Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 04-04-24 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton
Transcript
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- 1:00the voice of Charleston. Good Thursday morning too. I'm Jeff Jenkins and Harvey
- 1:04Payton this year at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. Thanks for joining us
- 1:07today. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty So number to call
- 1:11three four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four
- 1:17five fifty eight fifty eight. Good to be back on five eighty today.
- 1:23It is after the storm took down two of our four towers, and our
- 1:26engineering crew the towers are still down. Our engineering crew just worked like crazy
- 1:34to come up with a kind of a workaround to get us could get us
- 1:37back on five eighty. We were we were on some other stations, some
- 1:38of other frequencies in our FM translators several hours after the storm hit. But
- 1:47to be back on the home on five eighty. Came back like mid yesterday
- 1:49afternoon, So it's good to be back. Well, you were sortly missed.
- 1:53I had taken some time off from the office Tuesday and went out to
- 1:59the night marketplace to the Loaws because they have an annual sale on mulch right
- 2:05a couple bucks a bag, and so I'm out in the loading area.
- 2:07I ordered it online and went out in the loading area with two young men
- 2:10and they're handing me the bags, were putting them in the back of the
- 2:14pickup. Well, the siren had gone off earlier and then it stopped,
- 2:17so we're out there loading the malts. Well the siren, which is right
- 2:21up on the hill there, starts again and we look around to the west
- 2:27and I mean it's like black is the inside of a cow, And let's
- 2:31get this stuff loaded and then they got a message on their phone, so
- 2:35we have to go in the store. I got in the truck and pulled
- 2:38in between some of the stacks of palletts where the malt was to get out
- 2:43of the wind, and it. You know, it was scary, Not
- 2:46so much I felt like the truck was going to move or blow away.
- 2:50But I saw a huge rack that's used for storage that was on wheels just
- 2:53go flying by at about the speed of the wind, which had to be
- 2:59what you see sixty miles an hour probably, yeah, But Nitro, we
- 3:05had some intermittent flooding, mostly wind driven on the side of the building.
- 3:14We had some leaks around some windows, and wade walters in the State Farm
- 3:19office next door got some water under the door, primarily because the wind pushes
- 3:23it up against the door. Nitro, I mean, certainly, if you're
- 3:28a person who's home or property was impacted severely, even on an isolated basis,
- 3:36it's hard to hear someone say, well, we were lucky, but
- 3:38Nitro, we largely avoided major dams or even major flooding from all that rain.
- 3:44Generally in the upper end of town, around near where the Bowling Alley
- 3:47is, where Larry Dawson's Auto Sales was and still Larry's doing business up there.
- 3:53They had a lot of first Avenue flooding, but I didn't see any
- 3:55I went off the hill from the Nightry Marketplace and down Golf Mountain and then
- 4:03through Institute on back into town. Other than Spencer Dent old wind driven flooding,
- 4:09we didn't have a big problem in Nitro Rentas Valley, although there were
- 4:13a lot of trees lost. We live our backyard butts up against Sleepy Holly
- 4:17Golf Club and they had several trees down on the golf course. But again
- 4:20you had an open, open venue there with large trees standing largely by themselves
- 4:28in and around the golf course and either broken off or pushed over. Fortunately,
- 4:31thank goodness, nobody was killed. Now, there may be understand some
- 4:36serious injury or two maybe in Fayette County, in Rawley County, but uh,
- 4:43I mean the thing you really worry about it is windstorms. I mean,
- 4:46there was a lawyer, one of my classmates, he's now deceased,
- 4:49Freddy far Ends, When there were windstorm oh gosh, in the late eighties
- 4:57early nineties. His brother was in a a metal bar that blew down and
- 5:01Barbersville killed him and he lost his life in a windstorm. And I was
- 5:06listening to the radio this morning till five to eighty and there was a snippet
- 5:14of an interview with Kent Carper, the Knawk County Commissioner, who's pointed out
- 5:18correctly, and this is something that's of public interest. Most homeowners insurance policies,
- 5:26if you have homeowners coverage, do not cover flooding. Under certain circumstances.
- 5:33They do perhaps if it's a broken pipe or if it's a defective piece
- 5:36of equipment that causes in home flooding, there might be some coverage, but
- 5:45generally not. But a windstorm is classic homeowners coverage, and that even applies
- 5:51to wind driven water damage. That's a principle. It was established after Katrine.
- 5:59There was a lot of litigation in Mississippi and on the Alabama coast because
- 6:03there was a question between the major insurers, well, if it's a storm
- 6:09surge that washes away your house. Trent Lot was one of the plaintiffs.
- 6:13The United States Senator and the court determined, well, yes, but if
- 6:17it's a wind driven surge, then it's a windstorm damage and it's not your
- 6:24conventional flooding events, So folks who have I mean, I'm sure that because
- 6:30of the damage that was done in the severity of the storm that the area,
- 6:32insofar as major line companies have the capacity anymore to do so, there'll
- 6:39be some adjusters on the ground here, independent adjusters shortly as claims are filed
- 6:45to go out and do property inspection, do some estimates. I hate to
- 6:49say it, that's one of those things that does often create business for lawyer.
- 6:57For us at the Peyton Law Firm, you don't agree with what an
- 7:01adjuster assesses your damage, or if you get a denial of coverage based upon
- 7:06a quote flooding exemption or some other occult exemption in the policy, and you
- 7:13may need a lawyer to guide you through the process or to present the claim.
- 7:17That's what we do. Hopefully that doesn't happen too often here, but
- 7:21it does happen on occasion, and we do a lot of it. I
- 7:27mean, there are certainly trees through some houses. Oh yes, yeah,
- 7:30yeah, no, what's the problem with that. I tell you that.
- 7:32Here's what happens. I see the biggest point of contention between insurance carriers and
- 7:43homeowners if there's no local adjusting. A carrier will hire some middleman that's send
- 7:56someone who's got some level of training, short of being a general contractor and
- 8:01short of ever having built or repaired anything in this area, and they will
- 8:07say, well, here is the estimate to repair this, and you take
- 8:09it to a licensed contract that says we can't repair this for that amount of
- 8:13money. I mean, that's just won't cover it. And so of course,
- 8:18all you know, we've got these national scales and we've got these matrixes
- 8:22we apply and algorithms and here's what it is. Well, that's not the
- 8:26answer. The answers they owe you repair or replacement. And I mean that's
- 8:31the biggest rub. And it's started really has become much more acute in my
- 8:35observation in the last decade because you know, as we get into more cyber
- 8:43handling of claims, more computer online handling, the number of independent adjusters has
- 8:52dropped off the number of local adjusting assignments claims adjusting mean At one time,
- 8:58State Farms had an entirely dedicated claims office on Fairlawn Avenue in Dunbar that employed
- 9:05probably fifty personnel. Nationwide, an adjusting all State had an adjusting office out
- 9:16near the Nitro Marketplace in one of the buildings. I think it's now occupied
- 9:20by a medical service company United States. Fidelitian Garnt he had a major claims
- 9:24office on Greenbrio Street out past the airport. Those things are just gone because
- 9:31well, it's just a matter of corporate consolidation. It's cost cutting and moving
- 9:37to online services, and people get a laptop and then you layer that up
- 9:41with For instance, if you've got a roof claim, you're going to hear
- 9:45from a company called ladder Up. Well, who is ladder up. Ladder
- 9:48Up is just an entity. It doesn't exist in an office or a structure
- 9:54someplace. It exists in a system or series of people who have been hired
- 10:03by whoever runs this website and giving them some minimal training and how to climb
- 10:07up on a roof and how to count shingles and figure square footage and say
- 10:13here's what we're going to pay you. Well, I went through that one.
- 10:16I had a rough claim two years ago. You know, some nice
- 10:20young man from like North Carolina shows up and a pickup truck with the ladder.
- 10:22I said, well, how can you do this? Well, you
- 10:26know this is like my fourth stop today and I said, what can I
- 10:28get you something to eat? A sandwich? Oh yeah, well, I
- 10:31mean just a kid, And of course he got his reporter, so well
- 10:35you know that the problem is that's not right, that's not correct. And
- 10:41then there you go and you get another one. Same thing happens with fire
- 10:45claims. Just be really careful if you get an adjuster come to your house.
- 10:48I would recommend you get their card, some identifying information, make sure
- 10:52who you're dealing with, and don't be afraid to just say no, I
- 10:58mean you owe me more money. And if you get a stymied response,
- 11:05don't be afraid to call a law office. You can call the Peyton Law
- 11:09Firm. We never charge anyone for an initial consultation, just to look at
- 11:11your claim and say, well, this is one we can help you with.
- 11:15And the good thing about homeowners claims, they're first party coverage. That
- 11:20means you, the homeowner, are a party to the contract with the insurance
- 11:24company, as opposed to a third party claim, where if you're driving and
- 11:28someone hits you, they are a party to a contract with their insurance company,
- 11:35you're the third party to that deal, and a first party claim if
- 11:39your company doesn't pay you what they should, then they have to pay you
- 11:43your lawyer's fees and your expenses involved in getting the claim handled, assuming you're
- 11:48successful. I just hope that doesn't happen in a rash. But I mean,
- 11:52my experience lately, unfortunately, has been that with the cost cutting and
- 11:56the use of these nationwide computer based adjusting or damage estimating firms, it's just
- 12:05just become a lot more common. And don't sign anything. If you get
- 12:09an estimate for repair and they say, well, so and so in Barbersville
- 12:13can do this, I said, okay, well get me so and so
- 12:16in Barbersville, and let's see if they'll come up here inside a contract when
- 12:20there oh no, no, no no, we just gave these numbers to
- 12:22the adjuster. We don't do that work, right, So that's always a
- 12:28red flag. Get somebody who's a licensed contractor and they're going to be busy,
- 12:33right, but let them look at it. And if they say,
- 12:37well, look, you just can't do this work for that amount of money.
- 12:39Here's here's a legitimate estimate, then give it to the adjuster and say
- 12:43here it is. If you come to an mpass, well, probably gonna
- 12:48have to end up with the services of a lawyer. Don't be afraid to
- 12:50do it. You'll find that sometimes they'll bait you along a little bit.
- 13:00I hate to say. I mean they're adjusted to human beings, people acting
- 13:03good faith, but they're getting paid to protect the insurance company's profit margin.
- 13:07And so if they can string you along for a couple of weeks and say,
- 13:11look, I got to get my house fixed, well, then you're
- 13:13more prone to take a lower offer. It's just like, well, we're
- 13:16not going to pay you this money for your car to be fixed. Well,
- 13:18I've got to have a car to go to work. Well, if
- 13:22you take what we offer you, you just pay the difference to get it
- 13:24fixed yourself. You'll have a car. Well, some people say okay,
- 13:28I'll do that, excuse me. And that's where the services of a law
- 13:33firm like the Peyton Law Firm are available. We're located in Nitro at twenty
- 13:37eight oh one First Avenue, been there a long time actually, and you
- 13:43can go online to Peytentlawfirm dot com and send an email about your whatever issue
- 13:50you may be having, if it's with an insurance company who won't pay,
- 13:52or if it's about an injury in an auto accident, or some other sort
- 13:56of either financial or physical, that you suffered. You believe you may need
- 14:03help and recovery. Just send Tom or Eye an email online only see and
- 14:07I see it, and we'll get right back with you. Or you can
- 14:11call or stop by the office three or four, seven, five, five,
- 14:13fifty five fifty six. We'll stop by. I mean that's a good
- 14:18thing because then we can talk and say, here, let me write down
- 14:20what you need to bring me. So if you send an email, I
- 14:24can send you an email back and say, well, here's what I need
- 14:26to look at the estimate the policy, send me a couple of photographs,
- 14:31and then we can get you back an answer. You know, I've had
- 14:35this cough and that's why I guess they have a cough button on these mics
- 14:39sometimes for three weeks. Finally went and got an antibiotic day before yesterday.
- 14:46But you know, I sorely missed my mother. When you become an orphan,
- 14:52you're an orphan. For the first oh seventeen years we were on the
- 14:58air. I mean I had the least little bit of a sniffle when I
- 15:01got back to the office. Like all mothers, do. She listened faithfully
- 15:05every Thursdays. Your mom's on the phones, hell on, Mama, are
- 15:11you sick? Have you got a cold? I heard your sniffling on the
- 15:13radio. So I think about that now when I have a cough for a
- 15:16cold and I up here on the air. She's been gone since well there
- 15:20will be eight years in June, and never gets any easier. Right back
- 15:26on the topic. We're here to help people, and I think you'll find
- 15:31that and most law firms that are on the plane of side, or the
- 15:37consumer side of transactions, you will be able to get some help. And
- 15:41now I would say the Peyton Law Firm is better situated for the individual consumer
- 15:48than for instance, I saw a commercial yesterday for the largest law firm in
- 15:54the world where a former client was saying, oh, my claim was so
- 15:56easy. I did it all on my cell phone, never had to go
- 16:00anywhere. Well, is that what it's about? I mean, how do
- 16:06you know you were treated fairly if you just did business on a cell phone
- 16:08and somebody said, sinus, would you do business with anybody else that way
- 16:14on something as important as your health or repairs to your home or damages to
- 16:18your property. I just don't see that. I mean we see clients all
- 16:22the time, all day. Every day. You come in face to face
- 16:25and we talk and evaluate the nature of a claim and move from there.
- 16:30We've been doing it for a long time. In fact, I was thinking
- 16:33about this this morning. Sunday, which see that's April seventh. The wester
- 16:40Virginia State Bar is having their opening dinner and reception for the State Bar Annual
- 16:45Meeting, at which time any number of the members of the westernlind College of
- 16:52Law class of nineteen seventy four or any other law school are going to be
- 16:57honored for having practice for fifty years. I know Flerdy's going to be there
- 17:03because I talked to Tom a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping to see
- 17:07a lot of the There are a lot of people who were in my class.
- 17:10It'll be fifty years. It's actually fifty years is coming in May.
- 17:14We were sworn in on a Tuesday after Memorial Day in nineteen seventy four and
- 17:18immediately unleashed upon the world as lawyers because at that time he didn't have to
- 17:23take a bar exam. But I'll give a report next week on who all's
- 17:29there. I mean We've got Mike Ferrell from Huntington, one of my really
- 17:33very best friends. Mike's run his own big law firm forever and he was
- 17:37entering President Marshall for a while. You know, Flarity has this big farm
- 17:41here in Charleston. He represented the state of West Virginia in the rich Rod
- 17:45dispute and made Michigan pay every penny. He got his dictate from Mojo Mansins
- 17:53and we want all of our money on the bike and got it all.
- 17:56But I think they settled with Beeline the next year. That was the result
- 18:00through a settlement, and we have a new football or a basketball coach,
- 18:03Darren de Frees. Fortunately he's on board now. And there is a Mountaineer
- 18:10Scholarship dinner here in Charleston. What about the twenty second maybe of this month,
- 18:18So folks that are out there listening, if I don't know what tickets
- 18:22are to the dinner, but it be a chance. I mean, I'm
- 18:26sure the coach will be there and probably have a couple of players with him,
- 18:30and the athletic director will be there and you can go. Like last
- 18:33year, that's when I got to meet coach Kellogg who was newly on board.
- 18:38As the women's coach, and you know, he did quite well.
- 18:41The Mountaineers got us what both of the teams did well. Marshall did well.
- 18:44They made the tournament, they got a terrible draw, you know,
- 18:48go on the road to play on the home court of Virginia Tech, which
- 18:52is essentially their home games, packed house down the barrel of a gun.
- 18:59The Mountaineers, of course, they had to go to Iowa, right,
- 19:03but they didn't make it past game one. But they didn't play the home
- 19:04team game one either, right, they ended up playing Iowa on their home
- 19:08court, and five on eight it appeared at the end of the game,
- 19:15it's a forty one. We're going to take our break. Three O four
- 19:18three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Harvey Payton is here, Peyton Law
- 19:21Firm in Nitro. Any questions you may have, Hey, maybe you had
- 19:23got damage in the storm, in the windstorm, big windstorm that went through
- 19:27on Tuesday. You got a question for Harvey about that? Give us a
- 19:32call. Three oh four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
- 19:34oh four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Back in the moment
- 19:37on five eighty WCHS. Canon County has a judge that we can trust.
- 19:44Stephanie Abraham is a judge that fights for all of us. Stephanie Abraham knows
- 19:48our families and fights for our children. As Cannon County Circuit Judge, Stephanie
- 19:52Abraham has the experience, is fair, and makes every ruling with integrity.
- 19:55She has real West Virginia values Stephanie Abraham as a judge who keeps our communities
- 20:00safe for our families. We know that we can trust Stephanie Abraham as Connaw
- 20:03County Circuit Judge. Let's vote for Stephanie Abraham for Connaw County Circuit Judge paid
- 20:08for by the committee to like Stephanie Abraham. Ben Sullivan, Treasurer. Are
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- 20:56here's your traffic update. There's a vehicle crash on I sixty four West
- 21:00at mile marker fifty eight near Virginia Street. Congestion and delays on I sixty
- 21:04four East at mile marker fifty eight downtown at Virginia Street, and road closures
- 21:10today on West Virginia twenty five at mile marker eight, the eastbound and westbound
- 21:14roads are closed. Drive safely. I'm Chapel in the WCHS Network Traffic Studio.
- 21:23Put the power of Peyton on the side. We have the courtroom experience.
- 21:30On such your need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight
- 21:36for your rides. When you need action. Count on us puts the power
- 21:45of Beton on your side, the power of being eight forty three on five
- 21:57eighty WCCHS the voice of tr Austin. Thanks for joining us. Harvey Payton
- 22:00with the Payton Law firm in Nitrole's here with us today three O four three
- 22:04four, five fifty eight fifty eighth to number to call three oh four,
- 22:08three four, five fifty eight fifty eight three oh four, three four or
- 22:11five fifty eight fifty. You're making a good point, Harvey during the break,
- 22:15is that sometimes people don't even think about contacting their right and we get
- 22:19a lot of calls, or not infrequent calls. But folks who have an
- 22:23issue maybe with a neighbor, they have an issue with an outbuilding, they
- 22:32have an issue with the value of they'll lose a trip, or they get
- 22:38something taken out of a car, or something will occur away from their home
- 22:44in another county, or maybe they own some some vacant property in addition to
- 22:48their home and they have a loss there. Well, and of course we'll
- 22:52wait a minute. Stop. First thing you do is go go over to
- 22:55your insurance agent's office and file acclaim with your homeowners. Well, the agent
- 23:00says he doesn't think there's coverage. Well, I understand that, but it's
- 23:03in the agent's interest for there not to be coverage because his loss ratio,
- 23:07his or her loss ratio depends upon claims submitted by the people they write insurance
- 23:12too. When the agent is the agent of the company said submit the claim,
- 23:17and you know it has to go then to be reviewed by the company
- 23:21underwriting department, and if they deny coverage, they have to do you to
- 23:25do so in writing, and you have a right to see, well why
- 23:26are you not covering this? And you can contest that and more often than
- 23:30not as okay, you're right, you're covered under ex provision of the policy
- 23:34and the claim gets paid. Now it may be paid paid subject to a
- 23:38deductible. Well, that's just the way it works. You can save money
- 23:42on your insurance premiums by having a higher deductible, but that just means well,
- 23:48I'm willing to self insure up to five hundred dollars or one thousand dollars
- 23:52or twenty five hundred dollars, but I want to ensure myself against catastrophic loss.
- 24:02So that's the first place to look. And I mean many times we'll
- 24:07talk to folks and say, look, get out your policy and go over
- 24:11to your agent, file a claim, and we're going to call back maybe
- 24:15six weeks later. Hey, you were right, we got coverage, we
- 24:19got it fixed, or they paid us no harm, no fout, fine,
- 24:25good, I'm happy we have to help you. You stayed out of
- 24:27the system. The longer you can avoid litigation or hassle, the better off
- 24:30you are. And that's just a part of what we do at the Payton
- 24:36Law Firm. And of course, if it happens to be the contraard of
- 24:38that, it cannot get the matter resolved. And it appears, in our
- 24:42opinion there is coverage or a legitimate dispute about the amount or the claim,
- 24:48then we can help you resolve that. We get paid for that by the
- 24:52company, usually in the form of some enhanced amount of settlement of the claim,
- 24:57and then you pay us. And that's what we've been doing for for
- 25:03me this may it will be fifty years, and for Tom it'll be twenty
- 25:07five years this fall. And I was just thinking while we were sitting here,
- 25:11I've been on this show for half of my legal career. Isn't that
- 25:15something? It is? Yeah, and forty seven years of that has been
- 25:18in nitro. The nitro is just one hundred and fourteen years old, one
- 25:25hundred and eight years old, so almost half of the existence of nitro.
- 25:30I've been down there, probably well Mars Jewelers is still there. I think
- 25:36the oldest business in town was Nitro Shade Awning, Landers and Jibbo, But
- 25:41Jibbo retired. It was interesting as well. His business was cyclical. The
- 25:49best business for nitro Shade awning was after windstorms or in the winter when people
- 25:56had snow damage causing collapses of awnings and roofs, or after a windstorm and
- 26:02they were blown off. I said, Johnny, how's your business? Well,
- 26:03weather's been too good, Harvey. They had had a very bad winter.
- 26:07It's not getting as many calls. But then when you're busy, you're
- 26:10really busy in and he did it for decades and then Larry Dawson bought the
- 26:15building and now it's a part of his real estate complex there and there where.
- 26:21I guess it's Steven's on his sales now it was. Is Larry still
- 26:23doing the show? Yeah? He comes in some Yeah. Yeah. Let
- 26:26me ask you this, Harvey three or four three four five fifty fifty three
- 26:30or four three four five fifty fifty. We've talked about this some, but
- 26:33Brad Mchaelhaney, our reporter earlier this week, did a kind of an update.
- 26:37It looks like negotiations are underway between Carter Bank and the governor's people about
- 26:44you know, about the dolt right now, that's not unusual. I mean,
- 26:47that's that's the normal course of things. But to get to that,
- 26:51you've got to bring things to a head. That is why Carter said,
- 26:56Okay, we're gonna off some things. It's just talks and offesome things.
- 27:00We're sitting around here, everybody's twirling their thumbs and we're going to court and
- 27:03filing briefs and we're arguing about a peanut value of a helicopter. Let's just
- 27:08get this thing to a pinch point where something's got to happen. It's like
- 27:14on the side of the equation where we are. We were involved in a
- 27:18lawsuit. We got into it late after another firm had been in it that
- 27:22had been going on almost eight years over the resolution of a small business,
- 27:26which is the worst type of dispute because it's family members and shareholders and minority
- 27:33shareholders. And then we got a trial date, a firm trial date with
- 27:41a judge in Knawk County who doesn't continue trial days. And that was last
- 27:48well, right near the end of February, and lo and behold what happened
- 27:52in the January, first part of February, case could settled. Everybody paid
- 27:56their money. Last week we got it all settled up, gets paid.
- 28:00Case it's dismissed. You've got to get things in controversy and get it to
- 28:04a pinch point and to get things resolved. Now. I'm not saying these
- 28:07negotiations are going to go very far. But when you take a look at
- 28:11Carter Bank, what do they want with a golf course. They're not in
- 28:15the golfing business, and they're not in the real estate business, and they're
- 28:18not in running an exclusive private club for homeowners and maintaining facilities. They're in
- 28:26the business of making money through lending money and taking deposits. They want over
- 28:32with. On the other side, you've got the Justice interests who they need
- 28:36their money. They're about just running out of cash. I suspect cash.
- 28:40You can be property rich and cash poor. And now it's crunch time.
- 28:48The bank says, we don't want this land, but we're going to take
- 28:49it if we have to, and I said, well, we don't want
- 28:52to give it up. Well, okay, then let's sit out and talk
- 28:55here. Because hanging over everybody's head is this little gation and either side could
- 29:03win or lose a significant edge. So it's probably ripe to get some kind
- 29:07of settlement. That's not uncommon. But the biggest concern I saw Brad's article
- 29:14last week is why these tax lines over in Greenbrie County don't I didn't check
- 29:18the id X, but a state tax lien for unpaid unremitted sales tax,
- 29:27if that matters paid or resolved, that release will be recorded within days.
- 29:33And I told Brad by email when it happens, well watch it should be
- 29:37you know, week or ten days they get it resolved, the releases.
- 29:40I think that's troubling. You know, it's troubling in another sense. You
- 29:45know, we've talked about the judicial elections which are coming up in May.
- 29:52This was May the fourteenth, the fourteenth, yes, sir, on that
- 29:55day, which is primary day for other races, partisan races, the non
- 29:59partisan races for all of the judicial offices at the circuit court level and below
- 30:06are up for real election. And of course we've got we've got two uncontested
- 30:11Supreme Court races and one contested race for Intermediate Court of Appeals. But we've
- 30:15got Ryan White from here in Kanawa County, a really good candidate, and
- 30:19somebody from Wheeling. I think there's another candidate. Maybe he's a lawyer.
- 30:23Yeah, so you got three. Well then you get to the circuit court
- 30:26level and most of those are uncontested. But you know, and because when
- 30:30he got you get a judge in office, experience means a lot. Like
- 30:34in Putnam, We've got Judge Reader and we have Judge Stywers. Now,
- 30:40Judge Stewers has been on the bench two full terms and Judge Reader I think
- 30:44at least a term and a half because he unfortunately, Judge Spaulding became quite
- 30:48ill and had to leave the bench and later left us and in the special
- 30:53election, Judge Reader was then elected to serve the balance of his term.
- 30:57We got a call. We've got a call. We've got a call.
- 31:00Okay, I didn't see this earlier, Kenny. I'm sorry, I didn't
- 31:03see the text from my producer earlier. Kenny. You still there? Go
- 31:07had your own with Harvey. Yes, I'm there. Thank you mister Peyton
- 31:10for taking my Callit all right. I sold home on the land contract eight
- 31:18or nine years ago, and I'm just old and blind. I couldn't take
- 31:22care of it anymore. I had about three acres and I kept a third
- 31:26of an acre and put a double by it on it. And there's a
- 31:30parking area on my property that I let the people that bought my home used.
- 31:37Is there any chance they could ever claim that by right of adverse possession
- 31:41or something like that, Not if it's permissive use. I mean, adverse
- 31:45possession has to be something that would show you as the property owner, that's
- 31:49they are claiming it as their own rock. What I would recommend to somehow
- 31:55you go to the person and just certain sort of a formal lease, but
- 32:00just some written acknowledgment that they understand there. It's just your permission that allows
- 32:07them to park there, and that you have the right to tell them at
- 32:08any time to move. And it's and of course, since you've got on
- 32:15a landscale contract, you still have title to the property. They haven't finished
- 32:20paying you yet, right, and you're not going to give them a deed
- 32:23until it's paid, right. Yeah, So you've got a perfect pinch point
- 32:29there to resolve that. But I always tell folks, permissive use is fine.
- 32:34But while we're all here, but if something happens to you or something
- 32:37happens to them, and somebody else comes into the scene, they may see
- 32:42it differently. And so I don't know anything about that agreement. And I've
- 32:44been parking here for twenty years and I'm want to keep parking here. So
- 32:47if you get them to sign off on just some sort I mean, I
- 32:51could want to call the office. I'd give you some language when we write
- 32:53you one. It's not gonna cost you a lot of money, and just
- 32:55have them sign it and you sign it and that results any issue, any
- 33:00issue? What's the time living all that tea ten years? Right? Okay?
- 33:05The reason I'm calling it's coming up on nine years. So yeah,
- 33:08I think you ought to do something. But I use it also and my
- 33:12friends use it, and it's sort of used jointly. But still should get
- 33:16something signed, I would think, I mean, you know, the elements
- 33:20of adverse possession are Number one is they have to use it. For instance,
- 33:25they if they were driving a car across your property as a driveway,
- 33:30right, and I just kept doing it and doing it and doing it,
- 33:34And I mean anybody reasonably would think, well, you know, they act
- 33:39like they own this. And that's the question is are they acting like they
- 33:44own your property. If they are, you've got a duty to stop them
- 33:46within ten years or you're prohibited from doing so, and the best way to
- 33:52avoid that is all right, Well, I don't mind your parking here,
- 33:54but I want you to sign this. I don't want to ever have a
- 33:57claim made. Just sign off on this. We'll do our happy way.
- 34:00And yeah, they're always nice. They always ask because I have I'm I'm
- 34:05legally buying. I have friends coming and picking out and taking me places.
- 34:07And people come business, Uh park there, and they'll call and ask if
- 34:14they got somebody coming. They'll say, do you have anybody coming? Uh?
- 34:17Can we use the parking place tonight? Yeah? And I don't think
- 34:22if they're good neighbors, they'll have any problem with what's signing off. I
- 34:24mean, it's not like you don't trust them. It's said, but the
- 34:27fact is, what happens. What if something happens to you or what if
- 34:30something happens to them. I'm seventy eight years old, so we're just a
- 34:34spring chicken buddy. Yeah, I'm such anything. All right, Well,
- 34:37thank you Rayton for taking my call. Thank you Kenny Kenny for calling,
- 34:42Thank you Kenny, and again the number for the office is seven five five
- 34:45five five five six seven five five five five five six. But you know,
- 34:52so if a judge doesn't do anything wrong, I mean, I remember
- 34:55the old school. I don't want a lot of change, and I don't
- 34:58want somebody to break in that's completely new. I mean, we had a
- 35:00change in judges in two thousands of Putnam County and the voters made a mistake
- 35:06and we had to go back and change again eight years later. But you
- 35:12know, now there's some statewide politicians have booted poked their nose into Putnam County
- 35:19and put up a non incombent candidate that's got one hundred thousand dollars more in
- 35:24federal tax liens and judgments spending against them in the car, I mean,
- 35:28we're going to have to does nobody cared anymore about experience or confidence or I
- 35:34mean, I guess the embarrassment of having the governor's wages garnis has just sort
- 35:38of worn off. It's become So let's have a judge who gets maybe his
- 35:43judicial salary can be garnished to his car towed off from the courthouse. I
- 35:47don't know, it just it defies me. But like I said, I'm
- 35:52of the old school. I just don't think you need to be changing a
- 35:53lot unless there's something wrong. Now, you know, we had a judge
- 36:00prier day stare over an Eastern Panhandle host might have been before your time.
- 36:02He was just a contraria and he defied the Supreme Court. He was constantly
- 36:07to travel. Well, the voters in Jefferson County took care of that.
- 36:10And like I said, we had an issue in Putnam years ago, and
- 36:14the voters in Potnham County took care of that. And I guys on a
- 36:16state wide basis, there perhaps was an issue that some saw with the state
- 36:21Supreme Court and there was a change there. And I mean, that's just
- 36:24the way the system works. But I think it's important for the public to
- 36:28look at these candidates and look to well, why is who's why are we
- 36:32asking to change this? What's the big issue here? Nobody hears anything wrong.
- 36:37I don't anything wrong in Kanawha County, but I know apparently there's at
- 36:42least one contested race here that I don't know. I don't know what's the
- 36:47wrong with the incumbent. I mean, like down in Potnham County. Other
- 36:53I don't know who do a whole lot of you know, it's such a
- 36:55wonderful courthouse. However, I will say this, to do business, whether
- 37:00you're dealing with the assessor, the Sheriff's department, the county Clerk, the
- 37:07Planning Commission, the prosecutor's office, the magistrates, the circuit judges, I
- 37:13just cannot find anything really wrong, and I haven't for decades. You know,
- 37:17as it stands right now, most of the elected officials, maybe all
- 37:21of the elected officials who are elected on a partisan basis, are Republicans.
- 37:24But you know, it just ever has made that much difference when they were
- 37:28all demmigs. It just runs really well because people get along. Now we
- 37:31don't have a lot of time. I do want to say the Peyton Law
- 37:34Firm twenty eight oh one First Avenue in Nitro, we are here to help
- 37:38you. That's our job. That's why we are so privileged to have law
- 37:44degrees and to be able to help and represent folks. Peyton Lawfirm Dot Call.
- 37:49Suffered an injury either physically or financially, or if you have a problem
- 37:52with trying to get some insurance straightened out after this storm, send us an
- 37:57email. Call us at three h four seven five five five five six,
- 38:01or stop by twenty eight to one first avenue. We'll try and work in
- 38:05front of pointment. As of this year, we've got seventy five years of
- 38:09legal experience right here, right here, all right, Harvey, Appreciate it,
- 38:15appreciate good to see you, Harvey Payton, Peyton Law Firm, Nitro
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