Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 10/30/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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10/30/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
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Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
0:22
Speaker 2: it's employees or WVRC media of Courts. Oh Created equal.
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Speaker 3: When nats come here in a caton ray can.
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Speaker 4: Robson tops On, you can have the long win for you.
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Speaker 4: This morning, it is time to put the power of
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Speaker 4: Peyton on your side. Three zero four three four five
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Speaker 4: fifty eight fifty eight. Give us a call, control the conversation.
0:54
Speaker 4: Tom Payton is in studio with us this morning. Tom,
0:56
Speaker 4: Good morning. How are you doing this morning?
0:57
Speaker 2: I'm doing great? How are you doing Dale?
0:58
Speaker 4: I'm doing okay. It's a I think it's officially autumn.
1:02
Speaker 4: The weather this morning is very autominal. It was inevitable,
1:05
Speaker 4: of course, and you know nice, Honestly, I kind of
1:08
Speaker 4: like it other than.
1:08
Speaker 2: The different boardrobe. Now it's our ward robe.
1:12
Speaker 5: And you know, like my stepfather, he grew up in
1:17
Speaker 5: Florida and then moved to West Virginia with no connection
1:21
Speaker 5: here whatsoever. And he always said he he traveled through
1:25
Speaker 5: and just kind of wanted to get somewhere where there
1:26
Speaker 5: were seasons and uh. I guess you can get tired
1:29
Speaker 5: of the sun. I'm kind of like hot weather, and
1:32
Speaker 5: I think like a lot of people do. But there's
1:35
Speaker 5: nothing like that first good spring day after you've been
1:38
Speaker 5: through a dreary wintertime. And I kind of see where
1:41
Speaker 5: he was coming from. But that was his reason for
1:44
Speaker 5: moving here from Florida, was he liked the seasons and uh,
1:50
Speaker 5: and some other things. Obviously because he never moved back
1:53
Speaker 5: and lived here for forty years of his life.
1:56
Speaker 2: I think so.
1:58
Speaker 5: But Yeap, got some rain out there, so be careful
2:00
Speaker 5: driving in. Actually, the interstate traffic was really really good.
2:03
Speaker 5: I didn't see any crazy drivers, you know, tailgating or
2:07
Speaker 5: leaving out of traffic at unreasonable speeds. Hopefully it stays
2:11
Speaker 5: that way this morning and tills the season. It's time
2:16
Speaker 5: for college basketball season.
2:19
Speaker 4: Unbelievable, we're already at the college basketball part of the year.
2:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember.
2:23
Speaker 5: It's starting this early all the time, but it is
2:25
Speaker 5: this year, and so we got a little giveaway. It's
2:29
Speaker 5: time for some some giveaways. Yeah, that's right. So we've
2:33
Speaker 5: got tickets to the opening game for WVU games Tuesday evening.
2:40
Speaker 5: I believe it starts at seven o'clock and I collect
2:45
Speaker 5: to go see it. We got all new players except
2:49
Speaker 5: one I think, and the one player that's a holdover
2:51
Speaker 5: I don't think really had any playing time previously, which
2:55
Speaker 5: we've got Ross Hodge as the coach. So you usually
2:59
Speaker 5: would think it's a rebuilding year, just like we thought
3:01
Speaker 5: going into last year. But as you can, as we
3:04
Speaker 5: know from last year, anything can happen, and uh hopefully
3:08
Speaker 5: they'll have a good a good season. But we have
3:12
Speaker 5: season tickets and Dad and I can't make it on
3:15
Speaker 5: Tuesday evenings, so we got our season ticket package available
3:18
Speaker 5: we're going to give it away. There's four seats. There
3:21
Speaker 5: are actually two and two, so there's two seats that
3:24
Speaker 5: are court level actually just kind of left of underneath
3:29
Speaker 5: one basket, but right there at the end of the
3:31
Speaker 5: visitors bench, basically my seat.
3:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good.
3:34
Speaker 5: It's you know, if you've I've been to a lot
3:36
Speaker 5: of games at the coliseum. You sit up high, it's
3:38
Speaker 5: it's good to be in that atmosphere, but man, it's
3:40
Speaker 5: especially with my eyes, it's really hard to see the action.
3:43
Speaker 5: Sometimes you can't tell if the ball even goes through
3:45
Speaker 5: the hoop when you're sitting up in the top level,
3:46
Speaker 5: and it's it's two years of giving. We've been lucky
3:51
Speaker 5: enough to get these good seats, and we hate to
3:55
Speaker 5: have them stay empty. I hope that's not. It may
3:59
Speaker 5: re redo the seating process in Morgantown here for too long.
4:03
Speaker 5: That's what we're hearing anyway, and so I just hope
4:04
Speaker 5: it's not. They're not made unaffordable for everyone because you
4:09
Speaker 5: get big businesses by them. I just think that sometimes
4:12
Speaker 5: they go in a desk drawer and you get a
4:14
Speaker 5: lot of empty seats. We always like to try and
4:16
Speaker 5: have ours given to somebody who will appreciate them and
4:21
Speaker 5: who wants to use them. So we have two seats
4:23
Speaker 5: right on the floor. We have two seats on the
4:25
Speaker 5: third row lower ball as well, so really good. We
4:28
Speaker 5: also have a parking pass so you can count quite
4:30
Speaker 5: a lot, so you can just pull right in next
4:32
Speaker 5: to the call, see them walk in, maybe know somebody
4:35
Speaker 5: in Morgantown. But we'll do a little little gifting. We'll
4:38
Speaker 5: make it easy, I think with Google these days, but
4:41
Speaker 5: since we have an all new team. But we'll do
4:44
Speaker 5: is if anybody wants them that can call in, they
4:45
Speaker 5: can name three of the players from our team for
4:48
Speaker 5: this year. Then they will get this ticket package. And
4:51
Speaker 5: I really hope you use them and don't sell them.
4:53
Speaker 5: You know, I can't control that ultimately, but we really
4:55
Speaker 5: want to get.
4:55
Speaker 2: Ye get them used.
4:56
Speaker 4: Let's let's do it in good faith. Threes are a
4:58
Speaker 4: four three four five fifty eight, three four five fifty
5:00
Speaker 4: eight fifty eight if you're interested in these tickets to
5:02
Speaker 4: West Virginia Mountaineers, the first basketball game of the regular season.
5:05
Speaker 4: This is a regular season game that's going to be
5:07
Speaker 4: taking place against Saint Mary's on Tuesday, November fourth. We
5:11
Speaker 4: already got calls coming in this morning, so let's go
5:12
Speaker 4: ahead and go straight to the phone line. Identify yourself, caller.
5:15
Speaker 4: What's your first name?
5:18
Speaker 3: Luther?
5:18
Speaker 4: Hello, Hey, Luther, go ahead. Do you have the answer
5:21
Speaker 4: for Tom?
5:23
Speaker 3: Yes, Tray some Eagle staff. We have obi Aha. I
5:30
Speaker 3: think I'm pronouncing that right, and we have Honor Huff.
5:36
Speaker 2: Let's see I think obi aha, what's his first name?
5:44
Speaker 4: If you could give me a call back there? I
5:45
Speaker 4: accidentally just h you call her. I apologize for that
5:48
Speaker 4: trying to find that one.
5:50
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there he is, okay, I had to look
5:51
Speaker 2: it up as well.
5:52
Speaker 4: Did he get off reading?
5:53
Speaker 3: Yeah?
5:53
Speaker 2: He got all three?
5:54
Speaker 4: All right?
5:54
Speaker 2: That was Luther.
5:55
Speaker 4: I think that yeah, Luthering. Are you back with us? Yes, sir, okay,
5:58
Speaker 4: sorry about that one, great fault.
6:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for calling in.
6:02
Speaker 4: So Luther, you're our winner. Let me get information. I
6:05
Speaker 4: just need your phone number here. Which is the phone
6:07
Speaker 4: number that you called in on? Is that a good
6:08
Speaker 4: one to contact yet?
6:10
Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
6:10
Speaker 5: And what we've got with these are hard copy tickets
6:13
Speaker 5: because we have a parking pass and I have them
6:14
Speaker 5: with me. So would you rather pick them up here
6:16
Speaker 5: at the station or you can come buy our office
6:18
Speaker 5: in Nitro.
6:19
Speaker 3: Actually I'll be down that way here shortly.
6:22
Speaker 5: At the at the station. Here the station, okay, I'll
6:25
Speaker 5: leave them at the front desk. Great, enjoy the game.
6:27
Speaker 4: Very good, Luther, I got your information here. We'll leave
6:29
Speaker 4: before you up front.
6:30
Speaker 2: All right. That was easy.
6:31
Speaker 5: Mount Saint Mary's so it should be a should be
6:33
Speaker 5: a wind knock on wood.
6:35
Speaker 4: Let's go ahead and see we have other callers on.
6:37
Speaker 4: We don't have any more tax if you maybe don't
6:39
Speaker 4: have a question or com maybe someone wants to talk
6:41
Speaker 4: to Tom. That's very true, good morning caller. We did
6:44
Speaker 4: go we did give away our tickets already. But you're
6:46
Speaker 4: on the air with Tom Payton. If you have anything
6:48
Speaker 4: you want to discuss this morning.
6:51
Speaker 2: Well, I do appreciate it.
6:52
Speaker 3: I enjoy your show, and thank you very much.
6:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for calling in. We might have some more
6:56
Speaker 4: later on. Thanks for calling in this morning. We really
6:58
Speaker 4: appreciate it. Right, So the ticket part of the show
7:01
Speaker 4: is done with it with Google the Well it was,
7:03
Speaker 4: but I'm more. I'm more, I'm more encouraged by the
7:06
Speaker 4: pace of the calls. That means that there's some excitement
7:08
Speaker 4: about that's the season and people are anticipating opening.
7:11
Speaker 2: Game, first game of the season. I don't.
7:13
Speaker 5: I mean Mount Saint Mary's is obviously a smaller school.
7:15
Speaker 5: They've had some good teams in the past, and you
7:18
Speaker 5: never know coming out. I mean remember one year, it
7:20
Speaker 5: was a different ballgame, different type of team, but we
7:23
Speaker 5: did lose our opening game one year to Buffalo.
7:25
Speaker 2: I think end up being pretty good.
7:27
Speaker 5: I remember that I think they made instuble a and
7:29
Speaker 5: then they were pretty good the following year, so we
7:32
Speaker 5: kind of overlooked them. I don't think we'll have that
7:34
Speaker 5: problem with all new players and a new coach. They
7:36
Speaker 5: should be motivated to play. And I mentioned to see
7:39
Speaker 5: him in season when we're trying to get to a
7:41
Speaker 5: game as soon as I can. But yeah, hopefully Luther
7:43
Speaker 5: will enjoy these. I'll leave them right out front at
7:45
Speaker 5: the front dew so we can stop buying and get them.
7:47
Speaker 5: That's good stuff, all right, good? And uh, what's actually
7:51
Speaker 5: some big things going on in the legal world. We had, Uh,
7:57
Speaker 5: we have the ongoing litigation saga of the opioid crisis
8:03
Speaker 5: here locally unfortunately, and you know a lot of those,
8:08
Speaker 5: almost all of them I think resolved in some manner.
8:10
Speaker 5: And we had a big case that actually went to
8:13
Speaker 5: trial and it wasn't a jury trial. It was a
8:15
Speaker 5: bench trial, so meaning it was the judge serves in
8:19
Speaker 5: essence in the place of the jury. It was in
8:21
Speaker 5: federal court City of Huntingdon. I don't think it was
8:26
Speaker 5: the Cabal County entity itself, but the city of Huntington
8:29
Speaker 5: at least, and there may have been other plaintiffs, but
8:34
Speaker 5: the City of Huntington is the is the is the
8:36
Speaker 5: lead I think plaintiff in this case. But they tried
8:38
Speaker 5: a case for I don't remember how long the trial went,
8:41
Speaker 5: you know, weeks and weeks, and then it was Judge
8:44
Speaker 5: Faber in Federal District Court, judge, long time experienced judge, but.
8:51
Speaker 2: He should have written ruling. It's been years now.
8:54
Speaker 5: Probably two to three years ago, and and ruled against
8:59
Speaker 5: the the city and dismissed the claim.
9:02
Speaker 2: And it was.
9:04
Speaker 5: Kind of a novel claim. It's under a they filed
9:08
Speaker 5: a cause of action under what's called nuisance law, which
9:12
Speaker 5: nuisance you think of as normal people. Well, that's something annoying,
9:15
Speaker 5: is that that's a nuisance. But it's a term of
9:18
Speaker 5: art in the legal field, and it allows a lawsuit
9:25
Speaker 5: or a cause of action. Basically the normal way in
9:29
Speaker 5: which you see it is when there's an unreasonable condition
9:35
Speaker 5: or use of land and it unreasonably interferes with a
9:41
Speaker 5: person's use of and enjoyment of their property. And then
9:45
Speaker 5: in West Virginia, our Supreme Court has kind of subdivided
9:49
Speaker 5: those claims into what they call quote public nuisance and
9:52
Speaker 5: private nuisance and private nuisance in essence as if it's
9:56
Speaker 5: an acute problem, it affects one person, like maybe one
9:58
Speaker 5: property in it. Example would be maybe somebody puts in
10:04
Speaker 5: a gun range or an ATV track and a residential
10:10
Speaker 5: neighborhood and the noise affects property values and the and
10:14
Speaker 5: the other neighbors use of enjoyment of their property and
10:17
Speaker 5: un reasonable manner. That could be a private nuisance, and
10:20
Speaker 5: potentially those that are harmed by that could file lawsuit
10:24
Speaker 5: to stop that conduct. Then we have a public nuisance,
10:28
Speaker 5: which is something that you know, interferes more generally with
10:34
Speaker 5: the public as opposed to an individual property center. And
10:37
Speaker 5: that's the that's the case that was filed regarding these shipment.
10:44
Speaker 5: It was against the drug manufacturers against the shipment of opioids.
10:48
Speaker 2: Uh, I mean.
10:51
Speaker 5: Grossly disproportionate amount of opioids into the state of Westvinia
10:56
Speaker 5: based upon our our citizenship and and learly in my
11:01
Speaker 5: mind anyway, and based on what I know contributed significantly
11:04
Speaker 5: to our you know, drug addiction and all the two
11:09
Speaker 5: opioids and all the fallout that comes there front, which
11:12
Speaker 5: is you know, burden on the abuse neglects system. A
11:17
Speaker 5: lot of grandparents raising grandkids because the parents are have
11:21
Speaker 5: drug problems.
11:22
Speaker 3: But the.
11:24
Speaker 5: Yeah It's favor ended up dismissing it on on a
11:27
Speaker 5: couple of different grounds. One he just found that this
11:32
Speaker 5: nuisance law that the plaintiffs were were asserting doesn't provide
11:39
Speaker 5: a cause of action for the distribution of opioids and
11:46
Speaker 5: its effect on the general public. He just said, well,
11:49
Speaker 5: that's not what it's traditionally been applied to, and so.
11:56
Speaker 2: No cause of action there.
11:57
Speaker 5: And then what the City of Huntington had done is
11:59
Speaker 5: they had they had kind of an evidence put forth
12:02
Speaker 5: what's called an abatement plan, a plan to try and
12:06
Speaker 5: fix the nuisance or the results of the nuisance. And
12:09
Speaker 5: it was a comprehensive, I think two point five billion
12:13
Speaker 5: dollar plan. I don't know the details of it. It
12:15
Speaker 5: was a mixture of you know, rehabilitative facilities and things
12:19
Speaker 5: like that. And I think certainly Cable County and maybe
12:23
Speaker 5: the City of Huntington also were participants in other cases
12:26
Speaker 5: that resolved. So just because this case was lost didn't
12:29
Speaker 5: mean they didn't receive any of the funds. And we
12:31
Speaker 5: actually have a task force in West Virginia. Now I'm
12:34
Speaker 5: not shoot sure who's on it. But to help decide
12:39
Speaker 5: how the funds from settlements are distributed within the state.
12:45
Speaker 5: But the planet's appealed that to the Fourth Circuit Court
12:48
Speaker 5: of Appeals, which is the Federal Court of Appeals, and
12:51
Speaker 5: it's been pending for quite some time. I think they
12:55
Speaker 5: submitted it on brief and maybe argued it about a
12:58
Speaker 5: year and a half ago. But the Fourth Circuit issued
13:01
Speaker 5: they're ruling this week. And what it's been a long
13:05
Speaker 5: time in coming because in this type case, even though
13:09
Speaker 5: it's in federal court, it's based on West Virginia law.
13:12
Speaker 5: So federal court has jurisdiction or some particular jurisdiction law
13:18
Speaker 5: that allows certain claims to proceed in federal court even
13:23
Speaker 5: though the federal court is attempting to apply West Virginia law.
13:26
Speaker 5: And of course not of course, but you know, our
13:30
Speaker 5: state Supreme Court ultimately is the arbiter on what on
13:33
Speaker 5: the interpretation of West Virginia law. So when it got
13:35
Speaker 5: to the Four Circuit on appeal, the Fourth Circuit actually
13:38
Speaker 5: certified a question back to our Supreme Court, meaning they said, hey,
13:44
Speaker 5: we're basically trying to predict what Westernia Supreme Court will do.
13:49
Speaker 5: So here's the question. Does West Virginia nuisance law provide
13:53
Speaker 5: a cause of action for what's assume of over distribution
13:59
Speaker 5: or excess of distribution of opioids by manufacturers, And our
14:03
Speaker 5: Supreme Court declined to answer the question. They said it
14:09
Speaker 5: was very short opinion, but it was in essence, we
14:12
Speaker 5: declined to answer that because it's too factual dependent, and
14:17
Speaker 5: you know, the question didn't have you don't get to
14:20
Speaker 5: list all the evidence in a certified question. It's a
14:23
Speaker 5: very short question and it doesn't really provide any facts.
14:26
Speaker 5: So our State Supreme Court balked on it. And so
14:31
Speaker 5: it's factory based. This would be more of an advisory
14:33
Speaker 5: opinion without you know, knowing the underlying facts or being
14:38
Speaker 5: before our Supreme Court. And so it went right back
14:42
Speaker 5: to the Fourth Circuit. They're left and they recite this
14:44
Speaker 5: in their opinion this week that you know, we invited
14:47
Speaker 5: the Western Supreme Court to decide it, and they decided
14:50
Speaker 5: not to decide.
14:51
Speaker 4: As couldn't they decide that an abstract or do they
14:53
Speaker 4: have to have all the way they say it is
14:54
Speaker 4: possible depending on facts, I mean, just to know if
14:57
Speaker 4: it's a possible outcome.
14:59
Speaker 5: I kind of thought that they could as a as
15:02
Speaker 5: a as a general matter. I didn't think the question
15:06
Speaker 5: was too broad or lack specificity, but but they didn't
15:10
Speaker 5: and said, you know, we're staying out of it. It's
15:12
Speaker 5: it depends on the facts of the case. Now what
15:15
Speaker 5: they They didn't answer it in the negative and say no.
15:18
Speaker 5: Of course, they didn't say there is a cause of
15:20
Speaker 5: actions either, but they seem to leave the question open
15:25
Speaker 5: when they reference facts based on it just depends on
15:28
Speaker 5: the factional scenario. So it wasn't it wasn't an answer
15:31
Speaker 5: to the question, but it kind of you can almost
15:33
Speaker 5: infer from it. Yeah, I think so, because it's kind
15:35
Speaker 5: of like, well, if the implication from our Supreme Court's
15:40
Speaker 5: response is that, well, you it's possible, it just depends
15:43
Speaker 5: on the facts. And so Force Circuit takes it back,
15:46
Speaker 5: and of course they have a fairly lengthy opinion that
15:48
Speaker 5: recites a lot of facts. And then some of the
15:51
Speaker 5: defenses were, you know, the drug distribution companies were arguing, well,
15:57
Speaker 5: we complied with there's a lot of federal regulations governing this,
16:01
Speaker 5: with the DA et cetera. And and you know we
16:04
Speaker 5: technically we complied with federal law, so we didn't do
16:07
Speaker 5: anything unlawful and you know, they're basically at they're they're
16:12
Speaker 5: the top line of distribution. So we you know, we
16:15
Speaker 5: just fill pharmacies orders and then we have doctors prescribing them,
16:19
Speaker 5: and then you have you know, folks that are of
16:21
Speaker 5: course prescribed medications who are getting them potentially illegally and
16:26
Speaker 5: spreading them to folks who don't have prescriptions. So there's
16:30
Speaker 5: all kinds of causes for this problem between us and
16:34
Speaker 5: the ultimate harm. And so we we can't be at
16:37
Speaker 5: fault anyway. But it was uh for circuit disagreed. So
16:43
Speaker 5: they found that there is a cause of action for
16:46
Speaker 5: this type of case and and the type of remedy
16:49
Speaker 5: or the or what the city was seeking is is
16:53
Speaker 5: a plausible remedy under nuisance law. And they so they
16:58
Speaker 5: overturned the ruin and now it's going to be I
17:01
Speaker 5: didn't say what the results should be. They send it
17:05
Speaker 5: back to the trial court now for basically what you
17:08
Speaker 5: can think of as a reconsideration based on the principles
17:12
Speaker 5: of spouse in this in this new case, so they don't
17:14
Speaker 5: have a whole another round.
17:16
Speaker 2: I don't think it will require.
17:19
Speaker 5: Necessarily unless the judge asked for it, any more evidence
17:22
Speaker 5: be presented or another trial. But the judges is going
17:25
Speaker 5: to have to take the evidence that he already analyzed
17:29
Speaker 5: the court and then.
17:32
Speaker 2: Apply this clear set law.
17:35
Speaker 5: Now the manufacturers can appeal in the next I think
17:40
Speaker 5: they can ask for a decision from the full panel
17:43
Speaker 5: of the Four Circuit. These were three appellate judges that
17:46
Speaker 5: decided this one, and I don't remember how many are
17:48
Speaker 5: on the Four Circuit Court of Appeals, but many more
17:49
Speaker 5: than that, and they can ask for a full hearing
17:53
Speaker 5: with all the judges, and then ultimately they can appeal
17:55
Speaker 5: it to the US Supreme Court. If if that happens,
18:00
Speaker 5: I don't know the Spreme Court would address it much.
18:03
Speaker 5: But of course that will delay things again. But otherwise
18:07
Speaker 5: it's you know, when you read it, the the basic
18:13
Speaker 5: directions to the trial court judge when it gets sent
18:15
Speaker 5: back is you'll have a very narrow route to take
18:23
Speaker 5: from a legal perspective, almost telling him what to do.
18:25
Speaker 5: I think. But he could still rule against the City
18:29
Speaker 5: of Huntington, I suppose. But with this ruling from the
18:32
Speaker 5: Four Circuit, it looks really good for the City of Huntington,
18:34
Speaker 5: and that's that's good for everyone around here because the
18:37
Speaker 5: more money we can get to help continue to resolve
18:40
Speaker 5: this problem that went on for over a decade.
18:45
Speaker 2: It's better.
18:45
Speaker 5: So you know, it's of lawyers involved in that, some
18:49
Speaker 5: some local Tony Magestro here I think, arguted on on brief.
18:52
Speaker 5: He's a Charleston lawyer, and Paul Ferrell Junior from Huntington
18:57
Speaker 5: was I think at least locally the lead attorney on it,
19:00
Speaker 5: and real big case really has implic significant implications locally.
19:05
Speaker 5: It's a good decision for for us here in West Virginia.
19:09
Speaker 5: And so we'll see how that one plays out. But
19:12
Speaker 5: that's what we've been waiting on. It's a little dry,
19:15
Speaker 5: but it's a good u good decision and and it's
19:17
Speaker 5: coming back to Huntington at some point hopefully, and we'll see.
19:22
Speaker 5: I mean, the trial judge that decided it could probably
19:25
Speaker 5: fairly quickly render a decision that just kind of is
19:28
Speaker 5: in line what was implied from the four circuit where
19:31
Speaker 5: he can he can use there what is in essence
19:35
Speaker 5: modified principles of law and still find that the city
19:39
Speaker 5: didn't win. But I think that would be that is
19:42
Speaker 5: unlikely at this point. So and what what may happen
19:46
Speaker 5: ultimately is once the appeal process is exhausted. Now that
19:52
Speaker 5: the law is clarified, and the strength of this for
19:55
Speaker 5: circuit opinion, probably the case will settle.
19:58
Speaker 2: Never know, but.
20:01
Speaker 5: If I was a betting man, that's what I would suggest,
20:05
Speaker 5: and so that would obviously any settlement will result in
20:08
Speaker 5: significant influx of funds to the City of Huntington to
20:11
Speaker 5: help resolve this epidemic or the fallout from it.
20:15
Speaker 4: It's really something else and from somebody who lived out
20:17
Speaker 4: of state for a long time and came back in
20:19
Speaker 4: twenty ten, and it's really I don't know that it
20:24
Speaker 4: could be quantified, and there's been some people tried that's
20:27
Speaker 4: tried to do it, but I don't know if it
20:29
Speaker 4: could be quantified exactly the damage that epidemic had to
20:31
Speaker 4: this area. I mean, obviously a depressed area that had
20:33
Speaker 4: struggled anyway, trying to dig your way out and find
20:36
Speaker 4: white at the end of everything, and then just for
20:38
Speaker 4: this to be dropped at like a bomb in the
20:40
Speaker 4: middle of certain areas in this state of people that
20:43
Speaker 4: were already struggling, it's just I mean, it was a
20:46
Speaker 4: massive setback and continues to be. I mean, when you
20:48
Speaker 4: talk about city services being taxed and the unhoused problem,
20:53
Speaker 4: different things like that. I mean, it's all a lot
20:55
Speaker 4: of the root of that just goes back to these opioids.
20:58
Speaker 2: It does.
20:59
Speaker 5: And if you watch much various documentaries some where they
21:03
Speaker 5: follow first responders in the city of hunting and it
21:06
Speaker 5: just takes so and it's it's really sad because you
21:09
Speaker 5: get folks that are addicted and they they're on death's
21:14
Speaker 5: door and they get you know, was it in the
21:16
Speaker 5: lock zone or the drugs they put in them and
21:20
Speaker 5: just kind of wake them up and then you know,
21:21
Speaker 5: it might be the same person the same situation two
21:24
Speaker 5: nights later. And it takes a lot of resources obviously
21:28
Speaker 5: with the City of Huntington dealing with that when they
21:30
Speaker 5: could be out dealing with with other law enforcement issues.
21:33
Speaker 5: But uh yeah, it's and and like you it's you know,
21:37
Speaker 5: difficult to really even comprehend all the different types of harms.
21:41
Speaker 5: And that was that was kind of my I thought
21:44
Speaker 5: was the difficulty with the case from the planets point is, well,
21:46
Speaker 5: how do you you know you can only go so
21:49
Speaker 5: far out on causation. I mean, what you cause this
21:54
Speaker 5: problem here and there's a domino effect way way way
21:59
Speaker 5: down there in the point you gotta can't go on forever.
22:02
Speaker 2: It's almost like the co morbidy, you cause this problem
22:04
Speaker 2: here and there's.
22:06
Speaker 5: A domino effect way way way down there. What citting
22:10
Speaker 5: a point you gotta can't go on forever.
22:12
Speaker 4: It's almost like the co morbidity, uh morbidity argument over
22:16
Speaker 4: pandemics and stuff like, at what point is safety and
22:19
Speaker 4: what point does the co morbidity take over from what
22:21
Speaker 4: happened with the disease and all that different?
22:22
Speaker 5: How do you approve you know that you know this person,
22:27
Speaker 5: this particular person was a direct victim of the over
22:32
Speaker 5: excessive shipment of you know, opioids to legitimate pharmacies or
22:39
Speaker 5: pharmacies that were licensed at least some of them aren't anymore,
22:42
Speaker 5: and then doctors prescribing them, and then maybe individuals getting
22:47
Speaker 5: them legally at least with a prescription, and then you know,
22:53
Speaker 5: transferring them or selling them to other people, which is
22:55
Speaker 5: a crime, and then people taking them illegally. And so
22:59
Speaker 5: that was part of the argue and is for the manufacturer, Well,
23:02
Speaker 5: how can we be responsible for that when there's criminal
23:05
Speaker 5: conduct that clearly contributes to this problem in between what
23:09
Speaker 5: we did and the ultimate harm? And uh, but four
23:13
Speaker 5: circuit kind of went through that analysis and found that
23:16
Speaker 5: that's it's not still they can prove proximate what's called
23:22
Speaker 5: proximate cause or the cause of the harm. Potentially it's
23:26
Speaker 5: possible based on the set of facts. And so uh, yeah,
23:30
Speaker 5: we'll get sent back and we'll see. If we don't
23:32
Speaker 5: see as I think they'll it's got to run through
23:35
Speaker 5: the appeal process. But I suspect we'll see some settlement resolution,
23:41
Speaker 5: but maybe not. If not, I think we'll see a
23:43
Speaker 5: good outcome on behalf of the of the City of Huntington.
23:47
Speaker 4: Well, listen to this to do it and take our break.
23:48
Speaker 4: We could come back and we'll still have about ten
23:50
Speaker 4: minutes left in the program. If you want to control
23:52
Speaker 4: the conversation, you have some questions, you want to put
23:54
Speaker 4: the power of paton on your side. You have some
23:55
Speaker 4: questions about the law this morning for your your yourself
23:58
Speaker 4: or maybe a loved one who you know has a
23:59
Speaker 4: question something that you maybe want to be reconsidered that
24:02
Speaker 4: you've asked somebody else about and you want a second
24:04
Speaker 4: opinion on anything along those lines. You can give us
24:06
Speaker 4: a call this morning and Tom from the Payton Law
24:08
Speaker 4: Firm can help you out three zero four three four
24:10
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24:11
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24:19
Speaker 4: More information online Payton Lawfirm dot com and Nitro West
24:21
Speaker 4: Virginia p e Y t you in Payton lawfrom dot com.
24:23
Speaker 4: I'll give you the rest of the information a little
24:24
Speaker 4: bit later on. Let's go ahead and take a break.
24:26
Speaker 4: We'll be back right off this. You're listening to ask
24:28
Speaker 4: the lawyer with Tom Peyton from the Payton Law Firm
24:30
Speaker 4: on five A whs.
24:31
Speaker 2: The Boys of Charleston.
24:32
Speaker 6: If you've been injured, you need a lawyer who knows
24:35
Speaker 6: West Virginia because they live in West Virginia. Tom and
24:38
Speaker 6: Harvey Peyton were born and raised here. They've spent decades
24:42
Speaker 6: fighting for injury victims and they know how to get results.
24:46
Speaker 6: At the Peyton Law Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation,
24:50
Speaker 6: and local attorneys who care. Call seven five five fifty
24:54
Speaker 6: five fifty six today or visit Peyton Law Firm dot com.
24:58
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25:00
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25:03
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Speaker 4: It is twelve minutes to the toffee hour. You're listening
25:51
Speaker 4: to ask the law. You're five adwchs the Voice of Charleston.
25:53
Speaker 4: I'm Deel Cooper. Tom Peton is in studio with us
25:56
Speaker 4: this morning, and you can give us a call to
25:58
Speaker 4: talk to Tom, not to talk to me. You have
26:00
Speaker 4: any questions about the law, you can put it on
26:02
Speaker 4: your side with the Payton Law Firm. Let me give
26:03
Speaker 4: you the information and then you can give us a
26:05
Speaker 4: call if you'd like to you and call us this
26:06
Speaker 4: morning three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
26:08
Speaker 4: You can text three zero four non three five five
26:10
Speaker 4: zero zero eight. You can also find out more information
26:13
Speaker 4: online about the Payton Law Firm. That is Payton Lawfirm
26:16
Speaker 4: dot com, p E Y t O and Payton Law
26:18
Speaker 4: Firm in Nitro, West Virginia. Their phone number to the
26:20
Speaker 4: office is three zero four seven five five fifty five
26:22
Speaker 4: fifty six three zer a four seven five five fifty
26:24
Speaker 4: five fifty six. If you go to the website Payton
26:26
Speaker 4: Lawfirm dot com, you can also write an email there
26:28
Speaker 4: and I know Tom and Harvey check the email all
26:31
Speaker 4: the time and we'll respond to those when they get
26:32
Speaker 4: a chance. So that's a good way to contact.
26:34
Speaker 2: Directly to each of us.
26:35
Speaker 5: No no filtration or no, no can't. We don't have
26:38
Speaker 5: an answering service. Now, if you call after hours, you
26:41
Speaker 5: can leave a voicemail and.
26:45
Speaker 2: Ordinarily that will.
26:47
Speaker 5: Come through on my email, so we can certainly if
26:50
Speaker 5: there's something that is an emergency where we are available
26:53
Speaker 5: in that since twenty four hours a day. If I
26:55
Speaker 5: wake up in the evening and see it voicemail it
26:56
Speaker 5: comes through, I'll I'll listen to it and we handle it.
27:00
Speaker 2: So yeah, we do.
27:02
Speaker 5: And you know, just to rehash a bit, we do,
27:04
Speaker 5: you know, we're trial lawyers. We do civil litigation, mostly
27:07
Speaker 5: mostly on the kind of consumer or ordinary person side
27:12
Speaker 5: of the equation. A lot of a lot of insurance disputes,
27:16
Speaker 5: whether it's a homeowner's claim or an auto insurance issue,
27:20
Speaker 5: life insurance, disability insurance. We do awful lot of those
27:24
Speaker 5: type claims. But you know, you don't know when you're
27:28
Speaker 5: going to need a lawyer for something like that, because
27:30
Speaker 5: normally it's unexpected occurrence. Is what people do need lawyers
27:35
Speaker 5: for on a regular basis, everyday type things or wills, deeds,
27:39
Speaker 5: property issues, things like that. And so we try and
27:44
Speaker 5: help people and we know how to do those things.
27:47
Speaker 5: And so if you have those basic everyday needs, certainly
27:50
Speaker 5: give us a call and we be glad to help
27:51
Speaker 5: you with that as well. And we probably I think
27:55
Speaker 5: we do a pretty good job with that type of
27:57
Speaker 5: work because we also kind of look at it from
27:59
Speaker 5: a littgation angle, because we do litigate actually a lot
28:02
Speaker 5: of a state litigation issues with how someone's handling in
28:06
Speaker 5: a state, or whether a will's valid or not, and
28:09
Speaker 5: that kind of thing. But so when we draft, everybody
28:13
Speaker 5: wants their documents to be we get asked, well, can
28:16
Speaker 5: they challenge this like a will, well, yeah, I mean
28:19
Speaker 5: I guess anybody can follow alsover anything. But the fact
28:22
Speaker 5: they a potential beneficiary that thinks they are entitled to
28:25
Speaker 5: something doesn't get anything by a will is not a
28:28
Speaker 5: reason for a cause of action.
28:30
Speaker 2: Like kids.
28:31
Speaker 5: For example, if you pass away and don't have a
28:34
Speaker 5: will and you're not married at the time, and under
28:36
Speaker 5: West Virginia law, the children legal children, biological or adopted.
28:42
Speaker 2: Or are the heirs.
28:44
Speaker 5: But when you draft a will, with the exception of spouses,
28:49
Speaker 5: there's some special rules there. I mean, nobody's entitled to anything,
28:52
Speaker 5: including children. So you know, maybe you have a child
28:55
Speaker 5: that you already gave a lot of money to, so
28:57
Speaker 5: you don't want to put them in your will because
28:59
Speaker 5: you want to give things to the other children. And
29:02
Speaker 5: when we do those type cases where I have some
29:08
Speaker 5: concern a potential beneficiary might cause a problem, then you know,
29:14
Speaker 5: I think of that, how will this play out from
29:17
Speaker 5: a litigation standpoint? How will this if if we get sued,
29:21
Speaker 5: how can we defend? Because I want to get done
29:23
Speaker 5: with my client wants and that's all I really care
29:25
Speaker 5: as long as we can do it. Some people come
29:27
Speaker 5: in with ideas that aren't really something we can put
29:29
Speaker 5: into effect, but you want to get done with the
29:31
Speaker 5: client wants, and then they always have concern you know,
29:34
Speaker 5: it's going to be challenged, and anybody can challenge anything,
29:39
Speaker 5: but not not validly and not successfully. And so we
29:44
Speaker 5: we kind of have a process we use multifaceted to
29:49
Speaker 5: make sure that you know, when we get your estate
29:52
Speaker 5: planning done the lawyer lawyer that it tends to it.
29:56
Speaker 5: If a lawyer tends to a will, the execution and
29:58
Speaker 5: drafting and and discussions and preparation of it, then that
30:01
Speaker 5: lawyer ultimately is a witness in any type of case,
30:04
Speaker 5: or could be if there's a challenge to a will.
30:06
Speaker 5: And so we we do that type work with kind
30:09
Speaker 5: of the the eye towards One of the aspects we
30:12
Speaker 5: look at is to make sure this is in essence
30:15
Speaker 5: ironclad so it won't be successfully challenged. And so I
30:18
Speaker 5: don't think I've ever had a will that I've drafted
30:20
Speaker 5: that's ever been successfully challenged, but I think it helps
30:23
Speaker 5: us do it those every day things, even some some
30:26
Speaker 5: deed work. You know, you kind of think of that
30:28
Speaker 5: sometimes depending depending on the the scenario. And so we
30:33
Speaker 5: do that type thing. So we have any type of issue,
30:35
Speaker 5: you can give us a call or send us an email.
30:36
Speaker 5: And and and you know, if we get questions about
30:40
Speaker 5: issues that we're just not experienced in or not comfortable handling,
30:44
Speaker 5: well we'd be glad. You know, we're in We're networked
30:47
Speaker 5: with a lot of other lawyers here in the local
30:49
Speaker 5: area and even across the country, so we can spend
30:52
Speaker 5: a few minutes sometimes putting some feelers out and maybe
30:54
Speaker 5: finding if we don't, if we're not aware of an
30:56
Speaker 5: attorney that does that type work, fine one for you
30:58
Speaker 5: and give you a referral, So don'tate to give us
31:00
Speaker 5: a call. And then and then what we ask is,
31:02
Speaker 5: you know, if you if you or a family member
31:06
Speaker 5: is in an automobile accident, or it does have an
31:09
Speaker 5: issue with an insurance company or or a business that's
31:14
Speaker 5: harmed you in some way, then think about us, because
31:18
Speaker 5: we do a good job. We do and we pay
31:19
Speaker 5: attention and we're very particular on those type cases because
31:23
Speaker 5: we just don't have a mill of them, more particular
31:26
Speaker 5: on the on the type of cases we accept, and
31:29
Speaker 5: then we pay close attention to them and work them
31:31
Speaker 5: up really hard.
31:32
Speaker 4: Is there a is there any consideration to how do
31:38
Speaker 4: I Well, let me explain that. One of the things
31:40
Speaker 4: that I've adopted in my personal life in the last
31:42
Speaker 4: couple of years is I treat every green light like
31:44
Speaker 4: a stop sign, because I've just noticed way too often
31:46
Speaker 4: people not just one beat going through the red light,
31:49
Speaker 4: but beat beat me people just driving through. I have
31:52
Speaker 4: a daughter, Now I'm not taking that chance. I treat
31:55
Speaker 4: every green light like a stop sign, and it saved
31:57
Speaker 4: my life or at least an accident, at least a
31:59
Speaker 4: handful of times over the last couple of years. If
32:01
Speaker 4: there's an egregious traffic situation like somebody runs a red
32:05
Speaker 4: light by seconds or or something that where they're not
32:09
Speaker 4: necessarily drinking and driving, or something like it's just a
32:10
Speaker 4: really bad situation where they obviously broke all kinds of
32:13
Speaker 4: traffic laws and caused an accident. Is the degree of
32:17
Speaker 4: of what the victim in that case can seek. Does
32:20
Speaker 4: that scale with the issue there or is it all so?
32:23
Speaker 2: Is the what you have?
32:25
Speaker 5: You know, first of all, if you if you have
32:27
Speaker 5: a automobile accident or a collision, the law in western
32:32
Speaker 5: is based on fault. Whose fault is it? And a
32:37
Speaker 5: lot of times it's you know, you're in collision, with
32:41
Speaker 5: some exceptions is almost universally the fault of the person
32:45
Speaker 5: behind the other person who hit them. But you have
32:49
Speaker 5: egregious coming. We've had cases with I had one in
32:52
Speaker 5: Morgantown unfortunately side case where it was a hit and
32:54
Speaker 5: run one night you're actually from from the Charles scenario,
33:00
Speaker 5: was hit and passed away. It was a drunk driver,
33:05
Speaker 5: didn't stop, kept going, apprehended a couple of days later,
33:09
Speaker 5: made some misrepresentations to the police about what happened. But
33:11
Speaker 5: they had this person red handed basically based on all
33:16
Speaker 5: the they have video from surveillance and things like that
33:19
Speaker 5: and other witnesses. But in that case, we actually had
33:22
Speaker 5: a trial on it.
33:23
Speaker 2: And so.
33:25
Speaker 5: If the conduct is so egregious, then you can get
33:27
Speaker 5: what's called punitive damages and that's I think what comes
33:30
Speaker 5: into play, and that in our case we got a
33:33
Speaker 5: significant I can't remember the award for punitive damages, but
33:36
Speaker 5: it was, I mean it was at least one million.
33:39
Speaker 2: Wow.
33:39
Speaker 5: And so yeah, you get somebody that we have multiple
33:42
Speaker 5: witnesses it's clearly ran a red light or they're intoxicated,
33:47
Speaker 5: then that opens the door fornitive normal negligence. You don't
33:50
Speaker 5: get punitive damages. That you get damages to compensate you
33:55
Speaker 5: for being injured, lost wages, medical bills, things like that.
34:01
Speaker 5: But if you get egregious conduct, then it exposes the
34:04
Speaker 5: bad actor to potential pianotive damage award. And so yeah,
34:08
Speaker 5: but I feel you there. I mean, you just got
34:10
Speaker 5: to be real careful when lights go from red degree. Yeah,
34:15
Speaker 5: that's crazy. That the way, it's clear. I got to
34:17
Speaker 5: be careful of myself because I've been driving this Tesla
34:20
Speaker 5: now for five and a half years, and of course
34:21
Speaker 5: it has no fuel. Mean, it's you press that accelerator. Yeah,
34:25
Speaker 5: so you don't want to be just chopping at the bit.
34:28
Speaker 5: As soon as the light turns green, you just gun
34:30
Speaker 5: it because you'll get hit.
34:32
Speaker 4: Ye. I saw a guy. The worst one I saw
34:34
Speaker 4: in a while was earlier, No, I think it was
34:36
Speaker 4: late last week. It was a guy driving a cement
34:38
Speaker 4: truck in Keanas City on thirty ninth Street. The light
34:41
Speaker 4: there turn green when I was the first in first position,
34:44
Speaker 4: and I did what I always do, look one way,
34:46
Speaker 4: look the other way, looked back, just like a stop
34:48
Speaker 4: sign before I went, and I saw this guy. Then
34:49
Speaker 4: it was at least four or five seconds after the
34:51
Speaker 4: light turn, I could see him clear as day, his
34:53
Speaker 4: phone up in front of his face, right, not paying
34:55
Speaker 4: any attention, going probably sixty on McCorkle in a cement
34:59
Speaker 4: truck through a red light.
35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's unfortunate. And you know, actually.
35:04
Speaker 5: Quite a few citations out there for people using their
35:07
Speaker 5: handheld devices while driving. But that's just something we didn't see,
35:11
Speaker 5: of course twenty twenty five years ago. And oh gosh,
35:15
Speaker 5: seventy percent of the time you pull up to a
35:17
Speaker 5: car that's driving a little radically and there they are
35:19
Speaker 5: staring at their phone. So I was staring at my
35:23
Speaker 5: phone one time. I admit, this has been a long
35:26
Speaker 5: time ago, getting on the on ramp here, like getting
35:28
Speaker 5: on to go east, look down for a minute at
35:31
Speaker 5: my phone, and look up, and the traffic stopped in
35:34
Speaker 5: front of me. Now, luckily I was able to take
35:35
Speaker 5: action stop without conducting the car in front of me.
35:39
Speaker 5: But it scared me, and I don't I just won't
35:41
Speaker 5: use you know, I don't talk on my cell phone
35:43
Speaker 5: handheld anymore, and thinking about roads and safety.
35:47
Speaker 3: So we it.
35:47
Speaker 5: Oh we're out of time, just a minute, okay, Well,
35:50
Speaker 5: I was going to go into an issue to take
35:51
Speaker 5: a little more time than that. But yeah, if anybody's
35:53
Speaker 5: out there it needs some legal help, send us an
35:55
Speaker 5: email Peyton. You can get our website Peyton law Firm
35:58
Speaker 5: dot com and submit an email. You can give us
36:01
Speaker 5: a call at three zero four seven five five five
36:04
Speaker 5: five five six, or stop Body Office if we're available.
36:08
Speaker 5: We'll we'll talk to you for a minute or two
36:10
Speaker 5: and if you want to set an appointment, all our
36:13
Speaker 5: staff has authority of set appointments with me and uh,
36:16
Speaker 5: we'll be glad to help you.
36:17
Speaker 4: That's great stuff. You can catch the Pathon law firm
36:19
Speaker 4: here on Ask the Lawyer every Thursday at eight twenty
36:21
Speaker 4: right here on five ADW CHS Network dot com slash
36:25
Speaker 4: ask the Lawyer. That's going to do it for us today.
36:27
Speaker 4: Dave Lean's up next with five eighty Live. I'll be
36:29
Speaker 4: back this afternoon at three o six with Dave Weekly
36:31
Speaker 4: on hotline. Have a great day, everyone listening to five
36:34
Speaker 4: ad W c HS the Voice of Charleston.
36:43
Speaker 6: Five eight Whsam ninety six point five. That's them Charleston
36:46
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36:51
Speaker 2: We're proud to live here too.