip. It's all the phone
27:30
and camera you need, plus it features a user friendly design, making it
27:33
the perfect flip phone. From now to December sixteenth, you can score ten
27:37
dollars off when you buy the Consumer Cellular Iris Flip at Target, making it
27:41
only thirty nine to ninety nine. Visit your nearest target for the full scoop
27:45
thought to you. Buy City Insurance, a division of City National Bank,
27:49
where you can find the right coverage to protect the things that matter most.
27:53
For a free quote, log on to bank Atcity dot com. What the
28:00
on the side, We have the court room experience of such your need.
28:06
We never give up. We're prepared to fight for your rides. When you
28:11
need action, count on us. Put the power of pason on your side,
28:21
the power of pay. It's a fifty on five aby WCS the voice
28:32
of Charleston Jeff Jenkins with Tom Peyton at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
28:34
The number to call three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
28:38
oh four, three four five fifty eight fifty Something else I want to ask
28:42
you is this, and this is sports related. This Mountainer fans are wondering
28:48
in this Raykwon battle thing with the NCAA, and I think I think there's
28:53
indications that you know, Patrick Morsey may be filing something uh in federal court.
29:00
I just interesting, So I'm on him. And what was it?
29:03
Was it Perez last year? I don't really understand. And in his conspiracy
29:10
theory that this was Kansas he'd be playing. Certainly there's been I think there's
29:14
been some uh lacks. There's no rhyme or reason to well how they do
29:18
this well because what I don't ever see from the university and maybe it's a
29:23
privacy thing or I don't know, like where's the I mean, the n
29:27
c double A as a entity. I'm sure they send a letter saying here's
29:33
you know, he is not eligible this year, he'll be next year.
29:36
Here's why. And there's got to be some some factors. I mean,
29:40
I don't think it can be and something that important just completely arbitrary and capricious,
29:45
like I haven't seen the explanation letter. Ever, I mean that's never
29:48
gets published. You haven't, you don't have one from now for you and
29:52
see if you can get one or something, because I'm curious how the nc
29:56
double A communicates their decision and do they not live like are there factors they
30:02
consider or something objective versus just some people sitting in a room saying let's I
30:07
mean, there's no that doesn't happen. There's no way. It's just a
30:10
committee that has no guidelines rules that set up factors for these kind of transfers.
30:17
It could be I mean, Kansas may not take transfers that have a
30:21
risk of not being able to play, which is why they may not deal
30:23
with this situation. I don't know, but I'm not That's why I'm really
30:26
curious about that. But raykwon battle and I haven't got into details, but
30:30
I mean, if some of this was you know, there's rules in place
30:34
about transferring your ability to transfer, and if these students rely on that rule,
30:42
which basically guaranteed them the right to play eligibility immediately when they change,
30:48
then in that process, after they've already declared they're desired to transfer, that
30:56
the NCAA changes the rules and says, well, no, now it's not
31:00
as liberal as it was. Sorry, you can't play this year. To
31:04
me, I think there's a case there, at least on its face and
31:07
principle, because there's principles of you know, a stop or if you promise
31:12
somebody something and then they take action and reliance upon that promise, and then
31:18
you change it up. Sometimes you can be what they call not stopped but
31:22
us stopped e st opp meaning legally you can't then go back and change your
31:26
position to their detriment because they reasonably relied upon what you told them the rules
31:32
were, and they took action to their detriment, leaving one school to head
31:37
to another, and then you switch your position, and sometimes you can't do
31:44
that. It's you know, like as NCA, especially when you're talking about
31:47
significant I mean privileges or rights. I mean there's some property interest in being
31:53
able to play. Certainly it's these days. So I would be curious to
31:56
see how that. And then you got nc doublea's got a watch because they've
32:00
already you know, I mean they've exploited student athletes over the last twenty years
32:05
since since it's become big money and they're learning that that's not legal with nil
32:10
and everything else, and they they need to be careful that their whole system
32:15
doesn't blow up based on some kind of anti competition rules. I don't haven't
32:21
looked into that, so well, you know, I don't know if you
32:22
can scare the NC double A into changing their position, because then they'll worry
32:27
about the floodgates opening for everybody else doing it. But I don't know,
32:30
I mean, and I don't know how Patrick Morrissey can file it to me,
32:36
I mean, I guess maybe on behalf of the university, but to
32:39
me it would be raykwon Battle hiring his own personal lawyer and attacking act,
32:43
which they have. I think, you know, Columbo maybe's representing maybe Rocky
32:46
Rocky Gianola. Oh okay, all right, I knew I read somewhere he
32:50
had retained a private attorney. I didn't see who it was, and I
32:52
assumed it was one of the I think I was up there in Morgantown.
32:55
So yeah, it'll be interesting to watch, you know. Just I mean,
33:00
he put out his own right. The equity is on his side.
33:04
I mean it's completely unfair. I mean, equity is just kind of a
33:07
legal term for unfairness basically, and so yeah, I mean if you can
33:10
get an ear and get some kind of legal theory that can get you there
33:15
where judge might decide. Mean, the other thing about this year is,
33:16
and we deal with this with Western SSAC all the time about eligibility in high
33:21
school. But if you can get in front of a judge, maybe Northern
33:23
District of West Virginia or somewhere has some jurisdiction, who could say, hey,
33:29
I think the planeff's got a decent chance here some win and injunction,
33:31
let him play right now, and then the case won't be resolved to if
33:37
for the basketball seasons, and if they I mean you could I guess all
33:40
your wins, which we may don't have any or mayn't have a whole lot.
33:45
You know, they could be four foot just like in high school.
33:47
You know, the risk is when you get those injunctions against the WSSAC that
33:52
lets some student play, then if he he or she participates in those games,
33:59
it could result and the season being wiped out. You know, you
34:01
don't get your championship if you want and you and you four foot your your
34:06
wins. But of course I was thinking that through with West Virginia. It's
34:07
like, well, well, we we've got to do something to try and
34:10
be competitive. And and actually I just this this few players. I mean,
34:15
I wouldn't say it's a dangerous situation, but we're gonna have exhaustion problems
34:20
big time. I mean, if we don't we get we'll get a couple
34:22
of players back. I guess, hey, Cook was back at our day.
34:24
I cook a cook and then Crease will be back. I'll be back
34:30
after Saturday's game, so that'll help. But but well, we'll You'll be
34:37
interesting to see how that plays out. I think there might be something there.
34:38
Now. I don't think a threat of a lawsuit is going to cause
34:42
the n c double a teams their mind, probably, but a filed lawsuit
34:45
right and an injunction by court saying, uh, you know, he'll he'll
34:52
suffer a reparable harm if we don't let him play here, and I think
34:54
there's a decent chance the plane could win. Court could says he's eligible right
34:59
now. Now. N Cuba would probably take that up to the highest quurt
35:02
as quickly as possible, But I'm in I don't know why that would get
35:06
any more priority than any other civil case. So it's going to take through
35:09
the basketball season to get a final ruling. And if he could get eligible
35:13
and play, then the only risk W has at that point is if we
35:15
play him. You know, our winds may not count, but just put
35:20
an asterisk by the season and to me the risks I would I would put
35:22
him on the floor. But yeah, I'm a lawyer, not a basketball
35:28
coach. All right. Tom's been with us a good lively show here Peyton
35:32
Law Firm in Nitra. Yeah, give us a call any issue. Of
35:36
course, we do our bread and butter kind of is people that get injured
35:40
consumers. They have consumer issues normally against insurance companies, honomobile insurance companies,
35:46
things like the and we do property damage claims, you know, things like
35:50
with the water and gas company right now. But you can get ahold of
35:52
us by calling us at the office three oh four seven five five five five
35:58
five six. Good to our website Peyton Law Firm dot com. It's been
36:00
recently revived or not. I guess you could say renovated for ease of access.
36:07
But you can email right through there and it goes right to my computer
36:10
and to dad's computers. So it's not some canned answering service. We work
36:15
twenty four hours based. If you call our office, you can press a
36:19
button to leave a voicemail for me. It will come to my cell phone.
36:22
If it is truly an emergency, I will get back with you.
36:23
So and that's not when you see these ads about twenty four hours got to
36:28
go to. Those are call services. Most of the time you're not getting
36:30
a call service at Peyton Law Firm. We're going to call you back ourselves,
36:34
right And if you don't get a call back, just follow ups and
36:37
we get a lot of them if they slip through the cracks, but we
36:38
try and return all of our calls, yep. And or you can stop
36:40
by, yes, just stop by the office first avenue at twenty oh one
36:44
first Avenue. Just be careful on the exit heading west. I sixty four
36:50
all right, that's very good. So yeah, so so kind of winding
36:54
down the year here, a couple couple weeks left in the year. Yeah,
36:58
and actually I need to mention this. We'll give him crad because I
37:02
lost the WU football prediction as I predicted sixty six. But you know who
37:06
got it all right, I know who got it right, your dad,
37:08
he said, at the end of the show last week, just reminded people
37:13
that he was eight and four and w made the College Cup Final four for
37:17
soccer played tomorrow night. I think in little six o'clock. In the loss,
37:22
well I wish I could go. I got off the out of town.
37:23
But they got just the waste soccer works. Uh, they're new,
37:27
They're not as herald of a Crimson and Notre Dames on the other side with
37:30
the Oregon State, but the waste soccer works for those a soccer fans.
37:32
They all have just as good a chance anybody else. W can run the
37:36
table here. When they got do is win two games Tomorrow night and Monday
37:39
night and national champions be great? All right, ab ABC News is next.
37:45
This is five ad W c HS