Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and your hosts and pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. Going to get into some legal questions. The executor sold the truck to himself is the first question. We'll also tackle the builder's private road and the text message contract. That's how we're starting off the program.
That's all coming up next. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Right. Whitaker and Hamer present. Judica County.
with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Heyman. Welcome in to Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program, and they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Whitaker and Hamer has offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucquave Arena, Gastonia, and down at the coast at Moorhead City for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick.
It is a pleasure just to jump on and get these legal questions going. You're going to be thinking about your own situation and possibly you need some help.
Well, we have it for you: complimentary consults in and around estate planning, or if you're involved with some kind of personal injury case and you've got some questions, jump on those consults. You can do it at any time. 919-77270000. It's 919-7727000. That'll get you signed up.
And you can also go to the website, wh.lawyer. Before we dive in on question number one, gentlemen, let's talk about it. How was the week, Josh?
Well, we'll see. We're a a week removed from the the the Kanes winning, right? The fallout after the Stanley Cup. The fallout? That sounds like destruction.
No, it's like euphoria. You remember Josh didn't. Wasn't pulling for the Keynes. He didn't support 'em.
So So I was. I was. I r I remember we we I had strep throat last week, which sucks as an adult and don't get strep throat. But um so we didn't get a chance to get together last week. But I think the week before we were I was predicting the it would be it would be uh 3-1 canes after the first four.
I think that's what I was predicting. If we go roll the tape. If we can if we can I know we're not supposed to do that. That was close. Yeah.
But uh so that worked out pretty well for Raleigh. For all of us, Josh, for me, for you, for Morgan, we live here. We're really excited about all the bars and restaurants that the Kanes visited this past week, I think that's still going on. I did get some insight on. The cops.
Obviously, every player gets it for a certain amount of time. Didn't know how much time. Uh but I guess I dove in on uh what One of the many, many podcasts that's out there that just focuses on the National Hockey League. But apparently, it's 18 hours. Each player gets the cup for 18 hours.
And I remember back in. two thousand six, it was in the area quite a bit and there were house parties and people would come over to see the cup, touch the cup, get pictures with the cup. But you also see these guys who take it home.
So with eighteen hours That's a tight window.
So it's probably going to stay local. I saw it, it was making the rounds down in the five points area in downtown Raleigh. Also made it up to North Hills this week. Uh people just celebrating, obviously. when this sh show is airing.
Uh it is going to be a parade day. uh on Saturday, downtown Raleigh. Uh so if you are uh Partaking in that. Be careful. It should be a lot of people downtown.
Yeah, that's the cool thing about the Stanley Cup, though, is the trophy lives its own life. You know, if I had a major league franchise, I would do that. I would copy that right away, you know? That's the. That's a cool thing.
Well, they got a couple of guys that that's their job. Yeah, I saw them, they were on ESPN relentlessly there for like a week or two. Yeah, they just host the cup, they travel with it. And when these players have the cup, obviously they're, I don't think they're at all the individual parties, but they drop the cup off, they come pick it up, it's supposed to be there at a certain time. But how do you put that on your resume, right?
What do you do? Oh, I haul a cup around all year long. It's a very important job, man. It's almost as important as Being on the radio. That's right.
It's not quite the elevation of radio show and radio show hosts, but it's close. Not moving. That was a. That was fun to watch. I'm not watching much soccer.
I've never been a big soccer guy, so the World Cup's kind of passing me by. I'm watching a lot of baseball. Which hopefully we get hopefully this helps us. Get a baseball team, right? The success the Kanes have had.
the amount of people that are coming out to stuff. Hopefully that helps us.
Well, in baseball, MLB expansion. Yeah, well, Tom Dundon was on the ice in Vegas, and one of the reporters almost maybe. First five questions in. He said, I don't want to jump the gun here, but. And they started talking about baseball.
And so I you see what we saw as far as away games and the amount of fan participation and selling out Lenovo for an away game just for a watch party and then an additional 5,000 people outside in the parking lot. Keynes hosted it very, very well, and they highlighted it. It's all over social media. And if Major League Baseball is watching, and I know they are. Uh there's an opportunity probably in this area.
So many people want to go to Charlotte. Mm. I mean I I think the support The meter of just crowd approval and fan support here in this area is pretty strong.
So it would not shock me if baseball takes a really serious look at us. You'd be real excited about that, Josh. I bid every gay, man. I bet you. You get behind that more than.
A beautiful successful hurricanes. I grew up with baseball. You know? I grew I I yeah, I mean, I didn't grow up with hockey, but uh I sure do like it, man. I really am.
Well That's really all I remember from this week. I watched a lot of hockey. I watched a lot of baseball. Got to the beach. I had strep throat.
That was really my week in a nutshell.
Well, guys, we are recording during the week, but coming up on the weekend when this show airs, it's Father's Day weekend. Any big plans? Oh, it is that, right? Yeah. No, man, yeah.
No. Yeah, I'm going to say hey to Josh's dad, too. That's on the docket for me, man. How about you, Morgan? Oh, yeah, heading to the mountains.
Gonna see my pop and spend some time. And obviously, Sunday is gonna be the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Tournament. Always a tough test. Shinnecock Hills is hosting up on Long Island.
So, a classic golf course. Very set up very, very hard.
So, if you're a golf fan, got that to look forward to but yeah happy Father's Day to all the dads out there So this is a uh you know we uh we eventually get around to. Talking about the law, right? That's what we're here to do. We're lawyers on a show that talks about the law. We like to talk about sports sometimes, right?
But I feel like the last segment should just be the bets we did well on, right? I feel like our last segment would be like, intro, talk about some sports, get to the law. Most of the show is about the law. We get to it for most of the show. And then, like, the last five minutes.
I think we should review me and Joe's betting history. Did you do well recently, man? I know I did. I did very well recently. I have not.
Yeah. I had a good. I had a good Sunday, man. The canes really did me right. And uh Yeah.
And we're teams gotta be a little bit more. And just for our listeners, you guys bet fun amounts, little little amounts. None of us have a serious game. You're not staying up 48 hours in a row on a heater. We would never.
No, these are just fun, little, fun little bets. Just for fun. Yeah. Yeah, the Kane scored too little or too many for me when I was betting. And then I really thought the Knicks were going to.
I thought the Spurs were going to get the Knicks, man. I was a firm believer that the Spurs were going to get the Knicks. I did not have a great week. You can think that for. You know, I I understand why you thought that, but That really unraveled for him, man.
I don't know which game it was in the NBA Finals, but I tuned in, and I want to say the Spurs were up. At half, 76 to like 41. Yeah. So so the Spurs scored 76 points. In the first half and in the second half of the game, and again, this is just me, it's a personal opinion, not a huge NBA fan.
The Spurs, that team, scored 30 points in the second half of that game. And they lost. And I'm sitting there going, how is this possible? This is the highest level. of basketball in the world.
And it's like they don't play defense in the first half, and then they can't hit the broad side of a barn in the second half. And then they just collapse. I mean, the mistakes that they made were incredibly cool. I'm like, these are the best ball players in the world. You know, you bet.
If you bet on the Knicks at the lowest point of those games when they were down the lowest amount. I think someone said if you put a hundred bucks on it starting with the first game and rolled it over every game, you would have won like 2.2 million, like something ridiculous.
Well, again, we need to take a break, guys. We'll come back. We can summise, you know, maybe some of the NBA talk if we want to, and then we'll get into some legal questions. We do have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning, or if you are involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions on how to proceed, grab one of the consults, 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000.
You can also visit wh.Lawyer Good Resource for you there, you can get signed up as well. We've got more Judica County coming up. the other side. We are back on 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 all over the state, down at the coast, Moorhead City, over near Charlotte in Gastonia.
You also have Tuquevarina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to get some legal questions here in just a sec. Also, the complimentary consult available through estate planning or possibly personal injury case you're involved with.
You've got questions, you can grab one of those consults at any time during the show. Just call the number 919-7727000. They'll set you up, 919-77270000. You can always visit the website, won't. All right, Josh, you want to wrap up our thoughts on anything before we get into legal questions?
No, no, I was just going to say, I grew up in North Carolina. I was a Hornets fan. I like the Charlotte Hornets, that's my NBA team.
So I've always hated the Knicks. I didn't like Michael Jordan's Bulls, right? I liked the Hornets. Yeah. I was rooting for the Spurs.
That's all I was going to add. I wanted the Spurs to put it together, even though I don't like a lot of their team. Yeah, the last time I gave a rodent's backside about the NBA was when Jordan played. And You know that's 'cause you're a Carolina guy. That is correct.
And he is the most spectacular player to ever lace him up. Thank you very much.
Well, we can get into that another day. He's not a bad player. I think we can argue. He's not a bad player. He's a top fifty player for sure.
There's no debate there, Morgan. No, he's a top one, number one player. And LeBron a distant second. But anyway. Legal question.
I think you're forgetting about a player who was very good about the same time as Jordan who scored a lot of points: Kelly Trapuka. Yeah, Charlotte Hornets. of the Charlotte Hornets. It was fantastic. He was all we had that one year, man.
It was Kelly Trapuka or nothing. Always been a big Kelly Trapuca fan. All right, so let's get into these questions. First one up, and again, take these with a grain of salt, see what the attorneys would do. The category is: the executor sold the truck to himself.
So here's the question: My father died owning a classic 1972 Chevy truck. It's worth about $45,000. My brother was appointed executor. Six months later, we learned that he sold the truck to himself. For $12,000 without getting an appraisal or telling the beneficiaries.
He says nobody else wanted it and the estate needed cash. Is that proper? probably going to be allowed. All right, so we, you know, we design these questions to kind of kind of bring up. You know, certain issues that we want to talk about here on the show.
We talk a lot about estate planning and the other side of the coin: you know, estate planning is preparing for your death. A state admin. That's how your heirs are gonna handle your final wishes after you're gone, right?
So it's like two sides of the same coin. And we spend a lot of time talking about estate planning, but I also like to talk about what happens. When you're gone, right? And so here. Um A father died, right?
We know a father died. We know that there was a will because a brother was appointed executor. And so that that executor We talk about this a lot, Joseph. We talk about a fiduciary duty, right? The law always is concerned.
If something happens under the law, it's concerned with what duty. Did you owe this other person who's complaining, right? And so, here we've got one, we've got the other siblings complaining: like, hey, you got basically a $45,000 truck for $12,000.
So, you've gifted yourself. That's the argument there. You've gifted yourself some money, you showed yourself preferential treatment. what what duty was owed. And so under normal circumstances, Morgan Joseph, I don't owe you much of a duty, right?
Just as a guy sitting here on a radio show.
Well, a moral duty, but a legal duty. I can't punch in a moment. You can't kill me, you can't assault me. Yeah. Yeah, you got some basic rights, but basically, I don't owe you any special duty.
I owe you the same duty that I would owe anybody on the road or anybody I met. In public, which is just kind of your standard, ordinary negligence type standard, right? When you be when you become executor of an estate, now now you you owe a fiduciary duty. And we talk about that's a special relationship, a heightened relationship, where not only can I just. It's more than just punch you in the face, standard, right?
Yeah, so you still, for the record, still can't. punch people in the face as the executor. But uh yeah, you got you got more responsibility. You you're You're kind of a steward for these beneficiaries and you have to. look out for their interest in addition to yours, and the law puts a lot of weight into that responsibility.
Yeah, and and I like that word steward, right? You're in charge of these assets for the beneficiaries. And so the executor here is also a beneficiary. I would assume. But you can't waste assets, you can't convert assets, you can't steal.
Assets, you got to get the best value for all the assets you owe that duty, and so when you don't do that, you violate your fiduciary duty. And here it doesn't sound good, right? Maybe the brother did. They said there's no appraisal in our fact patterns. I don't know how we know the truck's worth $45,000, but the brother bought it for $12,000.
But assuming it's.
Alright, this is probably going to get the brother in trouble. He's probably going to have to reverse this transaction. And this isn't done in secrecy. Right, the clerk, you know, here we talk about this, you know, here there's an executor. There's a public estate file downtown.
Um anybody can look it up. The brother, as executor, is going to have to explain to the clerk: hey, here are all the assets. That my father had. Here's how I valued them. Here's the supporting documentation.
These were sold. And a clerk can disallow. A clerk, I'm imagining a clerk would disallow this and say, hey, man, you can't do this. Or you need to give me some documentation showing the truck was broken down, needed brakes, needed all this repair work. You got to give me something to show that it was worth $12.
And then as an heir, The person asking this question, the other sibling, can always challenge this kind of thing.
So. Yeah, and it's not to say that at the end of the day that this person's going to have some liability for it. And. you know, but Scrutiny, right? These things are scrutinized.
And any time you're an executor, If you're an executor and you're a sole beneficiary, self-dealing doesn't really matter, right? Because you're taking everything. But when you've got other individuals. Court's going to look at self-dealing a lot more closely. And from this fact pattern, this person's probably.
Probably got a problem. Yeah, this guy, like, if this guy can come and say, hey, man, I listed it at 45 and this. magazine or this listing where classic car collectors look and I went to a dealer and they said they'd give me twelve and that no one took me up and I had it offered for sale. You know, there's all kinds all kinds of ways to maybe prove There's plenty of things like I can say I have a you know a 1954 Mickey Mantle and it's worth Eight grand. Mm-hmm.
There might not be anybody out there who's willing to buy it at eight grand, right?
So, what an appraiser says it's worth maybe isn't a big deal. It's what the market will. Bear, and that's always kind of a moving target.
So, there's all these things you can use to show. uh fair market value um So, maybe the brother's got something in his back pocket, but he's going to have to show he offer. I mean, not offering it to the other siblings is kind of a red flag, too, right? Yeah. Because this brother should have gone and be like, hey, man, we need to sell this truck.
Sneaky. It was sneaky. It's not moving. I'll give 12. Will anybody give any more?
Blah, blah, blah. Anyway.
So before we leave this conversation, guys, do you have any collectibles? I mean, obviously, if you do. You especially, Josh. Morgan and I are trying to. Put our inventory together for when we rob you, ultimately.
Well, no, no, obviously, it's in safekeeping, but do you guys have any cool collectibles? I, you know, this reminds me, I can't remember the guy's name, there's a senator. And uh he's against uh Senators trading stock, right? He's a part of that movement. And they asked him, Well, where does he keep his money, right?
If you're not trading stock with like these other senators, and he goes, All my money's tied up in baseball cards and comic books. Wow.
Okay. And I feel like that's, I, you know, that's that's kind of where. Uh the old the old baseball cards get me, but uh What do you got, Joseph? Collectible-wise, seven thousand beanie babies. Ready for action?
Yeah, no, I don't have that actually. Not much, man. Not much. Maybe Maybe I need to get on it. I I don't know.
Uh I got cards as a kid, you know, but I don't think I I wasn't I didn't take great care of them. I like to hold my cards. Yeah, be one with your cards. I got a bunch of old WCW wrestling cards that are worth like. Maybe three bucks for a pack.
So I don't think that's going to get me very far. But I like that stuff, man. I hit that age where the stuff that I liked as a kid. Gives me a lot of pleasure, right? You know, now, like the old video games and the old.
Anyway, I know we're up against the break. Yeah, let's take that break again. Complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and personal injury case. If you're involved and you've got some questions, call right now: 919-7727000, 919-77270000. You can also visit WH.lawyer, get signed up for one of those complimentary consults, 919-77270000 or WH.lawyer.
Back after this. Um We're back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucquave Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys.
And during the course of today's show, we do have complimentary consults, estate planning questions, or maybe a personal injury case. Grab one of the consults with the attorneys: 919-7727000. They'll set that up for you. No cost, no obligation. 919-7727000.
You can also visit wh.lawyer.
So, back at the questions. Here's the next category, guys. The Builder's Private Road.
So here's the question. A developer built a subdivision with a private road maintained by the HOA. Twenty years later, the road is falling apart and repairs are going to cost $750,000. Homeowners thought the city would eventually take over the maintenance, but that never happened. Can the city probably be forced to accept this as a road and obviously take care of the repairs?
Yeah, probably not. That's a really unfortunate situation, man. And I feel for these homeowners, but. Yeah, there's the municipalities are under no obligation to accept a road, right? And so.
generally speaking, if if if the intention is for a road to become public, The developer is going to record their plat, it's going to be dedicated as public, and then there's going to be requirements where they have to meet certain standards before the state or the city will take over that maintenance. If the intention from the jump is that it's a private road. Then your developer is going to maintain that until they are going to hand over control to the homeowners. And at that point, That's a homeowner problem. You know?
It's as simple as that. Yeah, there's a lot, you know, just in my career, I've seen these issues litigated a lot between. you know, a developer You know, a developer is a developer, you know, and they're gonna come in, they're gonna develop the property. And, like Joe said, whether the road's going to be private or the goal is to make it public, that's going to be known from day one, right? As soon as the plaque gets recorded.
Because some subdivisions want to keep their road private for all kinds of reasons. And some want it to be public, or it has to be public because of the way it was developed. But those aren't question marks, right? We know from day one what the intent. of the development was.
But developers are not, they're leaving, right? As soon as it's developed, they're out of the picture. They don't want to be around, it's not their job. And so, usually, for a road to become public, there's a process. It has to be dedicated, like Joseph said.
and then it has to meet certain requirements. And roads are not perfect. permanent, right? Roads are like anything else. Over time, they're going to decay.
You know, elements, you know, elements to prevent flooding and water decay are destroyed. Rowdy teens, sometimes rowdy teens destroyed. Rowdy teens, man. They're out there. Rowdy teens.
Rowdy teens. What are rowdy teens doing to destroy roads? Is that skating?
So a lot of times, you know, there's public requirements.
So if the DOT is going to take over a road, it's got to be a certain width. It's got to be marked a certain way. It's got to, you know, there may be some water flow issues, right? When you put in. When you put in a road, there's some issues with water flow and groundwater, and so they might have some instruments to collect it, send it to other places.
And a lot of times, builders, people just maintaining their lawn who don't know what it's there for, screw all those things up. And what's going to happen is when the subdivision is done, if you want to hand the road over, the DOT has a whole unit, and they come out there and they do an audit of the road. And they say, okay, this looks good, this looks good, this doesn't, this doesn't, this doesn't. The DOT is not going to take over a road. That's not in perfect.
Shape. And a lot of subdivisions figure that out 20 years after the developer's gone.
Sometimes it's not the developer's fault, sometimes it is. Um But anyway. There is no, like Joe said, there is no obligation that the DOT or any municipality take over road maintenance. And not only is there not an obligation, they ain't gonna do it unless it's in tip-top shape. That's right.
And most of these roads are not in tip-top shape.
So, what happens is the subdivision. You know, the people running the HOA figure out, like, hey, we need $200,000 in upgrades to even get this to a point where the DOT is going to take it over. And people don't like to spend that kind of money. And HOA doesn't like to raise dues for that kind of money anyway. Here, this was always in our question, it seems pretty cut and dry.
It was always going to be a private road. The HOA should have always known that they were going to have to maintain it. I don't know why the homeowners would have thought the city would eventually take over the maintenance if it was a private road from the beginning. These people just have a private road, and they're going to have to. Maintain it.
Yeah. Yeah. Or not maintain it, man. You drop through some of these subdivisions. Yeah, just let it be, man.
Just swerve the potholes. Who needs it? Who needs a car? Or maybe you got neighbors who go out there with all the gravel, right? Fill the really deep ones.
Yeah. Those are good people, man. Those are good people. All right, let's hit another question and then we'll take a break. Here it is: the text message contract is the category.
Here's the question: I agreed by text message to sell a vacant lot for $85,000. We exchanged dozens of messages, agreed on price and closing date, and even discussed attorneys. Two weeks later, the buyer found a better property and backed out. Do I probably have an enforceable contract? I don't like the way that's worded.
Do I probably have an enforceable contract? Yeah. But but with that said, our answer is going to include the word probably probably 50 times. You probably. I don't think we can condemn this person.
That's going to be our go-to.
So this brings up the statute of frauds, right? The statute of frauds.
So any. Any agreement for the purchase of real property, what is real property? It's land, land, house. Any contract for the purchase of real property has to be in writing, has to be signed, it has to have certain things. in it and text messages just ain't Ink.
Ain't gonna cut it. Um So Yeah, that's the statute of fraud.
Some things just have to be in writing, and that's just the way it is. And Contracts for real estate, real property have to be in writing. You know, th uh we'd have to see the text messages. Maybe there's enough. You know, did something get e-signed?
You know, e-signing is isn't the best, but, you know can be used in in some requirements. But if you can get a contract, I mean I don't know.
So, like, if he's gonna sell it to you for $85 and he got a better offer for $95. and he ditched you. There might be enough there to sue him. And make him really think about is the $10,000 he's going to get from this other person worth you know a lawsuit Right? Maybe there's enough there to make them think about it.
Yeah, you're not you're It's probably better than a than just a You know, a verbal agreement? But it ain't it ain't as good as Like an actual this complies with the statute of frauds type of situation. Yeah, I mean, but the big overriding message is, you know, Due diligence, get it in writing, have a contract, work with attorneys. Don't just assume that a text message agreement is going to be viewed as a contract. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
So yeah, now this guy is not an honorable fellow, right? If he's if he's, I mean, he's not taking gravel out into his neighborhood's parallel. No, no, he's not the guy who's cutting a tree when it falls across the road. He's not that guy. No.
But what do you need to learn is that, hey, whoever this guy is, don't ever deal with him again, right? Yeah. He's not he's not uh his his uh back in the day listened to a lot of mid-90s rap. Yeah. And there were a lot of phrases in mid-90s rap that I feel like should have survived into 2026 and they haven't survived.
Do we have an arable example of a phrase? I'm getting to one, yes.
Okay. And so I tell them to my kids a lot of times, and I was like, that's a cool phrase, right? Word, you know, that, no, no. But a lot of rappers in the in the nineties would say My word is bond. You heard that in a lot of rap, you know, like my word is my bond.
Yeah. Yeah. And this guy, his word is not his bond, right? If this was the Wild West and he had shook your hand and he did this, you could probably shoot him, I think. All right, that took a turn.
Took a turn, but my word is bullets.
Okay, there you go. All right, listen, we've got to take a short break. We want to remind you, too, we do have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer. If estate planning questions or maybe a personal injury case and you've got questions there, grab one of the consults, no costs, no obligation, 919-772-7000. Get your questions answered.
That's 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more Chudica 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 all over our great state: Moorhead City, Gastonia, Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We hit these questions, legalese questions, and we also give you an opportunity to get on their calendar, no cost, no obligation, consult on either a state planning or personal injury case that you're facing. 919-7727000. The number to call.
That's 919-77270000. You can always visit the website, WHO. Dot lawyer. All right, we are jumping to this question, gentlemen. The corporate veil question.
That's the category.
So here it is: a contractor performed work through an LLC after causing major property damage. The LLC dissolved and has no assets. The owner lives in a million-dollar house and drives luxury vehicles. Can we probably pursue him? personally.
So, this is an interesting question, but we're missing a lot of facts. This whole sentence, this after causing major property damage, okay, what is that? Uh to what, how The LLC dissolved and has no assets. Um There's a timeline there. There's a lot of facts that would be very important to this question.
But what I'm going to do is, I'm going to fill in the gaps. I'm going to assume this LLC was a construction company. And I'm going to assume this LLC was doing a renovation project and then left halfway through. And now the owners want to sue the LLC. And I'm going to say, so the corporate, piercing the corporate veil, when somebody sets up an LLC, when they set up a corporation, when they set up a company, if they operate the company in the right manner.
Um they protect their personal assets. That's why people do that. That's why when you hire the law firm of Whitaker and Hamer pl L C, you're not hiring me and Joe personally. You're hiring the LLC, and the LLC has insurance, and the LLC has assets. And so in theory, if you were ever to sue me and Joe, You're suing the LLC.
You're not suing, you're not going after me and Joe's. meager baseball collection. You're not going after our personal assets. You're going after the assets of the business because the business is who you hired, the business is who you retained. And one of the things that we talk about when we talk about this is the business won Can't be, we call it undercapitalized.
You can't start a business that has nothing, no insurance, go out there and do work for folks. And if something goes wrong, get sued and say, Well, I got you. Yeah, I've already spent your money, and I don't have the LLC, doesn't have any assets, and whatever. The law doesn't like that. That's not what.
An LLC is supposed to protect your personal assets, but it's not supposed to do it at the expense of the people that deal with the LLC. And so um Here we're missing so many facts. But there's probably a case to get to this guy's personal. Assets, but it might be hard. It's not going to be easy.
That's part of the. the consult is we we talk about well What kind of damage did they cause? What did you pay? What did the contract say? This guy should have had insurance.
You dissolve the LLC before everything. There's rules on how you dissolve your company. You can't just. Dissolve your company because you think you might get sued one day. Because once you lose, that LLC protection, then your personal assets are fair game.
So anyway. That question, we could talk about that question for an hour if we had the facts. Let's do it, man. Let's just buy some extra airtime. Let's create a few facts.
That's what the people are yearning for. We'll go into overtime this Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and And but no, there's uh there's That is probably actionable, but it's a bad situation to be. We have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer. And if you've got an estate planning question, maybe a personal injury case, grab one of the consults, 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000.
No cost, no obligation. You can also visit wh.lawyer.
We got more legal questions coming up on Judica County. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Thuque, Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and hit some legal questions.
You're going to have questions about maybe a situation that you're involved with. And we have complimentary consults with the firm in and around an estate planning question or maybe personal injury. Just give us a call, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. You can visit the website, WHO.
Dot lawyer. All right, we're going to jump to our next question. Here's the category: revocable trust and second marriage. Here's the question: widower. Created a revocable trust, leaving everything equally to his three children.
Ten years later, he remarried but never amended the trust. He recently passed away. does the new spouse probably have any rights here?
Well, a lot of probabilities in these questions. Um These questions don't want to affirm yes, no. They want a. Yeah. The new spouse probably has rights.
You cannot disinherit. Your spouse. In North Carolina, it's constitutional, it's in the North Carolina Constitution. Your spouse, your your widow. You can't you can't disinherit them.
Um, you just can't do it. Not even by accident. No, not even on purpose, I should say. In North Carolina, a spouse. Whether they've been disinherited completely or they're left a dollar.
A lot of people think that's the trick.
Well, I left her a dollar. That's not enough. The uh Uh If if a spouse is not satisfied with what they were left in your estate, They can file an elective they can file for an elective share. It's a statute. And that elective share gives them a greater percentage of your estate.
Depending on how many kids you had together, things like that. And so. That's how North Carolina makes sure that you don't disinherit your spouse because the spouse can always take an elective. share. Spasso allowance is the first sixty grand.
So it doesn't matter what your will says. Um And then there's an elective share, and it's used a lot. We see it a lot as attorneys 'cause people You know, remain married for whatever everybody has their reasons, but maybe they don't really like their spouse. Or They want to leave money to the What do you call it? They're not spouse, their mistress, their sweet thing.
Yeah, their sweet thing. That's what you've always yours.
So, that's for terminology we'll use.
So, it's you know. They that you know, people do that and they think they're being smart. And then it's very easy for a spouse to come in, like, oh, nope, I'm gonna file for my elective share. It doesn't matter that things went into trust, things can be pulled out. The court can, you know, has a lot of power in certain situations.
And an elective share, the court's gonna go back. And pull things back into the estate, you know, and so anyway. The lesson here is You're not going to be able to disinherit your spouse.
So, if you don't really want your spouse to have anything when you die, you probably should get divorced. Yeah. That's not legal advice. That's just practical advice. Because you're not going to disinherit your spouse.
It's a little bit of both. All right.
Well, the questions keep rolling. We're going to go to this one, guys. And this may be happening in our area. I certainly see a lot of these. And the category is the solar farm lease.
Here's the question. A farmer signed a 35-year solar farm lease paying $1,200 per acre annually. Ten years later, the solar company assigns the lease to another company that. stops communicating and falls behind on maintenance, can the farmer probably terminate the lease? What You know, well here.
We've got a lease. Yeah. That's good, right? We've got a written lease. And you know what that written lease is probably going to tell us, Morgan?
I have no idea. It's probably going to tell us what the tenant can do if the if the if the if the tenant, what the landlord can do if the tenant landlord being the farmer the the tenant here being the the solar panel company. Um He's probably got some rights in that lease, but those rights probably involve him giving them giving them specific notice about what needs to be done. Here's where you're falling behind on maintenance. Here's what should be done.
You didn't do it. And giving them probably 30, 60, 90 days to cure that default. Withholding your rent is usually rarely the first thing that you can Or terminating here, sorry, here terminating is not the, you know, no, he's probably not going to be able to unilaterally terminate. a written lease. Yeah, and and at least it's gonna control, right?
Like, so Assuming he's got a very good lease, then he's probably gonna have You know, plenty of recourse to be able to make the situation right, assuming he does not have a very good lease. It could be tricky, and it could be a lot more problematic. And not to say that he can't still get to that point of termination, but he may have to jump through some more hoops. to do it. Yeah, you know, I meet with a lot of people and and that have like this kind of question.
I'm like, okay, well, what does the what does the lease say? Oh, I don't have the lease, or I didn't get a copy, or it's, you know, it's 15 years old, or. Um You know, I pulled the lease online and it didn't contemplate this issue, you know. But yeah, when there's a writing controlling an agreement, right? Life insurance contract.
We talked about an offer to purchase on real property earlier, a trust, a lease. When the question is Hey, we've got this problem. What are we going to do? That's the first thing we're going to do: is like, okay, well, let's go back to the lease, let's go back to the trust. What we, you know, we have a writing, that's a win.
Right? When I because I don't want the text message guy. Right, or the verbal handshake guy when things go wrong. I want the person who's like, yes. We did have a written lease.
It's 118 pages. Here it is. I was like, well, this lease is probably going to tell us. what what we do from here.
So that's probably what we probably hear. Just probably a good sized lease. I bet this lease is 70, every bit of 60, 70 pages. Maybe not. Um But again, you know, these solar farms, a lot of times they record something, right?
They put something on record down at the register of deeds. That makes this lease a public record. And so the farmer here is really going to want to deal with this company and get it figured out because they probably have a cloud-owned title. There's all kinds of things that could go wrong.
So pretty good. Pretty. good possibility there's a paper trail that can be Followed up on, and as you mentioned, Josh, just having a lease itself, at least you've got, you know, that's a great starting point. Yeah. All right.
Well, we've got opportunities for you as far as starting points. Maybe you've got some questions about estate planning. Maybe you're involved with a personal injury case. Josh, real quickly, let's talk about those complimentary consults, exactly what's going to happen if they can grab one. Yeah, yeah, you know, you just give us a call.
Like I said, we've been doing, as part of the radio show, we've been doing free consults for estate planning.
So if you want to talk about a will, you want to talk about trust. You can sit down with me or Joe or one of our attorneys talk about estate planning for free. We'll tell you what we think you should do. We'll tell you what it costs. You'll have all that information for free.
And, like Morgan said, you know, we handle car accident cases across the state of North Carolina.
So, if you've been in a car accident, If you have questions about your rights, if you're, you know, you're having trouble dealing with your insurance companies, the insurance companies don't always play Nice with you. Um you know, we're we're happy to sit down for free and and and you'll know stuff, right? You'll sit down with us for free. You'll get some knowledge. You'll get some information.
We'll let you know how we can help. And then you can you can Accept our help and hire us, or you can move on forward with that free knowledge you got from us.
So those. Those are kind of the free consults that when we talk about, that's what we're talking about. All right, opportunity to grab one right now. 919-77270000 is the number to call. That's 919-77270000.
Again, estate planning, maybe a personal injury case. You got some questions. This is no cost, no obligation to become a client, but you'll get some knowledge back. 919-77270000. Again, 919-77270000.
You can also visit the website wh.lawyer and you can get signed up there as well.
Well, we've got more Judica County Radio coming up. A couple more legal questions, and we'll wrap up the show. More at Judica County right after this. We are back on Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.
They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And again, Whitaker and Hamer, the power behind this program. Offices all across our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucwave Arena, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, and over at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys and hit these different questions.
You're going to have maybe some questions about estate planning or maybe a personal injury case. You can grab one of our complimentary consults at any time by calling 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000 or visit the website wh. Dot lawyer. And again, no obligation means you'll get some information.
You're not obligated to become a client, but if you want to roll forward, you certainly can. 919-772-7000 or WHO. All right, next category, guys. The AI estate planning disaster. That's the category.
Here's the question: A man used AI to draft his own will, trust, power of attorney, and deed package. After he passed away, it turned out the witnesses signed the wrong pages, the trust wasn't funded, and the deed had the wrong legal description. His family saved $2,000 on legal fees, but now face years of litigation. What probably happens in this case?
So, I'm, you know, AI can do a lot of stuff. It's amazing what AI can do. I know Claude just rolled out some tools for the legal community. Um, we use AI when we can here at the firm when it when it makes sense. Um to automate simple tasks and things like that.
And it's a real It can be real godsend, but you know At least as of today's recording, AI There's a lot it can't do. Um But that changes rapidly, man. Yeah, I know. That's why I said, as of recording. 'Cause by the time this show airs, maybe it can do something new and crazy I didn't even know about, you know.
Um But but yeah, you don't want You don't want, you know, I'm not a big fan, you know, of the companies that promote the do-it-yourself legal. Like, I get. I say it on the show all the time. Like, I don't want to pay an attorney to do something if I don't have to. I don't want to pay a plumber to do something if I don't have to.
I don't want to pay an electrician to do something if I, you know, it's something I can do myself. You just don't like paying people money, right? That's just it. I would rather keep my money. Yeah.
And frivolous and spending on baseball cards and bad bets, right? You know, I'd rather, that's more palatable to me.
So it's super understandable. But there's things I cannot do. And there's things I shouldn't do. Right? I shouldn't diagnose my own broken arm, right?
You know? Um And I don't know that we're at a point in our society where I would trust AI to draft M my my trust. Right, you know, in North Carolina, there's a certain way to do things, there's certain statutes that need to be. Followed, and AI is really good at explaining some things. You know, I I'll use it too to explain certain things to me.
Uh but but it does not have a good working knowledge of case law. It doesn't have a good working knowledge of probate. You know, it can define what probate is. It can even point you to some statues. Anyway, AI is not there yet.
And maybe one day this opinion changes. But. You know, this This person probably thought he was doing a really good job. He probably used AI for other things. Will trust power of attorney deed package.
And, you know, I reviewed a trust, you know. We we have we have um In our area, where I do a lot of practicing, there's an attorney who's been disbarred, and that happens, right? Not every attorney is the same, right? Not every doctor has the same experience. Not every HVAC guy can figure out problems and do diagnosis.
And so every professional is not the same. I think we can all. Agree to that, right? Yeah. Not every financial planner is the same.
And so when you seek out Somebody to do a job that you've decided, like, hey, I cannot do this for myself, or I shouldn't do this for myself. I am going to hire a person to do it. You know, I know there's Google reviews and there's all this other thing, but you need to make sure the attorney you hire. Has a good experience. The point being, an attorney who had been disbarred, we had someone who passed away.
And I reviewed the docs and They're not great, right? We've got some problems we're going to have to work through. And this person didn't even go to AI. This person went to an attorney. in their community.
who advertise like, hey, I do these things. But but it clearly doesn't, you know Didn't do them well. Um left some things undone. And that's what happened here.
So the AI drafted this stuff, nobody reviewed it. Um Witnesses signed on wrong pages, that's not good. The trust wasn't funded, we've talked about that before. Trust is like a magic bucket. But you have to take action to put things in that bucket.
Things don't accidentally get into this magic bucket. You have to put them in there. And the d if the deed has the wrong legal description, then you didn't deed your property. Right, a deed will fail for lack of a good legal description. And so we've got all these problems that a competent attorney.
would have avoided. Um And I think that's just the point of the question. Like, this is going to be a mess. You know, he's dead now, so if the family doesn't get along, it's gonna be a lot of stuff to argue over. But not every professional is built Mm.
The same. Across industries. I was just going to say due diligence, vetting process, attorney selection. A lot of us want to hit the easy button, use AI, and hope it goes well. Obviously, this is an example.
Um hypothetical, uh that did not go well. Uh so Have that process where you're going to select the attorney, and you can do it by word of mouth, you know, referral. You could also go online, as you guys have mentioned, there are a lot of reviews out there available for attorneys and just pick the right one for your situation and get moving on it. Final question, guys. Let's get into this category.
The church parking lot accident.
So here's the question. A church allows a local youth soccer league to use its parking lot every weekend. A large pothole causes a serious injury. The church claims it was doing a community service and shouldn't be liable. Is that probably true in this case?
Yeah, no, that's not probably true.
So here we need a lease. Yeah. Right. Even if if even if there's not really money being, you know, you need to lease, we need, you know. you need to be this is when you hear the word indemnification.
This is what this is. The church probably would want the soccer league to sign.
Some sort of indemnification to show they have insurance for putting on this activity. Because if the church gets sued. Which sounds like that's what's gonna happen here, right? It was on church property. You know, if an attorney gets involved, they're going to sue the person that owns the property.
They'll sue the soccer league as well, if that's an entity that can be sued. because they know the church has insurance. Right. Church has uh insurance policy on the on the church and They're going to be liable. And so, in their lease with this youth soccer league, they need an indemnification paragraph where the soccer league agrees to hold them harmless.
or indemnify them, pay them money. if they suffer any losses as a result of this. the situation so No, doing it for community service doesn't get you off the hook. for anything. Right, no good deed goes unpunished.
Mm-hmm. As they say. They didn't say their nineties rap songs. That's what they said in. Non-90s rap songs.
But yeah, no good deed goes unpunished. Doing something. Doing something out of the goodness of your heart. If somebody gets hurt. They're still gonna see you.
Have a plan. Obviously, you know, choose your attorneys wisely and move forward. We've been going over a number of scenarios, a number of questions legally. You've got some questions about possibly estate planning or maybe a personal injury case, and you just don't know how to proceed. You've got those questions.
Bring them to your complimentary appointment with Whitaker and Hamer. Call this number 919-77270000. They'll set that up for you. Put it on the calendar. 919-7727000.
No cost, no obligation. Consult estate planning or maybe a personal injury case. Call now. 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer.
Another edition of Judica County Radio in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. See you on the radio next week. I don't know. 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 inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.
