Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 04/20/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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04/20/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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one. This is five ad WCAH asked the voice of Charleston Thursday morning here
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in the Capitol City. And Tom Peyton with the Peyton Law Firm Nitro is
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with us three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight with your questions
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about the law. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
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Tom is here? Okay, Tom is hearing a delay? How is that?
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Tom? I am here, I'm hearing you twice right now for something,
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well, that is not good at all. Okay, let me see
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how we set better? No, not better? Okay, not sure why
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that's happening to Okay, how's that? Nope, it's the same. Okay,
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we can get by. I'll just hear an echo of myself and you.
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Okay, not sure why that's happening, but anyway, I'll try to
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figure it out. But good morning, Tom, and I want to start
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off. We talked a little bit about you'd be going to trial this Yeah.
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Yeah, actually had a trial this. Yeah, I had a trial
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on a land situation. Yeah. Put a little post on our peytonaw from
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Facebook page about it and interesting case. It's kind of a good example of
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the work that we do that's outside the realm of civil injury litigation, which
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of course is our bread and butter. But we take pride in helping people
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when we can, and we try and stay well rounded in what we do
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because people need lawyers for all kinds of things, not just when they're seriously
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injured or have a family member killed in an automobile accident, which, of
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course lawyers that do that type work want those cases, which is why your
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tds are flooded with those ads and billboards all over the place. But this
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was a case, you know, it gives you some satisfaction in handling.
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I'm glad we could help these folks out. So I represented oh, I
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would say, describing maybe soul of the earth type folks. Country folks really
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live out in the rural area of Canall County, and they had been sued
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by a landholding company that owned probably thousands of acres around these folks home place
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that they had actually represented one person, but his relatives were pro say and
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we were all aligned. So essentially they when we had the trial, the
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folks that didn't have lawyers didn't really do much as far as they didn't have
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to get up and represent themselves. I called them as witnesses and asked them
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questions. But the cases about this land company sued them alleging they were trespassers.
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They had inherited the property in two thousand and two from their father,
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father in law, and then three of them, the three brothers, it
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was their grandfather. And so now twenty years later they get sued claiming that
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what they basically considered their backyard for decades and decades was not theirs and it
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belonged to a landholding company owned thousands of acres around them, and we couldn't
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get it worked out, which is it's kind of a shame in this one
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because it was the disputed area was only it was less than an acres point
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eight five acres. But like I said, oftentimes these boundary line disputes are
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over parcels of land that don't have significant market value. They just have personal
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value. And so we we got ready and had a jury trial and it
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went so that was good. Judge Bailey presided. Jennifer Bailey and Knoke County.
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She's been on the bench I think since two thousand and two she was
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appointed initially, I think she might have worked for the legislature. Was Yeah,
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she was one of the top attorneys in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yeah,
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it's a point, and I don't know. I think I may have
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tried a case to jury for her. We were talking after the trial,
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but if I did, it's been eighteen twenty years ago and I don't have
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a good recollection of it. But she ran a really good courtroom started she's
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ready, starts on time. Didn't have a law clerk because of a Uh,
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well, I think she's getting ready to get one. But they don't.
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They don't funded really great in the circuit court system as far as what
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they can pay their law clerks. By the Supreme Court, I think,
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and so um, but still not having a law clerk. She did a
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really good job running the trial. Of course, she's been on the bench
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for twenty years, so she's seen a lot. And uh, she's smart
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and and she's uh new courteous to the lawyers and their time, and and
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and the parties as well. So I thought that was good. But we
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tried the case for a couple of days and um, in the end we
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ended up prevailing. So we were able to retain all the land that my
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clients said was theirs and fended off a large landholding company. And it's a
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good example where I mean Frank Cloud represented one of them, because that's the
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that's the fellow that could afford to pay a lawyer. And so, uh,
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that's a good an example of how you know, regular folks can stand
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toe to toe with somebody with almost unlimited financial resources, at least when you
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look at their landholdings and so and we argued, we've we've talked about this
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a little bit here on the air. It seems like real property issues really
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uh you know, well, almost everybody has land. We're one of the
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top states I think in land ownership and home ownership versus renting and that kind
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of thing. So it comes up a lot. But we had really good
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survey a guy named Younger Fellow, but he was good, named Caleb Hensley
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that works for Alleghany Surveying. He was he was good, and so we
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had, you know, arguments, and we're talking about going back to like
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deeds from nineteen oh seven and trying to you know, like I think I
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talked about this last week. But you know, when you talk about land
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and surveying and boundaries, unfortunately, it's not like a puzzle here and anywhere
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probably, but particularly in West Virginia with the tre and we have so everything.
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If you go look at deed one, D two, D three and
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they're all properties you know, are contiguous, we're next to each other.
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You may look at all those different deed descriptions and it doesn't fit together.
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Like a puzzle. You have overlaps sometimes sometimes you have gaps. And we're
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talking about going back to figure out descriptions that reference some distances, but also
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with the meanders of a creek or to this particular we had the words twin
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Spanish oaks, I think in our case, and that was from a nineteen
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oh seven they're gone, long gone, but twin Spanish oaks. Yeah.
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Wow. Like so, so there's some art to surveying in a way.
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You've got to go and try and interpret from these old deeds where the line
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is. And so we had a survey that said, well, you know,
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here's where the line is, and it actually met up with what my
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clients have generally been using over the last twenty years. So we had to,
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you know, the argument that well, even if you go by the
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deeds, we own it. However, if you want to disregard the deeds
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or go with the opponent's surveyor who said there was a different line from the
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deeds or the historical documents, then we still own it by what's called adverse
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possession. That's what we've kind of talked about a little bit here on the
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radio, is your ability to own land when you two different It's all based
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on use. But if you have a tital document, like an old d
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where you thought the line went to it turns out it didn't really go to
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there, but you've used it like as if it were your own for more
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than ten years. Then you can own that potentially, but you have to
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go to court and prove it and then or you can not have be misnaked
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at all. I mean, you could have a deed that limited your clearly
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limited your bounty line to point X, but you've always used way beyond that
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to point why even though you never had a deed that let you believe that.
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Then you can go to court and try and prove the areas you actually
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use. You Now, now that's not simple, and you got to prove
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it by clear and convincing of it. It's not the normal beyond or by
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preponderance, which is what civil cases are. Not as hard as beyond a
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reasonable doubt like a criminal case, but a burden of proof that's in between.
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So it's harder than a regular case to prove. And there's multiple elements
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that are from old case law. But you have to possess it openly,
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exclusively, continuously, adversely hostily, and those are all terms that are defined
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and it's a bit complicated, but this was kind of a classic textbook case
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in my opinion, because we had folks that had, I mean, in
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the last twenty years, they'd planted an apple orchard, that's what I'm calling.
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There were ten to twelve apple trees planted right there in the area dispute,
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had a water well on it that served their homes were on the track
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that wasn't in dispute, but the water well served them. Electric run to
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the water well for the pump place and for a light post, ads trampoline
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for the kids garden tilled every year. I mean the kind of thing that
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would put anybody who thought they owned it instead on notice that they need to
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take action to either reach some agreement here or file a lawsuit to get them
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off. And that's what this land company did. They sued them, accusing
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them of being trespassers, and we're wanting the court to order removal of all
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these structures and water well, etc. And so Jerry did the right thing.
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Ruling our favorite said, I was about five o'clock on Tuesday evening.
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So now the line will be set where our surveyor said the line was,
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and we'll incorporate that survey in a court order and then it'll be recorded in
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the record room and it'll be set now until infinity unless somebody changes it.
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So it seems to me and Tom Paton's with us as the Peyton Law Firm
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in Nitro every Thursday three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
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or four three four five fifty fifteen. Somebody say, well, maybe won't
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say but as well, it's just point five eight acres. But for a
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family point eight five point eight five yeah less yeah, yeah, lesson.
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But for a family that's it's significant. Well, they're gonna have to move
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there. Well, first of all, had been their grandfather, at least
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my clients grandfather had purchased it in nineteen fifty seven. And every every witness
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I put on the stand, as far as the folks that were sued,
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my guy and his relatives essentially had grown up there. I mean, we're
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talking about living there, however old they are. For the brothers. And
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then I think the daughter of the fellow that had passed away had lived there
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sixty some years, because she moved there when she was seven, never moved
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away. And the line of demarcation where we start the area of dispute was
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literally two feet behind one of my folks house trailers, so it was like
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their backyard. So yes, extremely important to them. On Really I'm still
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a little bewildered why it was so important to the opposition and we couldn't get
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it worked out. But that's the way it goes. I mean, you
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don't have to resolve something U V agreement if you don't want to and you
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don't mind paying a lawyer to see what happens, then I guess that's their
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right. But Joy did the right thing and this one, so you know,
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it was good, good for our for our client as family, and
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it's good to get a result when you're fighting against somebody who has more significant
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resources probably, but that's what that's the thing about a jury, and you
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take that you have a constitutional right to jury, and this is what puts
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you on a even playing field. And so you know, we've we've had
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some what they called tort reform stuff and the legislature here of the last few
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years, um that limits your ability to get relief from a jury. And
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now I think it was this loser pays type thing, meaning so you pay
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your own lawyer's fee when you get into a lawsuit in America normally and in
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West Virginia unless somebody's acting in bad faith, vexatiously or something, or there's
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a statute that allows you to get attorney fees that applies to wrong determination cases
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if it's discrimination and some other consumer issues. But for example, if they
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pass a loser pays case on so if we would have lost, we would
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have had to have paid the other side's lawyers fees, not me of my
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clients. So you apply that, which all sounds great when you're talking about
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these big money cases where everybody's got insurance, But you get in a case
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like mine, where you've got a landholding company that, well, if they
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lose, they'll pay our lawyer's fees. They don't care. It's not going
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to affect their bottom line that much. But it would scare my people,
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you know, would it would? It would? It has a chilling effect
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on their ability to prosecute their case because not only are they risking the fact
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that they might have they're gonna have to pay me to do it. They
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won't have to pay the lawyer on the other side if they happen to lose
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and the jury doesn't do what we are asking them to do. So you
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got to watch for things like that, because it's all they in the laws
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lectures. Sometimes you get nee jerk reactions to one situation or certain particular cases
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where maybe you know it seemed unfair as a result about who had to pay
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whose lawyers fees or something, But you got to watch because that that law
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can apply from the top down, and so you got to be careful.
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And everyone out there should be skeptical of any law that removes the right for
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normal folks to have a trial by jury where you have the ability to have
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six people sitting there that don't favor anyone that you help select decide your case.
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And that's important, and that's what keeps the field level. That's also
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why big companies, incorporations and insurance companies pay tons of money to lobbyists,
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et cetera to try and enact to what reform because they don't like that unknown
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and they can't control that unknown, and it gives normal folks power that ordinarily
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the most wealthy have. And so anyway, we saw the system at work
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this week and and and of course went in my favors. So I think
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the system worked quite well. I don't know about the other side, but
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but I mean I think if you watched that trial objectively, you would agree
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with me that the right thing was done. And that's been my experience with
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juries. Most of the time, they don't always agree with my side.
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And if any lawyer says they never lose a case to a jury, well
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then they don't try any cases because it's going to happen. Um, let
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me ask a couple of things here on that. How was the jury selection?
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I mean, how'd that? Obviously it went yeah, pretty good.
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I mean, we don't have six people. We actually had an alternate.
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Uh so the alternate, you know, it's a six person jury, so
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we ended up getting to seven. But yeah, you it was pretty easy,
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um in this one because nobody really knew anybody, and it's not something's
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been publicized, so you know, the judge Bailey brings in on a twenty
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people or so. Actually, uh, former Spomport Justice Brent Benjamin was on
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the in the jury pool, so he's sitting in the back, but he
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never got pulled up into the box, right. And and there was another
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law actually Alex Massia was put into the box route he was governor's counsel and
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not this governor but previous Yeah. Uh, but he he was, he
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was struck off the jury, so he didn't he didn't sit on it.
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But I didn't take long to pick a jury. Um. And then the
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alternate, you know, it gets to sit through the whole trial, and
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then when it's time to deliberate, he's told he's the alternate, and then
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it's to go home. So we ended up having I also think and we'll
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take a break after this, but I also think it proves a point about
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the Painton Law Firm. I really, I mean, these cases are important.
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You take these cases and you're ready to go to trial if you have
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to, sure, that's right? Yeah, I can't. I mean,
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and these are you know, the power of patent is kind of our tagline
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now and has been since we got the jingle here fifteen years ago. But
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when our coffee mugs, it is I guess Dad coined this. It was
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there when I came. But it's what a law firm should be, right,
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And that's there for a reason, because a law firm the way we
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see it, and there's nothing wrong with what other lawyers do. And we
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don't do everything they don't do bankrupts on the ingom tax, but you try
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and do things that help people other than just the things that can make you
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a lot of money. And so what I invasion a law firm should be
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is somebody who does more than just serious injuries and accidents and wrongful deaths,
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but is willing to help people through everyday things like we did in this case,
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or deeds or wills, or basic family law and the state planning and
17:53
so security, disability and workers comp from time to time. They're difficult cases
17:59
and certainly don't make very much money on workers comp cases as lawyers, if
18:03
any. But you know, if we get a client that's got a workers
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compass you he thinks valid, we'll try and take it on for him if
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we can afford to do it. But that's it's probably you know, we
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need we need more lawyers like that, really, I think because just everyday
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people have everyday questions and they need to ask them. They need somebody there
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because I and we'll talk about it here surely, but I mean asking lawyers
18:29
questions just to make sure you're on the right track, I mean you shouldn't.
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We try to answer those questions when we can, and we don't charge
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for any initial questions or emails back and forth. But sometimes a real quick
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conversation or an email or two will save you a lot of headache in the
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future. Yeah, thanks, straight down, And I'm just thinking of the
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family after that verdict came down to the decision came down from the jury.
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How better they slept Tuesday night? Seriously sure, and they don't have to
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worry. Oh, I'm sure it worried them. True, it worried him.
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And of course they saw it as just being what should have been done
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the whole time. But at the same time, they're just sitting there nervous.
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We have to move. Felt pretty confident, you know whatever. Right,
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the trial gone pretty well, I mean it's gone. You never know
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what he get these trials, you worry about everything and how it's gonna play
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I didn't played out pretty well the way we wanted it to play out,
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and the jury was accidentally out for about twenty five minutes. But you know,
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when there's nothing like sitting there waiting, you know, the four person
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the jury hands a piece of paper to the baila, they hand it to
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the judge and then even covering it as a media that's a that's that's yeah,
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it's like nothing like that. There's nothing like that you're waiting to read
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and you don't know whether, oh my gosh, this is jury buying what
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that other lawyer was selling, even though I thought it was unreasonable. You
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just don't have any idea because you're throwing out these weird terms most folks aren't
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familiar with, like caller of title and claim of title and adverse possession and
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hostile use and all this, and so you know, you know, you
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don't know. You can't converse back and forth with the jurors when you're talking
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to them, you know, So you just you're the one talking and you
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hope they're listening. And that's when they were. So, yeah, the
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folks are really happy. They'll be able to sleep a little easier at night.
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I suspect they'll be putting some fence out up or something. The trespassers
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out, all right, Tom three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
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will take or one and only break Tom Payton to the Payton Law Firm in
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Nitro. The lines are open for your questions. Three or four three four
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five fifty eight fifty eight three or four three four five fifty to fifty at
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of Charleston. Tom Payton with a Payton Law firm in Troe with us as
23:00
Tom and his father Harvey have been for more than twenty years on Thursday mornings.
23:04
Right here, three or four, three four or five fifty eight fifty
23:07
eight three or four three four or five fifty a fifty the number to call
23:11
Tom. You wanted to talk about some questions you've received. Yeah, so
23:17
since one real property here, I've got to just do a little PSA and
23:22
yeah, just because I've had and we get these costs from time to time,
23:26
it just seems like over the last few weeks, I've gotten, oh
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gosh, four or five of these, So you know, the transfer And
23:34
when I talked about adverse possession earlier, it does have to be quote adverse,
23:40
meaning it can't be by agreement. It's like if I let Jeff Jenkins,
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Yeah, you can put a trailer over here and level my land and
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it's all by agreement. You don't adversely possess my property. It's got to
23:52
be you using as if you own it without my permission. So the calls
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I've had lately seems like I don't know why they just come and you never
24:03
know why they come. They come in clusters. But it's folks that are
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putting improvements on property like where they live, on land that they don't own,
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and it's it's stories like well mom said she was going to give that
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to me, or they just tell me when they call, well dad gave
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that to me, it's like, well, how did he do that?
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It's like, well he told me. It's like, well that's not now
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he's dead, or now there's a mortgage on it. And yeah, the
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problem is that, with very very few exceptions, you know, verbal statements
24:41
or declarations about who's going to get land are not going to be valid.
24:48
And if somebody dies after saying that, then it's they're really not going to
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be valid because it has to be set forth in their wills, so you
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know, they're just and then they become nightmares because folks have put pretty expensive
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manufactured homes on properly they don't own, built regular stick built on foundation homes
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on properly they don't own. So my word, and if everything goes just
25:15
perfect, then it may all work out. I mean, if you're an
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only child, for example, and your parent doesn't do a will, well
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you're still going to inherit it now you haven't bought it to look and see
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where they have a mortgage on it or not because you didn't do any title
25:27
work or anything. But if you're out there, I mean, I just
25:32
strongly suggest this to protect yourself. If you're going to put any substantial improvement
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on property that you care about and don't worry about it just going away someday
25:42
without you get anything back for it, or if you're going to live there
25:45
in a structure or dwelling that you build or you pay for, you need
25:51
to talk to a lawyer to make sure you have some security that you own
25:56
that property are going to and there are multiple ways to do it. And
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if you can afford to bet pay cash or bard up money to buy home
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and put on the property, you should be able to spend thousand bucks maybe
26:07
two thousand dollars to get a survey done, cut that piece out and have
26:14
whoever's property you're putting it onded some interest to you. Then you're secure.
26:18
And you know people don't want to spend you know, I have folks that
26:23
will well, I've been paying m X amount of dollars a month. Well,
26:26
I mean like thousand dollars a month or something with nothing in writing.
26:30
That's going why didn't you? Then you tell them, well, here's what
26:33
it will cost to do some title work and get the deed done a thousand
26:37
bucks or something total or less, and they balk at it. It's like,
26:41
well, you've been paying a thousand dollars a month on some verbal agreement
26:45
that could just be considered rent versus a payment to purchase, because you don't
26:49
have any things solid in writing it says you were buying the property, and
26:53
and you know, you just got to think about that in a long term
26:57
fashion. You know, not you can't be shortsighted. So you got to
27:00
think about how, how if I've put tens of thousands of dollars in this
27:04
property, can I secure the fact that it won't be taken from me or
27:07
that I won't be forced to move out? And generally to get that done,
27:11
you've got to get it deeded to you. And so you know that's
27:15
my I guess that's my soapbox for today. And if you have questions about
27:21
that process and you're gonna do it, certainly can call us, but you
27:22
know, to call us ahead of time and we can tell you. Here's
27:26
what you can do to get this done right. Then you can make an
27:29
informed decision whether you want to do it or not. You can certainly not
27:32
and take the risk, and if everything works out perfect the way you hoped
27:34
it would, then you'll be fine. But you know, I don't get
27:37
those calls. I get the calls when there's a crisis. Right. Don's
27:42
on the line with Tom Peyton. Don go ahead, thanks for calling.
27:45
Hey, Hello, good morning done. I was recently divorced and to get
27:56
my wife off of the ex wife's offers alone or mortgage loane, do I
28:00
have to resign it? Um? Generally yes, but that's up to your
28:07
lender. So um, if she is on the loan as a what i'd
28:14
call code debt or a co borrower, then they can rework it for you
28:22
if they're willing to. But that all depends on the bank or the lenders
28:27
underwriting. I mean, if they're satisfied when you sign on a promisory note,
28:32
which is the promise to pay money back when a mortgage your land stands
28:37
as collateral. But if they foreclosed and take it and sell it, then
28:41
whoever signed that promisory note, it could potentially be personally liable as well.
28:45
So right now you got to think of it from the bank standpoint. They've
28:48
got two folks that are potentially on the hook if this It doesn't matter what
28:52
the divorce order says, because the lender's not a party to that, so
28:56
they can now maybe you would have to protect her from the debt via the
28:59
court order or something and divorce, but a lender can come after both of
29:03
you, and and so from a lender standpoint, if you can convince them
29:07
that my credit is good enough, you don't need her on this note anymore,
29:11
and perhaps you can get them to rework it without a quote refinance.
29:15
Otherwise, yes, you've got a bar of money from that lender or a
29:21
different lender who's willing to load you that money without her on there as a
29:26
co signer. And then you refinance and it pays off the first note,
29:30
and then she's out of it. And of course you wouldn't want to do
29:33
any of that without her contemporaneously at the same time executing a deed conveying her
29:41
interest in the land to you. Yes, right, yeah, taken care
29:47
of um. I just can't get the interest rates right now that I have,
29:53
right so there's different ways. I mean, I don't know if your
29:56
divorce is final or not. I mean you don't. Sometimes they won't.
29:57
He says it is okay, So you know, I don't know what the
30:00
divorce order says in particular. But yeah, that's the you know, that's
30:04
the that's the problem right now, if you had any way to now,
30:07
A lot of times those divorce orders won't necessarily require you to They may require
30:11
you to make a good faith effort to, for example, refinance to remove
30:15
her name. Otherwise, a lot of times those orders will just have what's
30:18
called hold harmless language. So the order will say, non, you're responsible
30:23
for the debt. You have to hold her harmless from that debt, meaning
30:26
you need to make all the payments timely so it doesn't affect her credit.
30:32
As long as you do that, you know, it's fine, and eventually
30:36
it'll be paid off. Sometimes that's not agreed to by the opposition because it's
30:41
going to be a liability. If they go to barrow money, you know
30:45
they're gonna they're any creditor or lender will see that as a liability for them
30:49
on the bucks and so you know, then they've got to go take the
30:52
divorce order and see if they can convince them that they don't really owe that
30:56
debt because you're going to take care of it. But yeah, that's I
30:59
feel because the rates have gone up, I mean they've doubled wade or tripled
31:03
for mortgages over the last sixty seven years. I guess leading really gone up
31:07
extremely fast here in the last six months or so. So but yeah,
31:11
if you I mean, I guess you can try and string it out.
31:15
It depends on what your coote order says. You don't want to be in
31:18
contempt of court. A lot of times there's there's contingencies too. If you
31:21
can't get a refinanced or her nate being qut off of it after a certain
31:26
amount of time, then you may have to sell it or something to And
31:30
depends on what the courte order says. So yes, right, okay,
31:34
that helps, thanks a lot. Eight fifty two on five eight whs the
31:38
voice of Chaluston Tom Payton's with us to the Payton Law Firm in Nitro three
31:41
or four three four five fifty eight fifty is our number three or four or
31:45
three four or five fifty eight fifty eight time you wanted to make a comments
31:48
on this huge out of court settlement. Yeah, I was, you know,
31:52
as we were in our trial. Of course, everybody here locally,
31:55
we were all kind of busy with that a team, I guess. So
31:59
they were supposed to start the big dominion voting machine versus Fox Quote News Monday,
32:07
right, and then there was a So I was in there picking a
32:08
jury money, but I think they delayed it. Yeah, and without telling
32:13
anybody why, So you figure out they're working on a settle, and I
32:15
guess it came out what Tuesday at some point that they resolved it for seven
32:21
hundred and eighty seven million, almost eight million. I was kind of hoping
32:23
they would have some kind of there was a non monetary term. I think
32:28
Fox had to say something about it wasn't really a mission that they lied.
32:36
It wasn't. It was kind of a milktoast type in between her. It's
32:39
like we they acknowledged that the judge's rulings about some false information or valid rulings
32:50
or something like that. I mean, it was really really watered down.
32:52
But it's too bad because that would have been that would have been the trial
32:55
of the century for media. Maybe Ever, probably there's gonna be some I
33:01
mean, there's gonna be some fallouts. So you've got you know, it's
33:06
come out to the public enough that the high executives, in particular mister Murdock
33:13
I knew of some of this bad behavior, and the argument be he knew
33:15
the risk of putting out this type what i'll call propaganda ended up getting him
33:22
sued to the tune of almost a billion dollars. So now the shareholders are
33:24
probably going to be filling lawsuits against officers of the company, and we'll see
33:31
how that falls out, because I'm sure the stock took a hit, and
33:35
I think there might be some other defamation cases still going against Fox News from
33:39
some other entities, So we'll see how that plays out. But it's even
33:44
for Fox News, it's a significant amount and it's gonna move the meter.
33:46
And so you're gonna have these shareholder lawsuits probably alleging bad behavior by the corporate
33:52
execs that resulted in this big payment and the downturn in stock or value of
33:55
the company, and those are I'm sure those are being worked up right now.
34:01
If it was just kind of simple negligence, I don't know that you
34:04
would have that kind of case but you've seen the things that came out and
34:08
the judge and the you know, the knowledge that behind the scenes folks and
34:15
his zex had about the false nature of some of these claims that were pumping
34:21
out. You know, you look at that at from a shareolder's new points,
34:24
like, well, why did you do that? I mean, why
34:27
do we need to do that to keep these ratings up? And now what
34:30
you've done has gotten to send a bind and we've i mean seven hundred eighty
34:34
seven millions just what they're gonna have to pay dominion not I'm sure they paid
34:37
millions and millions and lawyers fees to defend this thing, and so well,
34:43
there's going to be some fallout from it. I kind of wish there was
34:45
a little better non monetary behavior restricting component to the settlement, but I don't
34:52
think there was. It was a they had to make a mild statement admitting
34:57
that the judge's findings about some of them matters being false or valid findings or
35:02
something to that effect. And of course this keeps them It's a hefty price
35:06
to pay, but it keeps them from putting certain people on the stand.
35:08
Right. Oh yeah, all the pundits, the pseudo news people and even
35:15
the corporate exects, like I mean, mister Murdoch, Rub Murdock's like ninety
35:19
ten years old. But he I mean I saw him walking to his card
35:22
and he gave a deposition. Yeah, he looks pretty spry. I mean,
35:24
he looks good. But but who would want to do I mean,
35:27
going through a trial, public trial, we were cross examined in front of
35:30
everyone. I think most of the depositions have been kind of laid out based
35:34
on all the motions that were filed. But that's different than being an open
35:37
court with cameras on it and just getting drilled by lawyers about how do you
35:43
explain this? And I mean I could ruin some of those pundits that they
35:47
put on in the evenings, could just ruin them. So I'm sure there
35:52
was internal pressure to resolve this at all costs, and they did. I
35:57
mean, I actually they paid less than what dominion I think, yeah,
36:00
almost half of what they initially demanded, but I wasn't sure where they were
36:02
really coming up with that number anyway. I'm not sure what their damages were
36:06
as far as like did they really lose business? So there not supplying the
36:08
voting machines to particular government entities because of what Fox Quote News put out there.
36:15
I don't I don't know. That wasn't the fun part of the case,
36:19
so nobody heard about that side of it, right Tom Peyton Payton Law
36:22
Firm in Nitro and Tom the best way to get ahold of you guys here.
36:27
Yeah, So there's a lot of ways to get ahold of au.
36:28
So you can stop by of course twenty eight one First Avenue. First Avenue
36:31
is the main drag through Nitrobe and if we're available, we'd be glad to
36:36
talk to you. And of course we have a good staff has some longevity
36:38
so they can answer basic questions. Or you can give us a call at
36:40
the office at our number three oh four seven five five five five five six,
36:45
or if you're more comfortable sending an email or somewhere you can't be on
36:50
the phone, you can go right to our website at Peyton Law Firm dot
36:52
com and that's Pey not pay and then you can submit an email inquiry and
36:59
it goes right to my computer and Dad's computer and we try and get back
37:01
the same day or the next day. Actually have a chat feature that we
37:06
added through Facebook Messenger on our website, so you actually click on that We've
37:10
got I just started that a couple of weeks ago. It's a new feature
37:14
on Facebook, so you can actually go in there and go through. I
37:15
think you have to have a Facebook account for me to respond. So if
37:20
you're comfortable to using Facebook Messenger, you can click on a little tab on
37:23
our website and send a message that way. But so email, phone,
37:29
call, stop by and if if it's off hours and it really is an
37:32
emergency, if you call, you can push through to a voicemail to me,
37:37
I get back with you the next week. But if it's a true
37:39
emergency, I should be able to check it and then get back with you
37:44
if necessary. Okay, And just the folks out in the Alum Creek area,
37:47
you know, you just think about them and well, yeah, makes
37:52
you you know, we're not gonna make a lot of money or any off
37:54
of this, but it's one of those things that makes you feel good.
37:57
It's a thing that it's a good one. The justice system can do the
38:00
right thing, and I really feel like it. It worked this week for
38:02
them. Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. And from start to finish,
38:07
real quick, how how long was that whole whole thing. Well, we
38:08
started Monday morning, we had to take a break and not start again until
38:13
one on Tuesday. Yeah, the jury came back, uh like five till
38:19
five right Tuesday, Yeah, evening. Since it's been a couple of years
38:22
you've been working with, the families have been lessening. Oh yeah, loss.
38:24
It was followed in twenty twenty one. Yeah, okay, so November
38:28
twenty twenty one, yeah, yeah, we yeah, and it's one we
38:30
tried to resolve. We had mediation twice, once in office and once out
38:34
on the scene and just couldn't get it, get it done. Okay,
38:37
Tom, good seeing yet. That's Payton Law Firm dot Com. Three or
38:40
four seven five five fifty five fifty six three or four seven five five fifty
38:45
five fifty six. ABC News is next. This is five eighty w c
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HS W c H A two four three d RFN W two and three Q
39:00
Cross Lanes b w VRC Media Station. We are proud to live here too
39:08
from ABC News. I'm Derek Dennis. The Supreme Court considering a decision on
39:14
the controversial abortion pill MIFA PRIs stone for now Justices of issue to stay on
39:19
the drug. The justices have several options here. They could allow those restrictions
39:22
to go into effect, and that would immediately change access to the abortion pill
39:27
across America. Or they could block those restrictions while the case is litigated.
39:32
Or they could take the case up themselves. ABC's Terry Moran deadly