Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, going to get into some legal questions, and they are such as the secret second family, the HOA president's landscaping company involved, uh-oh, and the unfinished trust. Those are three that we're going to start with. We're coming back next with more Judica County. Whitaker and Hamer presents. Judica County.
With Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And they've placed offices across our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, down near Charlotte and Gastonia. And you've got Moorhead City down at the coast.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on. We're going to get into some legalese. A lot of questions coming in, and these come in from around the country, and we'll tackle those. We want to remind you too that there are complimentary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer, meaning you're not paying for it and you're not obligated to become a client.
If in and around estate planning, but also if you've got a personal injury case and don't know how to proceed, you can grab one of those consults. You can do it at any time, 919-7727000, 919-7727000, or visit w. Dot lawyer.
So let's get rolling. Josh. How's it going? You doing good? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Joseph, you doing good? I'm disgusted with you, man. Why is that? This whole conversation we had this conversation before we came on air, and you talked about how little you care.
About watching the canes and how it means nothing to you.
So, and we need to. I was a little harsh earlier. I regret that now, that it's public knowledge. It's too late, man. I'll never establish that we tape during the week, and by the time this show airs, there will be two games in the can, and it will be day of game three.
And hopefully all that will go very well for us. Uh we'll see.
Some of us will see, most of us will see. All I was saying, there's very few sports. There's very few sports like I I reroute my schedule for. Yeah. So what I was trying to say earlier, and I said it inartfully.
Uh was that Hey. Yeah, we're we're we're we're taping on on Tuesday night or Tuesday, so Tuesday night's the first game. I got a kid who's got flag football practice. And I usually take him to get some ice cream after practice. My youngest is not aware of the hurricanes and what they're doing.
So I just may not see tonight's game, or if I do, it'll be the, you know, the later game. Saved you a lot of money. Costs nothing to watch the game. That's right. But uh my oldest My oldest who plays football and basketball Has been watching all the Hurricanes games, and I usually will watch with them if we're in the house and nothing else is going on.
Yeah. So that's what I meant to say. I s I probably said it inartfully. Earlier.
Well, and I guess the conversation started when we were just talking about Stickershock, and it is the Stanley Cup finals. They have been there in 20 years. But the price just to get in the building initially was $1,000 a seat. upper level nosebleed, as Joe put it, backs against the wall. you're gonna pay a grand a ticket and some of those that'd be cheap that'd be yeah some of the some of yeah some of the prices have come down a little bit but uh we're talking about a massive I can't take price I I I like You know, I like going to concerts, I like going to sporting events, I like to take the kids and get that experience.
I can think of very few things. that I would pay a thousand dollars a ticket to s to see. I I I can't even think of one right now. Maybe a Jesus was coming. Very materialistic, man.
It's not like money is the sit of your life. Yeah. Yeah. We went looking for Chris Stapleton tickets a while back, and I think when he was in Greensboro, we could get two seats like. In another county for $600 a piece.
And I was like, I'm not even going to be able to enjoy it.
So, why would I want to pay $1,200? You know, to not see Chris Stapleton in the same building. I'm in that old man age where I really think about, I know we were talking about off-air, we were talking about parking earlier. All right, I'm going to have to drive there and park and walk. There's going to be traffic on the way out.
Like, that calculus is starting to break me, you know? Unlike Morgan and me, though, Josh, everyone knows this. You're an extremely rich and wealthy man. Not at all. Not even close.
It's a well-known fact. Yeah, you pay us to be your friends. That's how rich you are. I just, you could take your helicopter and just listen on the top. I'll go anywhere, pay anything to watch my kids play sports.
But even, you know, we went. I disagree, man. I think. If your kids' sports tickets were a thousand bucks, you'd tell them, hey, just write me a summary. We're changing sports.
I just, I can't. Because you know, I would say when state, you know, if because I like NC State basketball, that's my number one sport, right? If I try to rearrange my schedule to see NC State basketball, and I was about to say, if they went to the final four, I'd be willing to pay a grand, but I didn't. They did go to the final four, and I wasn't willing to do it. That involved airplane travel, and I was like, I don't want to get on the plane.
Yeah, you had the airplane in, man. That's a whole different equation, you know. But good for the hurricanes, man. I'm glad somebody in that building is. successful and and and doing well.
And they've done it for the last eight seasons, so it's been building, and now they've got a chance to hoist the cup. But Vegas is legit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
How do we do against them in the regular season? I don't know. Not great. Yeah. I'll double check, but I I want to say that very competitive.
But Carolina won I think won the last matchup. I'll I'll look at the matchups.
So what do they think? Is it what's the is this going to go seven? Is that what they think? This one's going to be real competitive. I can tell you the Kanes are the betting favorite.
Okay. Yes, they are. The Kanes are the betting favorite. They are taught. Hagans look 2-0 versus the Kanes this season.
But, I mean, Montreal was 3-0 versus the Kanes this season.
So, you know. Not determinative. They've got... Talent. I think Vegas probably has more talent and is a scarier opponent.
They have a core group that won the cup.
So we're recording on Tuesday. This will air Saturday and Sunday. What do you think? We'll be one in one, one and one going into the weekend. I hope so, 2-0, man.
I mean, the last, so I went to the first. I went to the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals as well, and we that was. Hurricanes have won every game of the playoffs except for that game.
So you could make the argument that my attendance to the game is one game. Right. But yes, even if they lose, history shows they will win the next four.
So you got that going, you know?
Well, hopefully they'll uh I know everybody's excited, man. I like to I just like to You don't like things. I like to get on X and see how all the northern hockey teams are always mad when the hurricanes make it. We got two southern hockey teams. Teams and the positive things.
So it's always nice to see people come unglued on the. On the X, on the Twitter. They do. Experience of a lifetime, Josh. You'll, you know.
Money can't buy, well, it can buy these experiences. But keeping all that money, man, keeping your money dungeon that you talk about at your house with all of your gold bars, you know, it's not going to. That's not what it's all about, man. That's right. My kids won't, my kids will miss the experience.
Now, I d I hope they do well. I hope they do well. I watch 60 to 70 percent of the games in the finals. You ain't got any kids that play hockey either, man.
So you're not going to be able to get a lot of hockey. We're not going to the sport. We're not a hockey family. Yeah, I know you guys are, and once you're in, you're in. Yeah, once you're in, man, you're in.
It's fun, man. It's better than stupid sports your kids play.
Well, and to follow up on your question, Joshi, it was two regular season meetings, and the Golden Knights won both. Uh Mm-hmm. I haven't been doing a lot of sports betting. It might be time to do that. I haven't really been on anything much since the NCAA tournament ended.
Yeah, yeah, it's tough. I mean, it's tough to. the the real heyday for sports betting for me personally is if there's no basketball, no football. Ain't ain't much for me to do. Yeah, yeah.
Well, listen, before we dive in, guys, since we're right at the end, what I'd like, Josh, just talk about the complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer. Our listeners can obviously call us and get on the website and grab one of those. But tell us about the consult, and we'll come back on the other side and get going. Yeah, as much as I like to sit with Joseph and Morgan and do the show, do Judica County Radio, we do do this. To say, we want to offer you free consults.
And we talk about estate planning a lot, getting your will. Getting your revocable living trust together, we talk about what to do if you've been in a car accident, right? We call that personal injury negligence. But if you have any of that going on, we do here on the radio shows, we offer you a free consult.
So, if you want to talk about your recent car accident, what an attorney can do for you, and some things you need to know, we'll do that for free. If you want to talk to me and Joe about estate planning, about revocable living trust, we'll do that for free.
So, those are free consults that we offer out to the folks who. Who listened to us on the radio? And that's the goal there, Morgan. We want to talk to you and let you know how we can help you, how we, you know, qui. An experienced qualified attorney can assist you in those matters.
All right, so a complimentary consult available to you. Call the number 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. Estate planning personal injury case. Grab one right now, 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County coming up. Yeah. Judica County Radio, we are back. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton.
Goldsboro, Fugaf Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, get into some different topics. And you're going to have questions about maybe estate planning, maybe a personal injury case you're involved with. You can grab a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer simply by calling 919-7727000.
Great way to kick the tires. Test drive Whitaker and Hamer 919-7727000 or visit wh.lawyer. All right, first up, guys, what do we got?
Well, Joe, you know, Joe's been paying attention to something I was unaware of until the other day, but. I figure we talk about it, Joe. What's what's going on with this? Yeah, man, it's not often that we get it we get the opportunity to uh like a big viral issue. Um Pops up and it's got a pretty heavy legal component to it.
And that's exactly what's happened, man. Um The bricks and minifigs controversy. I think that's what... I think that's what everybody knows it by. This may have been going on longer than I've known about it.
It popped on my radar recently. The actual incident that kind of led to it happened back in 2023. And just to to give you a summary in a nutshell, you had um A man, Brian Mansell, that's his name, his 83-year-old dad. had like An ungodly large Star Wars Lego collection of just like super rare. It says 780 plus sets and 1200 plus minifigs.
That's got to be like every Star Wars Lego thing ever created. Um And You know, the way I understand it, it was valued around $200,000.
So, pretty substantial, man. That'll get you. One Carolina Hurricanes ticket at the Stanley Cup. And a cup of coffee, yeah. And the cup of coffee, yeah.
And so. Anyways, I think they did some research and found this Bricks and Minifigs, which is a franchise that kind of does. I don't know if we've got one around here, so I wasn't familiar with them, but this one was actually in Oregon. And They they do some consignment deals where they'll they'll let you. Bring your stuff there and they'll kind of sell it on your behalf, right?
And so. Took this collection, and the way I understand it, it was like Almost the entire store was this guy's stuff at one point. Like, that was how much there was. Like, it was just a ton. And the the original franchise owners Um that's who they were dealing with.
That was the the the Gorman family is what is what we'll call them. And so uh They were running the store at the time of the consignment.
something ends up happening. And this is a franchise, and this franchise, the Gormans, who made this original deal to do this consignment with these folks. They end up There's some dispute as to how it exactly goes down, but they claim they were essentially forced out. And you know, had the the franchise kind of ripped away from them. The corporate side said they were in default.
Under their franchise agreement, their lease agreement, and so they validly kind of repossess that store. But there's an ownership change there, and the man sells who had given these Legos to these folks come back. And They basically want to find out what's going on. According to them, they kind of get stonewalled. They don't get a lot of information.
They're not very cooperative. And so in dispute is they're essentially saying they haven't been paid for their stuff. They can't get their stuff. And It's kind of blown up.
Some YouTube personalities have gotten involved on behalf of the family. And that's really what started to have it kind of gain steam. And it's. It's gotten kind of crazy, man. Like, there's been a lot of police activity now.
There's a ton of lawsuits, both sides, back and forth. And so it's a rapidly developing story. Hot topic, if you will. I'm surprised. I'm surprised one of my kids hasn't told me about this.
You know, uh. Uh I didn't really. Did you have Legos growing up? Did you have Legos? I wasn't a huge Lego guy.
I mean, I'd have like I didn't possess like many Legos. No, it wasn't my thing, you know. I yeah, I wasn't a big fan. My brother had a lot of them. I wasn't a big fan of putting my own toys together.
Like, if I pay for something, I want it assembled. That's my big beef with furniture now. I don't want to put. I don't want to buy a job. That's why you got nothing but beanbags.
Lazy Josh. I got this dresser I'm supposed to put together. I've had it for like three months, man. It just hasn't happened. But.
Um Yeah, I wasn't a big, I think the Star Wars Legos are cool, and I'll see guys who have like the Millennium Falcon, and that'd be great if I could purchase it assembled. Right, maybe I can.
Well, not for what I'm willing. Not for what I'm willing to pay, Morgan. Gotcha. They're they're crazy expensive, man. That's the thing.
That's the reason why, like, my kids like the Legos, and it's. Yeah, my youngest. My youngest gets a Lego set, man, and he like attacks it like a job. He opens it up, gets all the parts out, reads the instructions, like just does it. Yeah.
Um. But yeah, this is crazy.
So this is a, I didn't realize it was a franchise.
So we have a so that bricks and minifigs is a franchise. And so you can go in there as a business owner and you can buy a franchise. I think a lot of people who don't deal with them Don't realize you can lose even if you paid money, right? You can lose a franchise if you don't, you have a contract, right? The you know, bricks and many things is the franchisor, and they sell you a franchise, but you have to do certain things, pay certain fees, and if you don't, They'll take it away from you.
You still got your. You know, anyway, and I guess that's what happened here.
Well, there's a lot more to it, man, and we could probably do an entire episode on it. There was a lot of. You know, there was a lot of threats back and forth. It's taken a lot of turns, man. And again, there's always two sides, right?
And so a lot of the. Information that's being delivered on this, it's from YouTube personalities, and they got a vested interest in getting clicks and views. But at the same time, if you look at the objective facts of it, there's a lot there that does not. Smell good if you're looking at it. It doesn't pass the smell test.
I wonder how much these so they put 200,000. That's like going to a pawn shop, right? You're putting it on consignment. You take your computer or your gun or your. Yeah, you bring in a Lego expert.
And so my understanding is that they. There's been a couple of different routes. One, the corporate side, they claimed that the vast majority was sold. And that Most everything was sold, and if he wasn't paid, he wasn't paid by the original franchise owners, and his dispute was with them, which would be valid. Like, that's valid.
But there's apparently a lot of time-stamped and dated pictures that show the majority of the inventory was still there at the time the takeover happened. And there might have been some advertising. And then apparently, they were denied access to the store. They weren't able to come in and actually visibly see what the amount of the inventory there was. And then there was a restraining order shortly after that where they were basically kept out of it.
So. Uh it it sounded like In some of the earliest legal wrangling. It's kind of like you said, Josh. They. The corporate At one point they were trying to make the argument that You know, when they took back this franchise, they were a good faith purchaser for value.
And so anything that they took. you know, if if they didn't have notice If there's no notice, then whatever they took You know, Again. The claim is not against them. It would be against the original person that they made the agreement with.
So they were making the claim that they didn't have any notice of this consignment. They didn't have any notice of these figures, and so they were a good faith purchaser value. That's a valid argument, but again, It started to fall apart because they uncovered advertisements that corporate directly had issued themselves advertising these things for sale.
So it's like: how do you claim no notice if you're advertising these figures? Huh. There's a lot of depth to it, man. There's a whole lot of depth, and there's a whole lot of layers to it. In the most recent involvements, the police have gotten involved.
And, um,. There's a lot of very strange things, man. I think it it warrants a revisit when we can get a little more familiarized with it and a little more in-depth into the facts. pretty interesting man. There's a lot of legal angles to it.
Well, I know we're up against a break, so we'll, but I got a few questions for you when we come back. All right, there you go. Bricks and minifigs. It's a lawsuit dispute. We'll probably revisit at some point.
We'll get to a little bit more of it on the other side. We'll take a short break. Consults available with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and personal injury. If you've got a case there, you got some questions, just jump on the consult right now: 919-772-7000. No cost, and there's no obligation to become a client.
919-7727000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyear. We've got more Judica County coming up on the other side. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program.
And they're also practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina, placing offices for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuv Arena, down in Gastonia, as well as Moorhead City near the coast. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on. Stay tuned. We've got complimentary consults in and around estate planning or a personal injury case that you might be facing.
Got some questions. You can grab those during the course of this show. But we started off getting into bricks and minifigs. It's a lawsuit dispute in and around, yeah, Legos, Star Wars. Guys, you want to wrap it up?
So these folks consigned their Legos, and I would hope If we're talking about $200,000 worth of Legos, there would have been a consignment agreement. Yeah, they had a consignment agreement. That wasn't a dispute. But I wonder who the consignee is, right? It was the franchise.
It was an agreement with those franchise owners, but. Once Corporate takes the store back, you know, that the, it doesn't just go away, right? Like, that agreement doesn't just die. That's your argument, of course, if you're the person who gave these. these things to the company.
And like I said, that that original argument that they advance was Well they're a good faith purchaser. They didn't have notice and and again, that would that would have fly. They they cited the fact that there was no UCC fixture filing. There was no nothing to put the public on notice about about these Legos. And again, that would be a potentially viable argument.
I like it. the fact that that they themselves had advertised They had advertised these.
So, again, how can you do an advertisement for these things? And then claim you had no notice. It just doesn't really go both ways.
So the family that owns all these Legos, they should sue them both, right? They sue them both, and then they let them figure it out. Yeah, and that's what they've done, man. There are suits galore, man. There's suits all over the place.
So the family sued them. They've sued corporate. And then you got the YouTubers that have gotten involved too. The main one who's really brought a lot of light to it is this reckless Ben. That's his YouTube handle.
His original arrest, he filed a small claims action against them, right? And so he filed in small claims. And again, we don't practice law in Oregon, and so it's different. We don't know how it functions there. There was something to do with service where he had to show that he made a good faith effort to resolve the dispute.
And so, again, he's doing a lot of this for content. And so his approach to that was going and like verbally discussing it with the people. And so he filmed everything. And so, like, he would film himself coming up, and that's when they would call the police on him and trespass him. And so, his argument was, like, well, the system's broken.
If I have to do this, and they can get a restraining order on me. Again, we don't practice law there, but verbal discussion is not the only way that you can show that you've attempted to amicably resolve a dispute. And I think that might have been one of the ways he went wrong. But they locked him up, man, and then they came back again. They trespass him.
Then he gets pulled over shortly thereafter. And they said they got a tip that he had heroin. They had heroin. And so he actually did the Freedom of Information request. He's got all the body cam footage and he shows it.
And it doesn't look great. It doesn't look great from the surface. I might get my fifth grader on this to do some internet research on he's a big YouTube shorts kid. But they get him again. They get him another time.
They tried to hold him without bill for 10 days. Oh, I don't like that. They said that they tried to hold him without bill for 10 days. The guy, it's one of the individuals that was involved on the bricks and minifix side. That guy, I think he tried to claim that he was like in fear.
It was like a harassment deal. But then they have the calls to the police station where the guy straight up told the police that if they didn't come get this guy, he was going to shoot and kill them. Wow. Yeah. We need to take a short break.
You're listening to Judica County Radio. Grab one of our consults by calling 919-772-7000. Got questions about estate planning or a personal injury case you need some help with? Again, complimentary. 919-7727000.
Get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. More Judica County coming up. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices placed in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Goldsboro. Uh fui.
I did say Clayton, Gastonia, and Moorhead City.
So basically, the entire state is covered for your convenience, and we have complimentary consults in and around estate planning and personal injury. Question and cases revolving around that. Grab one of our consults, 919-772-7000. It's 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.
So we're going to get to some of these questions. Here's the category: the secret. Second family. Here's the question. My father passed away at age 82.
He had a will from 2015, leaving everything equally to my brother and myself. While administering the estate, we discovered he had a twelve year old relationship with another woman and a ten year old child. The child was born after the will was signed and is legally recognized as his son, though. The will never mentions this child. Can the child probably inherit?
There's a lot going there's a lot going on here. Um So we have a secret family, and that happens. Having it in the Whitaker family all the time. But that does happen where someone passes away and things like this will. This things like this will come come to the light.
Um Here, you know. Again, we're always very fact-specific, but here it's telling us, because this is the part I didn't really understand. Right away, but but the child that was born in the secret Family Has legal recognition as his son.
So this son. Born out of you know the craziest thing about this fact pattern is this guy's eighty-two when he dies and he has a ten-year-old so Is that what it says? That's what it says.
So, as a 72-year-old man. He was living his best life out there in the streets, man. Yeah. Well he uh well 72 is the new 52. We all know that.
Hmm. I don't know, man. I feel old to have a A middle schooler.
So, this guy, I don't know that he. I wonder if he was out there throwing the. throwing the baseball with this kid, but You can't disinherit your heirs you know, uh, easily. Right, that's what I would say.
So, this son. And they skipped over a lot of facts to just let us know he's been legally recognized as his son.
So he's been legitimized. He is a legitimate. Heir of our octogenarian, as I said, octogenarian. Um He's probably going to be able to inherit something. It doesn't matter that the will.
Doesn't mention him specifically. You know, if we have people who want to disinherit. A child that happens. And in theory you can do it, but you have to be explicit. Right, you have to you have to be explicit when you want to disinherit a natural heir.
You can never disinherit a spouse without some paperwork ahead of time. And it's very hard to disinherit. A child.
So if he didn't.
Well, it's not necessarily, but like I think you're about to touch on it. You have to do it with specificity, right? Like you, you, and that's one of the things that good estate planning does. Like, you need to explicitly state. This is what you're doing and take any confusion out of it.
Yeah, you have to explicitly state it in your will. I have purposely not provided. For this child. Otherwise, it's you know, the law kind of considers an accident. And like, you didn't really, there's an argument that you didn't mean to do it.
This was a will that was done before this 10-year-old was even born. He never updated his estate planning docs. And this 10-year-old, or his guardian, probably has a pretty good case that he's supposed to inherit.
Some of what the father has And um So that'd be a caveat. proceeding against the will, but A lot going on there. That's very interesting. You know, in law school, they. Anybody, you know, they give you all these legal questions, it's a lot like this, right?
We get these, except they're longer questions, right? They give you these long questions, and it's always presumed. That anybody can have a kid at any time, right? There's no. There's no cutoff, you know, and that's what happened here.
I wonder if this 82-year-old is like uh Was in like the Rolling Stones or something, you know? Yeah, yeah. Out there having kids in their eighties. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of eighty year old men out there look you know. Staying active.
We are hitting some legal questions, just finishing up with that secret family. And now we're going to move to this one, guys. The HOA President's Landscaping Company is the category. And here's the question: our HOA, and we love talking about HOAs. H O A President are He owns a landscaping company, and without obtaining competing bids, the board approved a five-year contract with his company worth over $400,000.
The landscaping costs doubled compared to the prior vendor. The HOA president voted on the contract. Is that Is that probably allowed?
Well there is you, man. Yeah, it doesn't smell g right, right? It doesn't pass the smell test, so you gotta. You got to dive deeper and ask questions. You know, an HOA has a fiduciary duty to the homeowners.
And this guy, this HOA president who owns a landscaping company, he does, at least on the surface, seem to have a conflict. You know, a conflict is not. illegal. We all have some some conflicts here here or there. Um But Yeah, uh we need some more information.
You know, the landscaping Needs stay the same? Are they anticipating? Uh You know, having to fix things or, you know, do some things that weren't. The old company wasn't doing, you know, they don't automatically have to pick. You know, if they take bids, they don't automatically have to take the lowest bid.
A lot of times the lowest bids are not the best bid because maybe that company doesn't have insurance. Doesn't have a good track record, hasn't been open very long. There's all kinds of reasons why you might not take the lowest bid.
So the HOA doesn't have to do that. And again, if no one was to make an issue of this, you know, there would likely never be an issue. But Under this fact pattern. If you've got a homeowner that knows these facts and is fired up enough about it based on these facts, I think this HOA president could potentially have a problem. There's enough there that they could have an issue.
Well, they definitely have some explaining to do, because on its face, this isn't cool, right? On its.
So somebody needs to somebody needs to explain.
Well, we did this because we gotta fix the... We gotta fix like the ditches along the road, or there's some repair that needs to be done. Like, you could explain it reasonably. Um But but otherwise, yeah, I think somebody's got to answer some questions and and and You know, if they don't answer him the right way, then I think this HOA president. Probably did breach his fiduciary duty and probably has some liability.
But there's not enough information here for us to know that, but definitely doesn't look good. We have time to uh I guess Talk about the next category. We'll take a short break, come back, and we'll answer the question that's here. But the category is the realtor who knew, and here's the question, so you can ponder it during the break. Three months after buying a house, we discovered major foundation issues requiring about 80,000 in repairs.
A neighbor showed us Facebook posts from the seller discussing the same foundation problem two years earlier. The seller answered no representation on the disclosure form. The listing agent also appears in the Facebook comments discussing the issue. Do we probably have a case? Think about that.
We want to take a short break. We'll come back on the other side. We want to remind you, and again, this is complimentary. We have consults in and around estate planning, but also personal injury. If you've been involved in a case and there's personal injury and you've got questions, grab one of these consults with Whitaker and Hamer by calling 919-7727000.
That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.
Great way to get in touch there. But these are complimentary, meaning you're not paying for it. And it also means no obligation, which you're not required to become a client. This is a great way to get to know Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and personal injury cases. If you got them, grab one of the consults, 919-7727000, or you can visit the website wh.lawyer.
We've got more at Judica County. We'll dive back in right after this. I'm not. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina, where they practice law. They've got offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Viewque Barina, Gastonia, and down at the coast.
Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, and they'll talk to legalese. We'll answer some questions for you. But you may have a situation in and around estate planning or a personal injury case, and you've got questions.
There are complimentary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer, meaning you're not paying for it and you're not obligated to become a client. Grab one right now by calling 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. So the category is the realtor who knew.
Here's the question. Three months after buying a house, they discovered major foundation issues. Requiring $80,000 in repairs. A neighbor showed us Facebook posts from the seller discussing the same foundation problem two years earlier. The seller answered, no representation on the disclosure form.
The listing agent also appears in the Facebook comments discussing the issue. Do we probably have a case here? You know, these are You know, $80,000 is a lot of money to spend on a house you just bought. And, um. Yeah, yeah, that's the big thing.
You know, you can't hide, we talk about this a lot. For some reason, it comes up a lot. If you're selling a house Um You have to make some disclosures by statute. The law changed a couple years ago, so instead of just yes, Or no, there's also now a no disclosure, so you can make no disclosures, which kind of. you know, I would argue kills the intent of of Of the original law, right?
You know, they wanted you to be able to say yes or no. You had to answer, now you can just say no disclosure, which makes sense. if you didn't live in the house, right? Maybe it was a rental house and you never lived there. Maybe you haven't had it that long.
There's all kinds of reasons why no disclosure is a good thing to have, but Anyway, so a seller can make no disclosures now, right? And um The disclosures usually ask about: has there been a, you know, how old's the roof? How is the HVAC? You know, have you ever had any flood issues? There's all these things you have to answer.
Now you don't have to answer them, you can just say no disclosure. Which sounds easy. Right. You can't if you know of a pr this this is the this is the This is the spin on it. You can't hide.
Problems, right? You can't conceal. a material fact once you're aware of it. And so a lot of people come to us and say, Hey, I want to sue my sellers. They had to know there was a leak in the attic.
Somebody painted over the water stains. They had to know there was a leak.
Well, they didn't have to know. They probably knew, right? But maybe they didn't know. And if you sue them. Right?
If you sue them for Breach and fraud, and all these other things, you have to prove that they knew. And that's hard to do. It's not an easy thing to do. Um here it's a lot easier because we have the social media post. where everybody's talking about this.
this issue. Right, so that's the big problem with these cases: is how do I prove my seller knew about this. That should have known not more than likely knew. How do I prove that they No. Right?
Because you don't want to pay an attorney. if you don't feel really good about the case. Uh but here you can you can prove they knew so Um, I think they have a case. I don't think they have a case.
Okay. I don't know about the case against the real estate agent here. I don't think we have enough facts for that, but against the sellers. I don't know, Joe. That's something they they need to explore because that's um That's probably actionable.
Yeah, it's $80,000, too. Again, it can be a high bar, right? Like, proving fraud, it can sometimes be a high bar, but. When you've got When you have You know, pretty hard line evidence, as you do in this case, that they knew of the existence of this issue. That's that it it becomes You're getting closer to jumping over that bar.
And I would. Like you, Josh, I'd argue that this is definitely worth exploring and this is definitely worth putting some time into because you're. Those aren't cheap fixes, man. And a lot of times we'll tell folks. What is this issue worth to you to fix?
How much are you willing to spend? And there's some folks who've got that disposable income and they can pursue things just on principle. and it may be worth it to him, but uh There's other times where it's a very small amount dispute, and they're going to spend a lot more money. You know, proving their point to recover very little. This seems like the type of situation where there's.
Facts there that justify pursuing it, and there's a pretty strong case, and it's probably going to be well worth it in the end. Yeah, and if you file this case, if all this is true and you. You know, you send a letter to the sellers and say, Look, we see you talking about it here. We're going to file suit, and these are the damages we're going to seek. Yeah, I If I got that letter, I'd probably be interested in trying to settle this thing, right?
You know, like, hey, let's not. Let's not do all that now. Let's uh. This we can talk about this, but uh. Yeah, you can't you can't commit fraud.
It's never okay to commit fraud. Right. And actively concealing a defect you know about to push it on to your buyer. That's. That is in theory actionable civil fraud.
And um I think they can probably do something there if they wanted to, Morgan. All right. All right. Well, let's hit this one. We'll hit this one real quick.
The category is the unfinished trust. Here's the question: My parents spent thousands creating a revocable living trust. They signed all the documents, but they never transferred the house. Bank accounts or investments into the trust. My father passed away recently.
Is the trust probably going to avoid probate? Is the question.
Well, I mean Uh oh. No, man. I mean, this is the thing. Again, you're you're You're very fancy. Thousands of thousands of dollars estate plan.
You could have watched one whole Hurricanes game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh is uh it's only as good as as as properly funding it.
And so in this scenario Um In this scenario You didn't put these things. None of these things were placed in a trust.
So they don't magically make it a trust. And so, what you do when you have an estate plan and you get a trust. You know, your attorney If they're a good attorney, they're going to also give you what's called a pour-over will, which is going to take. And it's going to be kind of the catch-all, where anything that doesn't make it into trust, the will is going to leave it to trust, right? And so in that scenario, Even if you hadn't put any of these things into the trust, you still got to go through probate, but eventually that will is going to pull everything back in.
So you lose a lot of the convenience, you lose a lot of the benefits, but it still gets there. In this scenario, we don't know. We don't know how the father died, right? We don't know if he has a will at all. And If he has no will, then the statutes are going to dictate what's going to happen to all those things.
You know, I always we're talking about trust, I always talk about you know, you you create a trust. You sit down with the attorney, you sign it, you have a trust in place. You've just created a bucket, right? Is the magic. bucket that avoids probate, but nothing gets in that bucket by accident.
You have to take an affirmative step, an affirmative action. to put anything into that into that Bucket, right? And so here, the house is real property that has to get deeded to the trust. All right, it doesn't automatically happen now. Your attorney, I would think, would have talked to you about this, and if it's something you wanted to do, would have had a deed prepared.
Um, and you could take care of it all at the same time, but but anyway. Yeah, here it's not going to avoid probate. If there's a pour over will, it'll end up in the trust, but it's going through probate. And like Joe said, if there's not a will, then it's going to be administered and. Who knows where it's going?
Today, we get into some interesting legal questions out there, some scenarios. We've got a few more to go coming up on the other side. We want to remind you: there are complimentary consults. If you've got some questions about estate planning, or maybe you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got questions, grab one of these consults. There are no costs, there's no obligation to become a client, but get some of your questions answered.
Give Whitaker and Hamer a call, 919-7727000, and just say you'd like one of the consults: 919-7727000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer.
But this is your opportunity to get your own legal questions answered in and around estate planning or maybe a personal injury case. 919-7727000. Or you can visit the website wh.lawyer. We've got one more segment coming up. Final time with Tudica County coming up on the other side.
Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker-Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and they put offices all over our great state down at the coast, Moorhead City. You got Gastonia over near Charlotte, and then somewhere in the middle, you got Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and also remind you: we have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got questions or maybe a personal injury case, grab one of the consults by calling 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. All right, next question up: the category, gentlemen, is the disappearing construction deposit.
So, here's the question. Question. We paid a contractor $65,000 upfront to build a detached garage. He obtained permits, poured a slab, and then, poof, vanished. We later learn that he had accepted deposits from six other homeowners and stopped answering calls.
His company is still active with the Secretary of State. Can we probably recover anything here?
So, one of the good things they teach you in law school. Is when you have a scenario like this and you're getting the facts because that's what we do in a console, right? If this gentleman. Or it's a we, right?
So if these people came in and sat down with me or Joe, we'd start asking them about what happened. You know, hey, is there a contract? What was the timeline? When's the last time you talked to him? Um, or talk to the contractor?
Was the contractor a general contractor with a license, which he should have been? For a contract totaling $65,000. He should have been a licensed general contractor.
So we get all these facts. But one of the things a good attorney knows is when a fact doesn't matter. Right, so here his company is still active with the Secretary of State, that doesn't matter. We don't. We don't care.
Um But it's always important to to be able to trim the facts that don't really affect The outcome. Here You know, it would seem that they have an action, like assuming there's some sort of agreement, preferably a written agreement. That says what the guy was supposed to do, what the contractor was supposed to do. He hasn't done it.
So, in theory, you can sue. For breach, now I don't know how much it costs to pour a slab. For this project, but I imagine that was probably a decent chunk of $65,000, right? I mean, Porna slab isn't super cheap these days, so they've gotten some value for that.
So I don't know how much they're owed back. Um But I think what this question is really trying to get to is: yeah, you have a claim, you can sue this guy. And uh a lot of things could happen. Uh You could win and get a judgment. We'll say you get a judgment for $65,000 and maybe some other damages.
Let's say you get a judgment for $100,000 against this guy. What's it worth? What's it worth? Right. Yeah.
Collections, right? You know, talking with an attorney about getting a judgment, holding somebody liable, that's all well and good. But what if that person files bankruptcy?
Well, and even worse than that, man, what, you know... Folks who do this aren't always the most reputable j folks out there. And so. You know, assuming Assuming that you know Everything you've done, let's just assume it was through whatever his company is. It says that you looked him up on the Secretary of State.
So you've probably contracted with some kind of business entity. And You know, on its face, you're suing that entity. And a judgment against them is only as good as. what they own and Usually the guy that's going to take deposits and then vanish isn't a guy that's going to own a whole lot. And there's not going to be not there to recover.
They're not usually sitting on a lot of real property or assets that you can get your hands on through the Sheriff's Department after trying to collect on a On a judgment, a lot of these people end up filing bankruptcy. And you can't, again, there's things you can't get out of in bankruptcy, fraud being one of them, but it complicates matters. And then it's, you know, because this is a conversation I always have with people, like, yes. You're out some money. A lot of money, and this guy did you wrong.
How much do you want to spend on it, though? And what is our, what is our like, I never want to take anybody's money. if I don't think I'm going to be able to help them. Uh Achieve their objective. And if their objective is to get $65,000 back from this guy, who's probably They said he's not accepting deposits.
I imagine he's not around anymore. Um I don't want to take your money as your attorney to get you a $1,000 judgment that you're never going to collect, right? How much money do you want to throw after? uh bad money, you know.
So this is probably what if you sat down with me, we would certainly talk about. What you could do, and it may be worth maybe we look this guy up and he owns his house and he's got some other stuff, and we decide that there's enough where we could make his life miserable and try to collect on it. But if we can't, You know, I try to be really upfront with people. Um But uh Yeah, it's tough, man. And if he's a general contractor, you can file a complaint, right?
You could file a complaint with the licensing board. And that'd probably cause him more trouble than than the lawsuit. Um But anyway, not a good spot to be in by any means. We have time for one more question, gentlemen.
So, attorneys, go to work on this one. Here's the category: the farm road. All right, here's the question: For over 40 years, our family has used a dirt road crossing neighboring property to access the farm. The property was recently sold to a developer who installed a gate and they locked the gate. We have no written easement.
Do we probably have rights to continue using the road? I mean. Maybe. Um You know There's something in North Carolina law we've touched on before, but prescriptive easements. You can, you know, the best thing for an easement is yeah, to have it in writing.
Have it surveyed, you get a deed of easement saying, hey, you can use this 30 feet to access the main road. Here's the survey that shows it. Everybody's in agreement that this will run with the land, and you can always use that easement. That's the perfect scenario. In a situation like this, you don't have a written easement, so now you have to argue about it.
Now you have to prove that you have the right. To use it, and if you can prove that your family's been using it for over 40 years. Continually, there's all these things you have to prove. It's kind of an offshoot of adverse possession, but you can prove, like, yes. I have a prescriptive easement to uh To use this, normally you're using a prescriptive easement to get to a main road to access your.
Your parcel, but the court would look at a lot of things. They look at: does the farm have access a different way? Can you get there a different way, even if it's inconvenient? But prescriptive easements, easement by necessities, old farm, cart paths, there's all kinds of things an attorney would talk to you about. And again, we don't have enough.
facts here. But I think best case scenario, maybe you have a right to keep using this road, but there's a lot of facts. We have to pull out a survey and kind of look at access and. That's interesting. Yeah, the developer certainly probably doesn't want it there.
He wants to be able to. The developer wants to be able to develop that property. He doesn't want a meandering road going through the. the parcel um That's gonna be a tough one. That's gonna rely a lot on.
where the property is located. and things like access, things like that. Judica County Radio, our final question in the books. Real quickly, Josh, just go over again complimentary consult available, again, in and around estate planning and also personal injury case if you've got one. Yeah, if you want to talk to me and Joe about your estate planning, wills, revocable trust, power of attorneys, things like that, we'll do that for free.
If you've been in a car accident, right, if you've got questions about You know what, what the insurance company is going to do, what they're going to owe you, valuing your claim, what that path, what that road looks like. You can call us, we'll talk to you for free. I didn't really, you know, we don't do free consults on everything. Those are the things we kind of offer free consults on. But if you want to talk to me and Joe about anything else, You know, we have a lot of attorneys across the state with a lot of different areas of.
Where they concentrate their time and their practice.
So, if it's not something me and Joe can help you with, we definitely have an attorney who could help you with it. We definitely want to be an asset for you, somebody you can call should you have the need. There you go. Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life. That's the slogan.
Call the number and grab one of the complimentary consults in and around estate planning personal injury: 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan.
See you on the radio next week. Yeah. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature, and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney, licensed in the state in which you live, has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such enquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.
