Latest / Weekly Docket / Apple Faces Off in Travis Scott Case, Brett Favre's Defamation Lawsuit & Property Tax Tips

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Apple Faces Off in Travis Scott Case, Brett Favre's Defamation Lawsuit & Property Tax Tips · Weekly Docket

• 0:04
  Track 1: Welcome to the Silberman Law Firm's Weekly Docket, Episode 13, where we talk legal news and practical law.
• 0:11
  Track 1: Today is April 12th, 2024, and I'm Phil Silberman, owner of the firm and your host.
• 0:17
  Track 1: I'm joined by Austin Black, my co host.
• 0:19
  Track 1: How are you doing today, Austin?
• 0:21
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I'm doing well.
• 0:22
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: How about yourself?
• 0:23
  Track 1: Excited for the show.
• 0:24
  Track 1: What's on our weekly docket today, Austin?
• 0:26
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: for our legal news section, we're going to be talking about an update in the Travis Scott case against Apple.
• 0:35
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Apple's actually going to have to defend itself.
• 0:37
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: and then we're going to be talking about One of my favorite subjects, Brett Favre, in his defamation lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe, which was dismissed and why it was dismissed.
• 0:49
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: then we'll transition into our legal questions section.
• 0:53
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: first going over the question of whether or not a builder can require you to use their preferred lender or not.
• 0:59
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: we'll get into some statutory and policy reasons for way it is at the moment.
• 1:04
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: And then we will answer your question about how exactly you can get the over 65 property tax exemption.
• 1:11
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Can you transfer 1 percent of your property interest?
• 1:15
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: your mom.
• 1:16
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: and then finally we have our rant and rave section, which I can't say I'm too excited about because apparently we're talking about dog poop etiquette in residential neighborhoods.
• 1:26
  Track 1: I'm not super passionate about dog poo either, but This is my wife's topic and the ladies in our neighborhood are just absolutely up in arms about this and it turns out there's a lot of applicable real estate concepts that go along with people walking their dogs and what they do with the dog feces.
• 1:45
  Track 1: with that said, let's get into our legal news section.
• 1:47
  Track 1: And the first thing we're talking about is Apple was denied its motion to be removed in the Travis Scott Astroworld case.
• 1:57
  Track 1: So as everyone may remember in 2021, there was a horrific tragedy.
• 2:02
  Track 1: On the old Astroworld site in Houston where Travis Scott was performing a concert and there was a mass casualty event.
• 2:11
  Track 1: Ten people died and hundreds of people were injured.
• 2:16
  Track 1: And before we get into the legal concepts have you ever heard of Astroworld?
• 2:19
  Track 1: You're not from the Houston area.
• 2:21
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Not really familiar before this happened.
• 2:23
  Track 1: as a kid growing up in Houston, and I'm a little bit older than you, we would go to Astroworld, and it was a relatively fun experience, safe place.
• 2:32
  Track 1: I think I went there for my 11th birthday.
• 2:35
  Track 1: But nothing good ever happened at Astroworld.
• 2:40
  Track 1: recent years before it closed down now the mainstream media won't say it like this, but Astroworld essentially closed because a bunch of hoodlums took over Astroworld.
• 2:53
  Track 1: They would buy season tickets and Young kids who were up to no good would loiter about Astroworld throughout the entire term season or really all throughout the year and they would make trouble and get into fights and cause problems.
• 3:09
  Track 1: So then the families didn't want to go and the families are the big revenue generators for those types of amusement parks.
• 3:17
  Track 1: So they just shut it down.
• 3:18
  Track 1: And then after it shut down, you just ended up with this big sort of Vacant lot or space, I guess Travis Scott and the corporations that help him put on these big concerts thought it was a good idea to go ahead and stage the concert, near this Astroworld or on this Astroworld site.
• 3:38
  Track 1: So that's what happened.
• 3:40
  Track 1: Travis Scott got sued because there was a crowd surge and that's how all those people died.
• 3:45
  Track 1: They've just rushed to certain place and tragically, they were basically, crushed to death and Travis Scott is getting sued and some other vendors associated with the concert are getting sued.
• 3:56
  Track 1: Apple, Apex Security Group, Frontgate Ticketing, we all know Apple was responsible for the live streaming.
• 4:04
  Track 1: They had cameras there.
• 4:05
  Track 1: Apex Security Group, I can only imagine, was in charge of the security, which that would make sense.
• 4:10
  Track 1: If you're in charge of security, there's a direct line of.
• 4:15
  Track 1: What you're doing for crowd control front gate ticketing.
• 4:18
  Track 1: They were the ones that I believe sold the tickets So the suits in Harris County District Court, the causes of action against Apple is negligence associated with live streaming Scott's show where the crowd surge occurred.
• 4:35
  Track 1: we've been over negligence before on the show, but Austin, tell us what are the elements of negligence in Texas?
• 4:41
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: you need to first have a duty to someone.
• 4:45
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: and then secondarily, after the duty, you have breach of said duty to someone, That breach of the duty needs to be the exact, proximate cause of whatever damages, Resulted from this and there have to actually be damages.
• 5:03
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I think it's a little bit strange that Apple is in this lawsuit.
• 5:09
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I haven't read the reasons that the judge gave for not allowing their removal here, it just seems a little bit odd to me that if you are dealing with live streaming event.
• 5:19
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: where something goes sideways you can just be held liable for something
• 5:23
  Track 1: I agree with you.
• 5:24
  Track 1: It strikes me as bizarre too, that Apple is still in on this case and they didn't get dismissed out.
• 5:29
  Track 1: When I first read that news, I was thinking probably like many of our listeners, Apple's a tech company.
• 5:34
  Track 1: They were responsible for the technology for the live stream event.
• 5:38
  Track 1: That doesn't really have anything to do with the crowd control.
• 5:42
  Track 1: And that was Apple's argument, by the way, in the motion to have themselves dismissed out of the case.
• 5:47
  Track 1: But, the plaintiff's attorneys argued that, here's their angle.
• 5:52
  Track 1: Apple actually placed the cameras in or around the crowd to live stream the event, and the bulkiness of those cameras is what caused there to be less space, and therefore there was a bigger likelihood that the crowd would surge and be, stampeded or trampled to death that's the angle of the plaintiff's attorneys.
• 6:15
  Track 1: I don't know that I buy that.
• 6:16
  Track 1: Obviously, this is a huge tragedy.
• 6:19
  Track 1: But I do think that's a little bit of a reach.
• 6:22
  Track 1: if Apple placed the cameras there, do they have a duty to ensure that the cameras were not actually placed in a dangerous way?
• 6:30
  Track 1: Probably.
• 6:31
  Track 1: did they breach the duty if they were placed at a dangerous way, probably, were they the cause of this?
• 6:37
  Track 1: that causation is gonna be a problem.
• 6:39
  Track 1: I'm not a fan of this Travis Scott guy and CNN actually did an article and according to CNN, they claim that the Travis Scott concerts had a history of being very rowdy.
• 6:52
  Track 1: And here's the quote from Travis Scott at the Astroworld event.
• 6:57
  Track 1: At one point during the event, Travis Scott says, and I quote, I want to see some ragers, man.
• 7:03
  Track 1: Who won a rage in quote.
• 7:06
  Track 1: That's not good to say if you're trying to defend this lawsuit.
• 7:13
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: that is how I open up any jury statement.
• 7:16
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: if I'm arguing to the jury, I say, and gentlemen of the jury, I want to see some ragers, man, who want to rage.
• 7:23
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: And then that always gets them
• 7:24
  Track 1: Right, 12 people causing a stampede in the, in the courtroom.
• 7:31
  Track 1: But.
• 7:32
  Track 1: Certainly not a good look for Travis Scott.
• 7:34
  Track 1: Obviously his attorneys are going to argue that was, hyperbole and he really didn't want to see ragers.
• 7:40
  Track 1: That's just part of the show and reasonable people should know that doesn't mean you should trample a bunch of people to death.
• 7:48
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: on a different scale.
• 7:49
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Like I haven't even heard of anyone getting trampled at a Taylor Swift concert.
• 7:52
  Track 1: that's an excellent point.
• 7:53
  Track 1: my wife and daughter went to the Taylor Swift concert.
• 7:56
  Track 1: That was last in Houston.
• 7:57
  Track 1: And I'm not going to tell people how much those tickets cost, but no one was stampeded.
• 8:02
  Track 1: No one was trampled to death, but they, there were a lot of people there.
• 8:07
  Track 1: So Harris County district court judge, Kristen Hawkins, April 8th orders.
• 8:11
  Track 1: Do not let Apple out of that lawsuit.
• 8:13
  Track 1: So Apple is going to remain in that lawsuit and we'll see how this comes out.
• 8:17
  Track 1: All right.
• 8:17
  Track 1: So switching gears, let's talk about Brett Favre's defamation suit against Shannon Sharp over the welfare case dismissed.
• 8:25
  Track 1: Now this one has some complexities to it.
• 8:29
  Track 1: And we're going to have to go step by step so the listeners can really understand what happened.
• 8:35
  Track 1: let's start off with who is Brett Favre?
• 8:38
  Track 1: he was predominantly a quarterback for the green Bay Packers.
• 8:42
  Track 1: 20 seasons as an NFL quarterback, Multiple MVPs, won a Super Bowl.
• 8:48
  Track 1: Amazing quarterback, but he has a history of trouble.
• 8:51
  Track 1: He struggled with, painkiller addictions.
• 8:54
  Track 1: Now, you can't fault the guy too much for that.
• 8:56
  Track 1: He's a quarterback.
• 8:57
  Track 1: He's getting beat up every week.
• 8:59
  Track 1: Week in, week out.
• 9:01
  Track 1: But, he did get addicted to some painkillers.
• 9:04
  Track 1: So Brett checks into rehab.
• 9:06
  Track 1: I think he ends up getting some of that addiction under control, but unfortunately he was involved in a sexting scandal back in 2008 where he allegedly sent some lewd photographs to Jennifer Sturger who was a game day host for the New York Jets at the time.
• 9:26
  Track 1: the photos were inappropriate.
• 9:27
  Track 1: you could say they were below the belt.
• 9:30
  Track 1: some people who are maybe a little more crass might say there's a term for that.
• 9:33
  Track 1: I don't know if you're familiar with it.
• 9:35
  Track 1: They call them Richard photographs.
• 9:37
  Track 1: All right, then we get to the Mississippi welfare scandal and in 2022, this was the state's largest ever public corruption case.
• 9:47
  Track 1: Now here's the, here's what was going on.
• 9:50
  Track 1: the feds, the federal government was administering a program funded by federal money to help poor people in Mississippi on welfare.
• 9:59
  Track 1: Now that happens all the time.
• 10:00
  Track 1: You'll see federal funding come in to the states to be administered by the states.
• 10:06
  Track 1: That's how a lot of programs are run.
• 10:08
  Track 1: And the purpose of these funds were to help people, have childcare.
• 10:13
  Track 1: get job preparation and work assistance.
• 10:16
  Track 1: The Mississippi State Department of Human Services then funnels the money to nonprofits, which is also somewhat typical.
• 10:23
  Track 1: It's the layers of government here, federal money to the state of Mississippi, the state of Mississippi doesn't want to do the job, hires out nonprofits to, to try to do good with the money.
• 10:35
  Track 1: So you can see that these things are often.
• 10:37
  Track 1: opportunities for abuse because of the multiple layers.
• 10:42
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Sure.
• 10:43
  Track 1: So what are the non profits do?
• 10:44
  Track 1: They start doing some unscrupulous things with the money.
• 10:48
  Track 1: Turns out in 2017 Brett Favre, needs a new volleyball facility for his alma mater.
• 10:56
  Track 1: The University of Southern Mississippi, fine, prestigious university his daughter happens to be playing there at the time.
• 11:04
  Track 1: So somehow he's supposed to do some speaking engagements and then the money's going to go, to Brett Favre and then Brett Favre is going to donate the money.
• 11:14
  Track 1: to the university to build the volleyball, or maybe the money's just going to go to directly to the university.
• 11:18
  Track 1: I, I don't know, but it was something like that.
• 11:22
  Track 1: So one of these nonprofits founded by Nancy New is the lady's name, she starts making some payments to, Brett Favre.
• 11:30
  Track 1: Are you familiar with the term smoking gun, Austin?
• 11:35
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yes, I'm
• 11:36
  Track 1: Yes,
• 11:37
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: smoking
• 11:37
  Track 1: sometimes our clients call us and they want to give us a fact pattern and they want to tell us how great their case is and they're on the plaintiff's side.
• 11:46
  Track 1: And we do civil law.
• 11:47
  Track 1: So it's often a business lawsuit or a breach of contract lawsuit and someone's done them wrong.
• 11:52
  Track 1: We're trying to garner evidence We're oftentimes looking for a smoking gun and very rarely do we ever get an amazing text message.
• 12:02
  Track 1: where the defendant almost literally says, I did it.
• 12:05
  Track 1: Okay.
• 12:06
  Track 1: But you can listen to this in Austin.
• 12:09
  Track 1: You tell me if you think this is a good smoking gun.
• 12:12
  Track 1: so Brett Favre is texting with Nancy New, and here's what the text from Brett Favre says to the lady running the nonprofit that's going to pay him the money.
• 12:22
  Track 1: And I quote, will the media find out that we're using welfare funds intended to help the poorest residents of America's poorest state to build a volleyball center?
• 12:32
  Track 1: Question mark.
• 12:34
  Track 1: And it gets better.
• 12:36
  Track 1: Nancy news response is nah.
• 12:40
  Track 1: Oh yeah.
• 12:41
  Track 1: The governor is fully on board.
• 12:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yeah, so my opinion on this is, those studies that were done about like concussions in the NFL,
• 12:52
  Track 1: All
• 12:54
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: like irrefutable evidence of the fact that Brett Favre had a concussion.
• 12:59
  Track 1: right, Brett.
• 13:01
  Track 1: Brett Farm has had multiple concussions.
• 13:03
  Track 1: I,
• 13:04
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: clearly.
• 13:05
  Track 1: and to put this stuff in text, don't, we always tell our clients.
• 13:08
  Track 1: I mean that, our client, the less in writing to be blown up on a three by five in the courtroom at trial is better.
• 13:16
  Track 1: Anyway, Nancy later pleads guilty to 13 felony counts related to this.
• 13:22
  Track 1: Brett Favre has not been criminally prosecuted, but he did give his 1.
• 13:28
  Track 1: 1 million, I think he ends up giving the money back.
• 13:30
  Track 1: According to Forbes, he still owes some interest on the money that he hasn't paid back yet.
• 13:37
  Track 1: Now that's the stage for this Mississippi welfare scandal.
• 13:42
  Track 1: Along comes Shannon sharp.
• 13:44
  Track 1: who is Shannon sharp, Austin?
• 13:46
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: former NFL receiver, according to our show notes.
• 13:49
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: That
• 13:50
  Track 1: Yeah, yes.
• 13:53
  Track 1: Tied in slash receiver.
• 13:54
  Track 1: The story was he was too big to play receiver, but too small to play tied in.
• 13:59
  Track 1: He was in between.
• 14:01
  Track 1: But despite those handicaps, he was able to be an eight time pro bowler and he was inducted into the hall of fame.
• 14:08
  Track 1: So good player in his own right, not quite the storied career as Brett Favre, but Shannon Sharp retired to become an analyst for CBS and he's doing his typical sports analyst, some type of sports broadcast.
• 14:23
  Track 1: And this is what Shannon Sharpe says about Brett Favre and the Mississippi welfare scandal.
• 14:30
  Track 1: He says that Favre was taking from the underserved, that the former quarterback stole money from people that really needed that money, and that someone would have to be a sorry person to steal from the lowest of the low.
• 14:45
  Track 1: I don't disagree with that.
• 14:47
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I don't disagree with that either, and I think, and sorry, wasn't that text message out before he said this?
• 14:54
  Track 1: I don't know the answer to that.
• 14:57
  Track 1: Brett Favre immediately filed a defamation lawsuit.
• 15:02
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: huh.
• 15:03
  Track 1: This thing gets filed in federal court.
• 15:05
  Track 1: I assume on diversity jurisdiction, I believe all defamation law is state law.
• 15:15
  Track 1: So I'm guessing Shannon Sharp is a resident of another state.
• 15:19
  Track 1: Brett Favre is a resident of Mississippi.
• 15:22
  Track 1: you get diversity jurisdiction to get into federal court, and they allege the dispute is over 75 grand and they're in federal court.
• 15:30
  Track 1: All the defamation law across the states are in the United States are pretty similar.
• 15:35
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yeah.
• 15:35
  Track 1: what are the elements of Texas defamation, Austin?
• 15:38
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: You need to publish a false statement that publishing does not need to be in a newspaper.
• 15:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: It can be like on social media, et cetera.
• 15:45
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: that statement needs to have defamed the plaintiff.
• 15:49
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: that needs to be defamed.
• 15:51
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Either false statement or something made with reckless disregard for the truth.
• 15:57
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: and then there need to be damages resulting from that statement.
• 16:01
  Track 1: Brett Fav is alleging Shannon Sharp said something that was just completely false.
• 16:06
  Track 1: it, and that defamed Brett Favre and Brett Favre, has some damages.
• 16:13
  Track 1: By the way, damages are the hardest thing to prove in a defamation case.
• 16:17
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Anytime someone calls us, this person defamed me, they say all this stuff, but okay.
• 16:22
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: What are your damages from this?
• 16:25
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I have trouble sleeping.
• 16:27
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Okay, that's not gonna work.
• 16:29
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I'm sorry.
• 16:29
  Track 1: right?
• 16:30
  Track 1: Yeah, but the damages have to be quantifiable, and that's typically hard to do.
• 16:38
  Track 1: What's one of the biggest defenses to defamation
• 16:41
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: In
• 16:42
  Track 1: see?
• 16:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: S., it is truth.
• 16:44
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: In some countries, is not a defense to defamation.
• 16:48
  Track 1: luckily we still live in a free country.
• 16:50
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: no, you'd be surprised actually, like in South Korea, truth is not a defense.
• 16:56
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: To defamation you can say something that is absolutely true about something But if they determine that it defamed them Like if it made them look bad in the public eye, you could still be held liable and damages for
• 17:08
  Track 1: that, that is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.
• 17:11
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: every korean client I have here at the firm like if we're involved in litigation matter They always want to sue for defamation And I have to explain them the differences between defamation here in the u.
• 17:21
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: s there
• 17:22
  Track 1: Okay, so now, yeah, you definitely are allowed to say true things in the United States, thankfully.
• 17:29
  Track 1: Now, there, there oftentimes are some higher standards.
• 17:32
  Track 1: So if you're saying something like, right now we've got this show and we talk about a lot of public figures.
• 17:37
  Track 1: It's Biden.
• 17:41
  Track 1: Donald Trump, public figures, and then there's what they call limited purpose public figures where you have to have actual malice to qualify for a defamation case.
• 17:51
  Track 1: maybe Brett Favre was a limited purpose public figure when you think about all the stuff he does in Mississippi.
• 17:58
  Track 1: for the state and for this welfare program and the alleged speaking engagements that he did or did not do.
• 18:05
  Track 1: I don't know, but so the U.
• 18:07
  Track 1: S.
• 18:07
  Track 1: District Court, just ruled that Sharpe's comments were constitutionally protected free speech and Sharpe was using rhetorical hyperbole.
• 18:19
  Track 1: So I agree with that.
• 18:21
  Track 1: This is a rare thing.
• 18:22
  Track 1: I was not 100 percent clear on what rhetorical hyperbole was before we prepared for this show.
• 18:28
  Track 1: Can you explain to the listeners Austin what rhetorical hyperbole is?
• 18:32
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: rhetorical hyperbole would be like, if you are just exaggerating something for the purposes of getting a point across, right?
• 18:40
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: and not, exaggerating it to the extent.
• 18:42
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: That it would fall into the falseness area of the defamation.
• 18:47
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I assume there's some sort of sliding scale there.
• 18:50
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I don't know what that is.
• 18:51
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: The judge apparently didn't say what that was either.
• 18:53
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: But yeah, one example we have is that there was one Supreme Court case that said the use of blackmail to describe negotiation tactics, right?
• 19:05
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: if you say that was blackmail, but it was just a negotiation tactic, that's not necessarily accurate and that could be rhetorical hyperbole.
• 19:12
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: using the word scab to describe a strike breaker.
• 19:16
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I would say that's more of a archaic term than it is a rhetorical hyperbole, but
• 19:21
  Track 1: a lot of people don't know what scab is, but yeah, if you're a member of a union and everybody's supposed to go on strike and the one guy decides to not go on strike and go into work, he's a scab.
• 19:31
  Track 1: also if maybe there's a lady you don't like and you say, oh, she's a witch.
• 19:36
  Track 1: you don't literally mean she's a Satan worshipping witch, you just mean that she's a mean old nasty person.
• 19:42
  Track 1: That would be an example of rhetorical hyperbole.
• 19:46
  Track 1: Judge says what Shannon Sharpe said was rhetorical hyperbole.
• 19:51
  Track 1: even if the statements were taken as untrue, What he said about, doing that to the lowest of the low is rhetorical hyperbole, and that's constitutionally protected free speech.
• 20:04
  Track 1: Judge dismissed the case.
• 20:06
  Track 1: Brett Favre gets poured out on his ear, and I think that's a good thing.
• 20:10
  Track 1: I'm not a Brett Favre fan.
• 20:12
  Track 1: I'm not sure who is left that's a Brett Favre fan, but judge dismisses the case.
• 20:17
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: was this dismissed?
• 20:18
  Track 1: This was a recent deal.
• 20:19
  Track 1: So last couple, I guess.
• 20:23
  Track 1: Yeah, sure.
• 20:24
  Track 1: He can keep spending, keep, I mean, the guy's having trouble, according to Forbes, Brett Favre is having trouble paying three, 400, 000 of interest back.
• 20:32
  Track 1: So if he wants to, if he wants to appeal this, more power to him.
• 20:37
  Track 1: He can pay all that money,
• 20:38
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yeah.
• 20:38
  Track 1: legal, legal fees, but all right, let's go ahead and answer some legal questions.
• 20:43
  Track 1: And the first question we have is, Can the builder require you to use a certain lender?
• 20:49
  Track 1: So if you're a homebuyer and you're buying from a builder, oftentimes the builder will say, Hey, you got to use my lender and the homebuyer thinks, I don't really want to use your lender.
• 21:00
  Track 1: So can the builder require that Austin?
• 21:02
  Track 1: Yeah,
• 21:05
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: you to use their lender.
• 21:06
  Track 1: we've had RESPA, also known as the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act.
• 21:11
  Track 1: And that's meant to keep closing costs way down for homebuyers.
• 21:17
  Track 1: I don't know that's been ultimately successful.
• 21:20
  Track 1: And the Biden administration is on a kick about that right now and maybe rightfully so.
• 21:24
  Track 1: We'll see how that comes out.
• 21:25
  Track 1: But RESPA has all these rules to keep closing costs down.
• 21:30
  Track 1: And what RESPA says is you cannot offer incentives tied to using a particular vendor like a lender.
• 21:39
  Track 1: They can't say, Oh, you'll get a lower rate if you use our lender.
• 21:44
  Track 1: the builder can in fact offer incentives.
• 21:47
  Track 1: They just can't be tied to a particular lender.
• 21:50
  Track 1: So the answer here is if you're a buyer, use whatever mortgage company gives you the best deal, whichever one you like.
• 21:56
  Track 1: Shop around for the lowest rates, the lowest fees.
• 21:59
  Track 1: That's what the government wants you to do.
• 22:01
  Track 1: That's what you're entitled to do as a buyer.
• 22:03
  Track 1: Take care.
• 22:03
  Track 1: If you've got a builder out there trying to strong arm you, there is an agency, by the way, I'm usually not a fan of this agency, but in this case, if you're a buyer, they can help.
• 22:13
  Track 1: It's called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• 22:16
  Track 1: They regulate this and you can file a complaint there.
• 22:19
  Track 1: All right, so next legal question.
• 22:21
  Track 1: Yeah,
• 22:24
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: to get the over 65 property tax exemption?
• 22:27
  Track 1: so what's the over 65 property tax exemption, Austin?
• 22:31
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: If you are 65 or older, you get a larger property tax exemption on taxes.
• 22:40
  Track 1: you knock that one out of the park.
• 22:42
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: you.
• 22:42
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: That's why I went to law school.
• 22:44
  Track 1: Yeah, it's actually a significant benefit.
• 22:47
  Track 1: Once you're over 65, you get an additional exemption.
• 22:50
  Track 1: Many of the taxing jurisdictions in Texas will offer that additional exemption.
• 22:56
  Track 1: So like the school district or the county.
• 22:59
  Track 1: will have a, an exemption amount.
• 23:02
  Track 1: So your property taxes will be lower on your home.
• 23:05
  Track 1: You also get a, frozen school tax, which is a really big deal.
• 23:10
  Track 1: So if you happen to buy your property at a good price and real estate generally goes up, your school taxes are frozen and your school taxes are a huge percentage of your total property tax bill.
• 23:21
  Track 1: So you get some significant tax breaks.
• 23:24
  Track 1: If a person over 65.
• 23:26
  Track 1: claims a homestead and qualifies for that exemption.
• 23:29
  Track 1: So what a lot of people do who are say middle aged and they've got a mother or a father who are advanced in years and they want to have mom and dad are often living with them anyway.
• 23:45
  Track 1: So they get this idea, hey, can we get some extra tax benefits because mom and dad live with us?
• 23:50
  Track 1: But the county or the appraisal district is going to make mom or dad go on that deed.
• 23:56
  Track 1: that sounds like a great idea, but there are some problems with that.
• 24:00
  Track 1: for example, you grant the property over to mom and dad, it's no longer your property.
• 24:04
  Track 1: If mom dies and mom doesn't have a will, then that property is going to go To her heirs via intestacy and mom may have other Children.
• 24:14
  Track 1: You may have brothers and sisters and you probably don't want your brothers and sisters getting that property.
• 24:20
  Track 1: So there are better ways to do that.
• 24:22
  Track 1: You still have to trust.
• 24:25
  Track 1: though.
• 24:26
  Track 1: And what we do for clients that call us that really trust mom is we do a warranty deed from the child, the person who really bought the house over to mom so they can get the over 65 exemption that gets recorded in the property records.
• 24:44
  Track 1: That way mom owns 100 percent of the property.
• 24:47
  Track 1: and the appraisal district is going to give them there for a hundred percent of the exemption.
• 24:51
  Track 1: Because what happens Austin if you just add mom to the deed and they own half?
• 24:56
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: You're probably only going to get a proportional reduction in your property taxes, so it would just be reduced by half of the amount it would be if mom owned the entire amount of property.
• 25:05
  Track 1: And the people calling us, they're looking to get a hundred percent of that benefit on the exemption.
• 25:10
  Track 1: So then what we do is we have mom sign a transfer on death deed or a ladybird deed.
• 25:17
  Track 1: And those are two types of deeds.
• 25:19
  Track 1: that when mom dies, the property will automatically go back to the child who was paying for the house, who the house really belongs to.
• 25:30
  Track 1: So therefore you don't have to worry about probate or the property going to mom's heirs.
• 25:36
  Track 1: And then it all goes back to you.
• 25:38
  Track 1: And because that transfer on death deed and that lady bird deed is a type of interest that doesn't vest.
• 25:46
  Track 1: until mom dies, the appraisal district can't say anything about it for purposes of taking away the additional exemption as allowed in the tax code.
• 25:57
  Track 1: Now there, there's some risk.
• 25:58
  Track 1: both the transfer on death deeds and the ladybird deeds are also revocable by mom.
• 26:03
  Track 1: So you have to trust that mom's not going to revoke this deed and screw you out of your property, right?
• 26:09
  Track 1: this strategy is not for everybody.
• 26:11
  Track 1: It's a relatively aggressive strategy to get lower property taxes.
• 26:16
  Track 1: But it has worked in the past, but talk to a tax lawyer or a CPA about the federal income tax effects.
• 26:23
  Track 1: but it is something.
• 26:24
  Track 1: that we've done many times that has worked historically.
• 26:29
  Track 1: All right, let's get into our rant and rave section now.
• 26:32
  Track 1: And this is one that I guess Austin and I aren't too excited about, but apparently there are some listeners and some people out there that are very worked up about this.
• 26:39
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: So dog poop in residential neighborhoods.
• 26:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I personally live in an apartment, so I haven't dealt with dog poop in residential neighborhoods since back when I lived with my family.
• 26:50
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: It's a long time ago.
• 26:51
  Track 1: let's say you lived with your family.
• 26:53
  Track 1: You've got a dog, right?
• 26:54
  Track 1: I know you have a dog.
• 26:55
  Track 1: What's your dog's name?
• 26:56
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: His name is Arlo.
• 26:58
  Track 1: Arlo.
• 26:59
  Track 1: Okay, cute name.
• 27:00
  Track 1: So when you were living with mom and dad, and you had Arlo at that time, did you ever take Arlo for a walk?
• 27:07
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yes.
• 27:08
  Track 1: did Arlo ever do his business, maybe on a neighbor's property?
• 27:14
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: At times, yes.
• 27:16
  Track 1: Now, were you that kid walking around with the plastic bag?
• 27:19
  Track 1: And did you pick up Arlo's poop?
• 27:21
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yeah, throw it away.
• 27:22
  Track 1: Okay, and you walked with that poop all the way back to your house and threw it away in your trash can.
• 27:26
  Track 1: Well,
• 27:30
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: little, receptacles along the walking path to place that in.
• 27:34
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: So you don't actually have to walk all the way back.
• 27:37
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: But that, I would walk all the way back, correct?
• 27:39
  Track 1: a very well planned neighborhood for dog poop in many neighborhoods like mine.
• 27:44
  Track 1: That's not what's going on.
• 27:46
  Track 1: You don't have those cool little receptacle.
• 27:48
  Track 1: So what's happening is Arlo is pooping, in your yard, essentially.
• 27:54
  Track 1: and some of them will leave it there, which that's not appropriate.
• 27:56
  Track 1: We all, I think we can all agree with that.
• 27:59
  Track 1: But what people are doing is they're just pick up the, the business, the feces, the dog poo, and then they just leave it where the trash can goes.
• 28:08
  Track 1: Cause if it's like a trash can.
• 28:09
  Track 1: Monday and the trash comes on Wednesday.
• 28:11
  Track 1: I guess, I guess the hope is the trash man will pick it up and put it away.
• 28:14
  Track 1: Is that, is that kosher Austin?
• 28:16
  Track 1: Is that appropriate?
• 28:17
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: they leave it, like, just in the little bag?
• 28:20
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: They don't put it in a larger bag or anything like that?
• 28:23
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: They just
• 28:23
  Track 1: Yeah.
• 28:23
  Track 1: Yeah.
• 28:24
  Track 1: They, they, they just leave it in the little bag on the ground.
• 28:27
  Track 1: And in fact, there were some neighbors.
• 28:28
  Track 1: My wife tells me this is a nice neighborhood.
• 28:30
  Track 1: Some people bought this really nice house and they just showed up to the house to move in one day and there was just a bag of poop in their driveway.
• 28:37
  Track 1: That's welcome to the neighborhood.
• 28:39
  Track 1: Here's your housewarming gift.
• 28:40
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Yeah, I don't, I'm sure, obviously it happens in your neighborhood.
• 28:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I've never heard of that happening in another neighborhood.
• 28:46
  Track 1: this topic actually has some decent legal issues that we're going to bring up.
• 28:51
  Track 1: first thing, most people don't realize that the front of their yard is not completely their own property.
• 28:57
  Track 1: Your property extends out into the street, but most likely, the part of the street where the dog is actually doing its business is a public right of way.
• 29:07
  Track 1: And public rights of way, it's an easement.
• 29:10
  Track 1: That gives the public the right to do things like park cars, and they can build sidewalks, and people can walk on the sidewalks.
• 29:17
  Track 1: Now, I don't know if the public easement is for the purposes of leaving dog poo.
• 29:23
  Track 1: I would say that's probably not the purpose.
• 29:25
  Track 1: and we've decided on the Silverman law firm that is completely inappropriate and it's probably a violation of a city ordinance.
• 29:34
  Track 1: The way this gets regulated is you'll have HOA rules and you're not supposed to do that.
• 29:38
  Track 1: Maybe if the HOA board sees you out there doing that, you're going to get fined.
• 29:43
  Track 1: You probably also have city ordinances where you're not supposed to do that, so the city can enforce that.
• 29:48
  Track 1: now You don't have a problem if they put it in the trash cans, right?
• 29:53
  Track 1: So the trash is out
• 29:54
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: if they put it in the trash can the day that, like, if the trash is at the street, the day that they're going to pick it up, someone walks by on their walk and puts it in there.
• 30:04
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I don't have a problem with that because it's getting picked up right away.
• 30:06
  Track 1: My wife told me they make signs to put on trash cans with the no, no poo in this trash can sign now.
• 30:13
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Interesting, I'm sure that stops it.
• 30:16
  Track 1: Yeah, so we think we looked up the law on this Austin and I did and we've come up with a cause of action and the cause of action is called a trespass to channels.
• 30:27
  Track 1: And if you don't know what channels are, that's just personal property.
• 30:30
  Track 1: So we think it's possible if you take some poo and you put it in a trash can, then maybe that's a trespass to chattel.
• 30:38
  Track 1: And what's the, what are our elements to trespass to, to chattels Austin?
• 30:43
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: You need to interfere in some way with the property of another person without their consent, and there need to be damages resulting from that.
• 30:52
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I think we've got the first three elements really easily satisfied, but there's The last one of damages, I really don't, I know what those damages would be like, are people cleaning their trash cans every single week after the trash comes?
• 31:05
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: I don't think so.
• 31:07
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: So I don't know.
• 31:08
  Track 1: Austin, I'm gonna, reveal a little bit about myself here.
• 31:12
  Track 1: I actually pay a service to come and clean my trash cans.
• 31:16
  Track 1: Austin's laughing hysteric.
• 31:17
  Track 1: That's one of those laughs that you couldn't hear the laugh.
• 31:20
  Track 1: Yes.
• 31:21
  Track 1: It's not my wife pays the service and they got the service comes out and they clean the trash cans.
• 31:26
  austin_2_04-12-2024_095228: Okay.
• 31:27
  Track 1: we've got squeaky clean trash cans.
• 31:29
  Track 1: and I think it's for, these are first world issues.
• 31:32
  Track 1: So.
• 31:34
  Track 1: I think that brings our show to a close.
• 31:38
  Track 1: I've been your host, Phil Silberman.
• 31:40
  Track 1: Austin Black has been my co host.
• 31:42
  Track 1: Like us, follow us, review us, wherever you get your podcasts.
• 31:46
  Track 1: if you have a real important legal question or not an important legal question, email us at info at Silb law firm.
• 31:53
  Track 1: com.
• 31:53
  Track 1: I N F O at Silb, S I L B law firm.
• 31:57
  Track 1: com.
• 31:57
  Track 1: Say you want it publicly answered in the podcast.
• 32:00
  Track 1: I've been your host.
• 32:01
  Track 1: Phil Silverman, Austin Black has been my.
• 32:04
  Track 1: co host See you later, everybody.
• 32:06
  Track 1: Bye.