Judaker County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here. In North Carolina, offices in Moorhead City, Gastonia, Fuque Verina, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. It is now time to slide into some legal questions, and these are some scenarios. And we'll see what our attorneys will do with them.
And the first category is the farmers. Here's Joshua Woodenburton. The farmers signed a 40-year lease allowing a solar company to install panels on 150 acres. Five years later, the company was sold to another corporation located overseas. The new owner stopped making timely lease payments, but continues operating the solar farm.
Can the farmer probably terminate the lease? These solar panels, they come up for lawyers in a lot of ways. This is more of a commercial. Question. You know, a couple years back, You know, a lot of farmers who had farmland that wasn't being farmed, that wasn't.
maybe the best land for like a uh development for like a subdivision, right? They were yeah, these solar farms were getting built all the you s I s I saw a ton of them. You probably did too, Joseph. Um Yeah, yeah, I saw some. I definitely saw some man.
You know, this is uh It hadn't been as popular here lately, or at least I haven't seen as much. But there's these companies, and they'll come in and they'll.
Sometimes they buy the land. In our question, they wanted to do a long-term lease. And so there was. You know, a farmer signed a 40-year lease with a solar company and they installed solar panels on 150 acres. That's a pretty big solar farm.
The tenant, right? You got a landlord and a tenant. I feel like I'm in law school. You got a landlord and a tenant, right? Farmer's your landlord.
This company that came in is your is the tenant.
So, this is a lease, right? This is very comparable to a residential. Lease right where you rent out a room or you rent out your house, so it's the same principles. It's just in a commercial context, but Um You know Your tenant here is a company, the company gets sold to another company. Company's not.
paying the rent. That's what this question is asking, I believe, right? They're not paying the rent. What can the farmer do? Yeah, you know, any time we get these lease questions...
Anytime we get a question about a lease. What do we gotta see the least? Gotta see the lease. Yeah. Yeah.
So you gotta start sending your lease so we can read it front to back on air and then mark it up and then do a proper analysis, yeah.
Well, if you're the, and again, this is fictitious, this is hypothetical, but if you're the new company. Do you really think you can come in and continue to? They may not know, right? I mean, if this was like a big, if this was like a big merger or a big acquisition. Um You know, they may not know that a payment's not getting made.
They may, you know, but most leases, most contracts, right? If you're in breach, that's what they are here, right? The new owners not making the payment. They're not paying the lease payment, they're in breach. And most long-term leases, most long-term contracts, at the other side, if you find out they're in breach, Right, the tenant the new tenant here may not know they're in breach.
You know, it's a big company, a lot of moving parts. You usually have an obligation to tell the other side, hey. You're you're in breach. And you usually have a legal duty in these leases to give the other side an opportunity to, we say, cure the breach, right?
So you say, hey, you're two months behind in rent. Here's your Notice you've got however many days, 10 days, 30 days to cure it. And so, in these long-term agreements, usually it's not like you missed the rent by one day, we're done. You know, we're. we're terminating.
There's usually You know, cure provisions, and then you know, there's some other laws that kind of step in, but. Know this is commercial landlord tenant, but it's almost very similar to residential landlord tenant, right? You rent a house. They don't pay rent. You got to give them notice usually under the lease.
Hopefully, you have a lease. Hopefully, you didn't, you know, handshake. deal it, but I don't like that question too much.
Okay, that's a great lead off. And now we'll shift to this one. The neighbor's giant oak tree, which is perfect because Raleigh is the city of oaks. And I would imagine that a lot of people have some oak tree situations.
So here it is. Certified Arborist Told a homeowner that a massive oak tree, not just a normal Oak tree, but a massive oak tree was dying and posed a serious risk of falling. The homeowner did nothing because removal would cost. $18,000. That seems cheap.
Two years later, the tree fell into the neighbor's home, causing $600,000 in damage. Does the neighbor probably have a strong claim? We'll come back. We'll come back. I want to add one thing onto the last question.
So I like this question, Morgan. This is a good question. We get a lot of tree questions, right? On this. We're going to stop and go back to the question you did.
I just had this thought when you were reading that question of somebody driving around on Saturday or Sunday afternoon trying to dial us in and saying, hey, where are those two attorneys that talk about commercial landlord tenant law? I really want to dial them. I want to dial them in for my Saturday afternoon commute. It really helps you focus while you drive. They've done studies and it reduces the incidence of accidents by 8,000%.
I would imagine. If you're listening to us talk about commercial landlords, I would imagine the average person on the street has a very low. threshold for commercial landlord tenant lease discussions. I would say that. 15 seconds tops.
You think so? Yeah. No, man. I think you underestimate how much people love it. Yeah.
All right.
So we get a lot of calls from people about trees. Everybody has trees. Um I love trees. Trees are only problems, right? Trees only cause problems for attorneys.
There's a lot of statutes in North Carolina that exist just because of tree problems. There's a bunch of case law because neighbors had problems with trees. Morgan did a good job with this question: the neighbor's giant oak tree.
So here. Basically we have a homeowner has a huge oak tree. Um and it's dying. All right.
A lot of times it's not obvious to the lay person when a tree is dying or when a tree is healthy, but apparently there were some problems. This guy knew enough to get an arborist out there. The arborist said, hey, this tree is dying. And $18,000 is a lot of money to get rid of a dying tree. And so this homeowner decided: you know, no dice, we're not going to do that.
And that happens all the time. Um So the point here is the homeowner knows. without a doubt that this tree is dying. this tree is going to eventually fall. He's got the homeowner, he has a problem here.
So, no, he doesn't do anything for two years, and the tree fell on the neighbor's home, causing a lot of damage. Half a million dollars in damage. Does the neighbor probably have a strong claim? And the answer here is. Possibly.
Right? Because what has to happen here is the homeowner with the damaged house has to be able to prove. The person who owned the tree knew, or should have known, the tree would fall. Right? And it's not always obvious looking at the tree.
So, this is this homeowner that got the damaged homeowner. Does he know an Arborist came out? and uh and evaluated the tree. I don't know what the damaged homeowner knows, but if the damaged homeowner knows. That the person who owned the tree or owned the land under the tree knew.
I'd imagine there's a claim there. Yeah, this is a very different scenario than my neighbor's tree fell on my house. Randomly, no one knew of any issue. It was just kind of a happenstance. And that's a much grayer area, right?
You've got a lot more foreseeability questions and. Whether someone should have known that that was a likely thing that could happen. But if you've literally had an arborist come out and everybody knows and they told you this tree's a problem, that gives you. It pours a lot of gas on that claim. Makes it a lot more strong.
Yeah, if you got a tree in your backyard and a storm blows it over, that's an act of God. You had no idea. You know, maybe send them, you know, we got can't sue God. Yeah. He doesn't like it.
He doesn't respond to complaints. Yeah, exactly. But nah, it's a good. That's the question that comes up a lot for folks. Complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer.
Estate planning. Personal injury categories are available to you. No cost, no obligation. Call the number 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000.
You can also visit wh.lawyer, get signed up there. Again, we get into legal questions each and every week. And you've got questions about estate planning and personal injury, you can call 919-77270000 or visit wh.lawyer for those complimentary consults. We've got more Judica County legal questions coming up. Welcome in to Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and practicing attorneys right here in the great state of North Carolina. They have placed offices across the state in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Hugué Verina, Gastonia, and Moorhead City for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick. It is a pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to get to some legal questions here in just a little bit, but also during the course of the show, we have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm in and around estate planning questions, as well as a personal injury case that you might be in and you've got some questions.
Grab one of those consults. You can always call 919-772-7000. That'll get you in touch with the firm. 919-7727000. Just say, hey, I want one of the consults.
We want to come in. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. All right, before we do questions, we always ask Josh, how did the week go and what's on your mind? Which is a dangerous question. The It can be sometimes, but not always.
The um So so this week I've been thinking about You know, we're we're all Here we're all Are we? On the older side, right? I mean, we're not young spring chickens, right? I mean, we're not. One foot out of the, you know, one foot in the grave type of deal.
You're talking about everybody that's listening right now? No, no, everybody in studio. I'm talking about everybody in studio. All right, okay. We're.
Well, Joe Joe's got more runway, but yeah, we're all getting old. We're all getting old. Slightly more runway.
So I was thinking my kid, my oldest kid, is filling out all this stuff for football and for uh you know, first starting to think about colleges and He's getting asked a lot. these questions, I ask them a bunch of different questions. And one of the questions is what are your Hobbies All right, he's had that question a time or two and the only reason I know is he came to me And he's like, you know, I don't... He was like, I don't know what my hobbies are. And we work through that.
He's got plenty of hobbies, right? You're a kid. You just don't you don't know. But he likes to fish and you know, he's got all kinds of hobbies. But it made me think, you know.
We're kind of in the thick of it. You know, we've we've all got kids of different ages and uh you know uh you know powering through that that middle-aged Anyway, the point of this whole story was: we're waiting for that. What are your hobbies? Do you have hobbies? As a middle-aged man with kids and work, do you have even one hobby.
Joe. Why me first, man? Because you're the co-host of the show. Yeah, I play. You make a fantastic point, as always, Morgan.
I got plenty of hobbies, man. I play some basketball still. That's a hobby. That's a thing I do. That counts, right?
Yep. Yeah, I guess. Yes.
So here's what my mind was. I played some basketball this weekend. Basketball's fun. Really? I did.
I didn't. Thanks for the invite. It was just, we were at the Y. It just. It's like I've been cheated off.
Do you have ice bags on your knees right now? It hurt, man. I played three on three with my boys and some other children. No. Did you teach the children who's boss?
No, but at half court, man, my knees hurt so badly. Anyway, back to my point. Yeah. You can just, if you see, if I'm talking and you're listening to me, you can assume my knees hurt in some shape or form.
Okay, okay. I don't know if basketball counts as a hobby. Like, that's something you do to be active. I don't know that you can count. Like when I think hobby, we've got a couple in these questions today, and that's kind of what got me, also got me thinking about it.
Like one guy collected baseball cards, one collected trains, right?
So, okay, so you're saying basketball is more of an activity as opposed to.
Okay, I can remove that from my list. I apologize. I was going to say golf. And maybe I'm constraining this question too much, but that's what I was thinking about, you know. Sure, you are.
Because maybe being physically active, you know, that is a hobby. I was thinking like woodworking, you know, like. Yeah, I don't know. I was thinking about stuff like that. I don't work collecting something.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't collect many things.
Well, now I feel bad.
Now I'm going to dive into a deep state of depression. And uh, but am I busy, man? Aren't you real busy? Yeah, man. Let's do it a lot of kids.
Do you like to read? I mean, is there a particular book that you've read lately that you really like? I mean, reading, reading's a nice hobby, it's fundamental.
Now, you're gonna make me feel dumb, man. I haven't, no, I haven't read any nice books lately. I should. That's a whole nother. I haven't.
That's a whole nother topic, man. That's a whole other topic for now. I watch Sports Center. Yeah, it's my hobby. I don't even.
Does anybody do that anymore? I don't think so. I don't think so. I used to read. You need to.
You don't need to. I used to read all the time. I used to read. I was talking about Sports Center. I wasn't talking about reading.
Yeah. So I go, yeah. Surely people read. I know that. Come on.
You got to read. Yeah, that was a good thing. You go out to eat, you read the menu. You're reading. I don't know if you've watched.
Have you watched Sports Center lately? Like this time of the year, you can't watch Sports Center right now. It's terrible. No. No.
The the kids have you know, they're they're barely out of diapers telling us about sports, so The uh yeah, so anyway, the the th the whole point of this is I I think As kids, maybe you have hobbies, and my oldest is super busy. You know, that senior year is a real busy year for the kids these days. And you know, we're we're real busy. Um That's what I was trying to think about. Do we really have hobbies?
Or do we not get a hobby until you retire and then you get a hobby?
Well, maybe your kids are your hobby. I mean, think about that. Maybe. Spend a lot of time there. Maybe.
True. But if someone gave me a questionnaire now and they said, What are your hobbies? I'd be like, Uh. I like is that what you'd write? Just U, H H H?
I like to sit in my PD. I like to sit in my chair. That's fun. That's a good idea. I like the inner tube and the cigar and the light.
That's I don't think I don't know. Anyway, I it was just perplexing to me 'cause no one no one has asked me that question, but if somebody asked me that question, I don't know what I would say, you know. But anyway, that kid had hobbies though, right? Yeah, yeah, it's just when you're a kid.
So that counts. Yeah, live your kids have hobbies. Yeah, you can just live by, you can count those. I will say that when someone asks you if you have hobbies, you can give them your kids' hobbies. You tote them to practice and you tote them home.
I mean, that's a hobby. When I get a chance to pick a hobby. I don't know if you choose a hobby or a hobby chooses you. I don't know how it works, but when I get a chance to have a full-time hobby, I wanna choose like the weirdest, most obscure hobby. Ever Yeah.
Someone put some thought into that. Give us an example. Like chrome plating things. That'll be like, that's a weird hobby. Who does that?
Chrome plating things? What are you going to chrome plating? Give me that hat. I'll chrome plate it for you. Didn't you mention blacksmithing one time?
You mentioned blacksmithing. Maybe, maybe. I kind of like that, man. I can get behind that. A useful hobby where I can make something, you know.
give it to people. Gardening, that's a hobby, right? Growing stuff.
Some people do that. Activity/slash hobby. It's kind of like golf, I think. The law is my hobby.
So let me ask you this, guys. Since you're attorneys and you're very established, obviously, with. Whitaker and Hamer. When you're out and you're just being Joe or you're just being Josh, I mean, do you get Hamered with legal questions 'cause people know what you do? Great.
Well, I don't go. I don't. I mean, it's part of the gig. I get it. And people know what I do.
I mean, they'll ask me questions, but like, if I just go somewhere, I'm not leading. Like I'm not busting in the room like I'm an attorney. You know, you don't have a t-shirt that says lawyer in the house. No, I don't have that. Real incognito.
Yeah, I don't think if you saw me and Joe outside the office, you would really even know we were. Functioning members of society in our t-shirts and our hats. I'm wearing a t-shirt and a hat right now, man. I put on a polo for this thing, for this show. You look great.
High class! High class radio show. All right, so we've got complimentary consults. Josh, walk us through exactly what's going to happen if they grab one of these. Yeah, here at the law firm, we have a lot of different practice areas.
We have a lot of different attorneys. On the radio show, when we come to you, we want to offer you. Free consults. And so we do that in two main areas that we do that.
So, you know, you'll hear us talk about estate planning a lot.
So if you're looking at a will or a trust or you have some questions about what that looks like, power of attorneys. Right now we've got a lot of high school graduates whose parents are working with them to get power of attorneys done.
So that kind of thing, we do a free console. And of course, if you've been in a car accident. We work with a lot of folks who've been in a car accident, help you get ready, valuing your case, what to do with the insurance company. And so if you're in that situation, we offer a free, free consult.
So those are the free consults that we've been doing.
Okay, there you go. Call our number 919-77270000 for one of those consults. Again, no cost, no obligation, 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. 919-77270000, wh.lawyer.
Got more Judica County coming up. Legal questions right around the corner. Back on Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your host of the Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind the program. They're also practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices placed across our great state: Raleigh, Gardner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on. We're getting into legal questions, but we also give you an opportunity for a complimentary consult with the firm in and around estate planning. If you've got questions there, or if you've been involved with a personal injury case and don't know what to do next, or you've just got some questions, grab one of the consults, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000, or visit the website, wh.lawyer, and get signed up there.
Next question, guys, we'll do one real quick one here. This is Sprint. The college roommate agreement. That's the category. Here's the question.
Three college students signed a one-year apartment lease together. One moved out after graduation but continued paying rent. The remaining roommates allowed another friend to move in and collect rent from him without telling the original tenant. At least, in the landlord, sued all three original tenants for damages. Does the original roommate probably remain liable?
So, this, you know, it's that time of year where college kids are moving in and out. you know, of uh of different apartments, different houses, and um You know Ooh!
So, you who's on the lease is important, right? You know, sometimes you see these college kids, and one kid will be on the lease, but he'll have, he or she will have four bedrooms, and they'll. have their friends stay there for a while or You know, somebody goes overseas, but their name's on a lease with a roommate, and that roommate rents out the room, you know. You gotta be careful. Um Anytime you're subleasing, you're supposed to have the approval of the landlord.
You know, if you're renting a room, you're supposed to have the approval of a landlord. You really got to look at your lease. And some of these rental leases are. I saw one the other day. It was like 86 pages, you know, to rent an apartment.
And. That's your hobby, reading. Reading. Oh my god, that would be the worst hobby. That would be the worst hobby ever.
But Um You just have to be careful. If you're on the lease. You're you're liable. Yeah, I think it's as simple as that. That's as simply as you could put it.
Whether you move out, if you're not removed from that obligation in some fashion. Which would require something in writing. You're going to have to have something in writing. Uh y you're gonna you need to plan on having to pay. Yeah, if your landlord can release you, your landlord can do a new lease, you know, your landlord can Your landlord has to release you from liability.
And if you have not been released from liability, removed from the lease, You're still on the hook. And so here, this one roommate on the lease moved away. And it was still paying rent, but the other roommates let other people live there. There's They're going to get sued for any kind of damage. They're still in the lease.
I don't think a lot of college students are probably smarter than I was when I was in college. But I did not understand lease law when I was in college. And. Anyway, liability is still there. And Gotta be gotta be careful.
Careful indeed. And again, legal questions, we hit them. You've got your own situation. You can certainly grab one of our complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got questions there or personal injury, come on in and grab one of the complimentary appointments.
Again, it's a consult 919-7727000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer, and there are plenty of offices for Whitaker and Hamer that you can visit, and they placed them all over the state. Again, you've got Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Again, grab one of those complimentary consults: 919-7727000 or visit w.lawyer.
We got more Judica County coming up. Judicood County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, and they practice law right here in the great state of North Carolina. Offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Tuquef Arena, down near Charlotte and Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys.
We are in the middle of some legal questions. And again, these are scenarios. Let's get to this one, guys. The antique tractor collection. That's the category.
Here's the question. A father promised each of his four children a specific antique tractor from his collection. Nothing was ever written down. After he passed away, all four wanted the same rare John Deere worth $180,000. The will simply says divide my personal property equally.
What prob happens in this case? You know, when You know, we talked about our free consults. The firm does a lot of estate planning, you know, and the other side of that coin is estate administration, right? When you're alive and well, You put your estate plan together and then when you pass away, your estate plan gets Executed by the people, the fiduciaries you put in place. We help a lot of those fiduciaries, we assist them in executing.
your estate plan. And here we have a father who had an estate plan, he had a will. And um When you m when most people die, Joe. I th you know, when most people die, Your personal property, you know, if you take cars and boats. And RVs, you know, attorneys always talk about real property versus personal property.
So, real property is, of course, land. Houses, things like that. Your personal property minus your vehicles, your boats, your RVs, usually your personal property. But Not super valuable. Would that would that be your opinion, Joseph, too?
I mean, unless your hobby is collecting something very rare and very valuable where you have a $180,000 John Deere tractor. Good Lord, man. And uh Yeah, this is a big collectible. And we asked that question. Is that what the tractor market is looking like these days?
I don't know, man. I'm sure, like, if it's old and rare enough and working, I don't know a lot about antique tractors. I know. I don't know very much about them. There you go, man.
New hobby. Unlocked. But here. Yeah. But here...
You um You've got a valuable estate, $180,000 is valuable in anybody's estate. And. Personal property in wills, a lot of times personal property is dealt with like what's happening in this will. Just say, Hey, divide my personal property equally.
Sometimes you'll see in a will, it'll say, Hey, I'm gonna keep a personal memorandum where I list who I want to get certain personal property. I want my executor to honor. This list here, we don't have anything like that. Um If I had sat down with this gentleman, one of the questions I usually ask when we're putting together in a state plane, you know, we talk about. Hey man, what's your investment accounts look like?
401k, you know, what kind of real property do you own? We talk about all that stuff, but one of the questions I always ask is, Hey, do you have any valuable collections? Because I've run into people that collect guns, right? Collect baseball cars, but have valuable. personal property.
It's not the norm. Usually, at the end of life, in an end of life situation, You know, most people don't have, you know, your personal effects aren't really worth a lot, usually. Jewelry, right?
Some people have really expensive jewelry, that's watches, things like that. But um But here, what's going to happen is that's why you really need your executor, right? Our guy just has a will here, he doesn't have a trust, so we're not talking about a trustee. Uh here we're talking about the executor, that's the one who will um is charged with distrib distribut distrib Distributing the distribution of the property. And so they're going to have to figure out what to do.
And so, this person's gonna, the executor's gonna have to do an inventory, probably get someone who knows what they're doing to appraise these things. And if the heirs won't agree on how to split this stuff, I think the executor is probably going to sell it, right? Sell it and make an even distribution. Yeah, I mean, from the outside, and again, I'm not an attorney, it just seems like dividing. Evenly between the four is the key phrase, and then you just Appraise it.
Auction it, sell it, however you're going to do it, and then combine all the tractor sales and divide it four ways. That yeah, and that's what the executor is going to have to do unless um You know, the heirs come to some other agreement. You know, I'm assuming this person, if they had this much. invested in this personal collection there's probably some assets where you know you You know, executor doesn't really care about emotional value. Executors really just charged with making sure everybody gets the same, you know, amount of monetary.
Equal share.
So I think the tip there is: you know, you touched on it, you've got specific bequests. And your residuary when you have an estate. And a specific bequest is any specific thing.
So in this instance, it would be, like you said. It's that tractor. If you want that to go to someone, you gotta specifically state it. 'Cause anything that's not specifically given is going to be Tied into the residuary, and like you said, that the executive's just going to be looking to distribute whatever's there equally among everyone.
So. Yeah, if you want someone to have your super duper fancy tractor, you need to make sure you that's. That's specifically stated ahead of time. All right, well, let's get to this next question. It's the charity golf tournament.
That's the category, and we've all played in these, so this could bring back some interesting memories. Here is the scenario. A nonprofit hosted a charity golf tournament during a sponsored Helicopter golf ball drop. A ball struck a spectator, causing serious injuries. Wow.
The non-profit had insurance, but the helicopter contractor did not. Who probably gets sued? I've never I've never seen a spawn I've never seen a helicopter golf ball drop. Yeah, I haven't either. It sounds super dangerous.
If you've ever been in the vicinity of a golf ball that's been hit and it's coming at a high rate of speed, it is not fun. But Yeah, I've I've heard of them dropping other things, but things that don't really would wouldn't be significant if they struck a person. A golf ball is a big deal.
So if this happened, I mean, again, hypothetical. Um this is pretty serious. Yeah, the the the the person who's Got a serious injury here. You know, they're going to hire an attorney. That attorney, I mean, the answer to this question is pretty easy.
Everybody's gonna get sued. Yeah, sue everybody. Yeah, an attorney's not gonna not gonna care. You know, anybody who is potentially liable is gonna get sued. And then, if you don't think you're liable.
Right, so like if the charity, if the non-profit had an agreement with the The helicopter company that the helicopter company was going to indemnify them. Maybe, maybe you get out of it, you know. But anyway. No, everybody everybody's getting sued. Everybody here probably is.
Is going to have some liability, I would think. And you know, it always is terrible when it's a non-profit, you know, or when it's a charity, but if someone's hurt. Right, if someone, if somebody's negligent and they get hurt as a result, that's what this is. This is like a car accident case, this is a negligence case. And so the helicopter guy.
Was negligent, the non-profit, you know, is probably going to have some liability there, but um. Hmm. What about? I mean, the helicopter, I mean, he was instructed by the charity to do the golf ball drop.
So is he still going to be...
Well, he still has a duty of care in exercising that, you know? Like, that's. He's still. Has, you know, everybody's got a responsibility not to injure the public, you know, and so. even though he was specifically requested to do it, he has to do it the right way.
He can't just Kill someone with a golf ball. Yeah, we all have a duty of ordinary care.
So even if he was hired to do this, if he, if, you know. I don't know. This is such a weird thing. It's easier when it's like an everyday thing that everybody deals with. This, I don't know what the safety.
This, you know, what a normal, ordinary person would do for safety precautions for a golf ball drop. We need to get a helicopter ball drop engineer in to the studio to discuss this.
So, is this where the helicopter just drops a whole bunch of golf balls? Is that what that is like when they do the candy drops for Halloween? They just drop a bunch of candy on a field and let the kids go get it? No, what it is, is they probably purchased a golf ball, they have their name on it, they drop it from the helicopter, and the ball that goes in a said hole or wherever in a closest to They pick that ball up, and that person wins whatever the, I guess, whatever the prize was. That's my guess.
With two balls going the hole. Uh Now you're asking the real question. I split it probably. Split it. Yeah, something like that.
So I I I do have a uh I guess a We don't have a lot of time here, so maybe I'll ask the question coming up on the other side, which I will do in an alignment. Just remind me, because it's something that happened at a golf tournament that I was involved with years ago, and it's about property damage.
So I was going to ask you that question, but we need to do that on the other side.
So let me quickly hit again: consults, complimentary, estate planning, a personal injury case you might be facing, got some questions, grab one of the consults, 919-772-7000, 919-772-7000, or visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County coming up on the other side. Oh no. Judica County Radio, we are back. It's Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your host.
They're the managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They practice law right here in North Carolina, and they have offices all over the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuvae Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on and hitting some of these legal questions, guys. And the last one we did was the charity golf tournament question about the golf ball drop, somebody was injured.
And we got to that, but I have one that's a little closer to home. I was involved with a charity tournament years ago where on the Par 3 Holon 1, Uh the the prize was a beautiful Uh Chevy uh Camaro IROC Z. And it sat off to the right, I mean, well off to the right, in the woods, but it had a sign on the window that said, In the hole wins the car, right?
So we get up to this par three, and again, it's halfway through the day, so a lot of people have taken shots. Nobody's won the car. It's very, I mean, the odds are obviously not in your favor, but it's fun. And it's for charity, and they have insurance. And so I get up, and I was a pretty new person to the game of golf.
And so I hit what I thought was a really nice T-shot, and it immediately started to slice right. And the right side of the green is where the car is located. But it's well off the path that you know to the green, so they didn't think anything about it. And they put it in the woods and it's got this nice sign on it. And the ball goes and hits literally in the middle of the windshield.
And bounces off.
Now, the good news is the sign was on the outside of the car. There was no damage, but my question is: if indeed I damaged the car with my golf shot, Am I liable? I I wouldn't think so. Yeah. No, man.
No. No, we got you, Morgan. No, Morgan. I would be calling. Yeah, we we got you on that one.
No, if you got yeah, if it's in the f I mean You know, you got to assume some people like you, Morgan, are not great golfers. This was back then. This is before you got really good. This could happen. It's been a long way since then.
Yeah, so that's that. I think they would have assumed the risk, right? Because that's, again, that's negligence, right? If they sued you, they would accuse you of negligently hitting the ball into the car. There's a few defenses to negligence.
Your defense would be what we call assumption of risk. They assume the risk by putting. the car in a place where you could reach it with a golf ball, right? Because I would have probably hit it. If I wasn't trying, right?
If I was trying to hit it, I would never hit it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The safest place to put the car would be on the green next to the hole at that point in time.
Nowadays, I could probably hit it. But anyway, I just wanted to wrap that up.
Now I can sleep better at night. All right, I've got another question for you guys. The family LLC is the category. Here's the question: Parents placed a beach house into an LLC with their three children. After both parents passed, one child began renting the property every weekend and keeping all the rental income because she handled the bookings.
The operating agreement is silent on rentals. Can the other siblings probably demand an accounting? I mean, the answer is yes, right? Yeah, the answer is yes. But I mean, we see this a lot, you know, where people.
Families want to keep land or a beach house or a lake house or a farm. You know, in the family, and everybody in the family is clear that was the intent, but then people start dying. Right, and so where the family beach house had maybe the parents owned it. The grandparents owned it 80 years ago, 60 years ago, and they both died. And so now, you know, three or four kids own it, right?
And then those kids start dying off, and now you've got. You've got you know those grandkids are starting to come up and own it And these things get real messy, you know, the more owners you have. And. And here, this is great, right? This is what an attorney would tell them to do: like, hey, start a business, start an LLC, a family LLC, and the properties in the LLC.
and put somebody in charge, a managing member. But they can't keep the I mean, I don't know why this person would think they could keep the rent. Anybody who you know, an owner of an LLC is a member, We call it a membership interest, right?
So, if we were all in this LLC, me, Joseph, and Morgan, we would all be one-third members. We'd all have a membership interest. Unless the operating agreement said something different, we'd all have equal rights to profits. We'd all be equally responsible for losses. We'd all have equal access to the property.
If we decided we wanted it to be a rental, That rental income would get split up.
So here, one of the siblings keeping all the rental income of a beach house because he or she's doing the work, handling the bookings. That's not. Good. You can't do that. You can't do it.
He or she is. You know, stealing money from the other members, you know, and so. There's a lot the siblings could do here in this family LLC problem, you know. But this comes up a lot, you know, when we have family land that's valuable. That that people want to keep in the family.
So, um What, you mean money comes in between family members? Does that happen? It does a lot of happening. It happens a time or two, Morgan. Yeah, sometimes it does.
Can't we all just get along?
Sometimes it doesn't. And then, you know, the sibling here who's putting in the work, they might be due a salary, right? They might. You know, maybe they're entitled to a one-third cut of the profits, but they're doing all the work.
So I would go back, if I was that person, I would go back to the other. children and I'd be like, hey, I'm doing all the work here. I should get a little something extra. And they would probably. Yeah.
Agree, you know, but just deciding you're entitled to it and taking it, that'll get you in trouble. Yeah, and sounds like a solution there. But again, these things happen. These legal situations do crop up, and you may have a situation that you're dealing with and you've got questions. Grab one of our consults in and around estate planning or maybe a personal injury case by calling 919-7727000, 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. All right, here's the next question, guys. The category, the wrong funeral plot. Here's the question. A cemetery accidentally buried someone in a plot that had been purchased decades earlier by another family.
The mistake wasn't discovered until another family member passed away years later. What probably happens in this case? I This is a really bizarre question. Um You know The the the cemetery is going to be Liable, you know, I would think, you know, that it was a mistake, it was an accident, sure. Um But yeah, this is there's liability here for sure.
This is one of those situations we run into this a lot. You know, we're having a litigation consult with somebody, something's happened like this, not like this. But something like this, right, where somebody's clearly made a mistake, there's clearly some liability. You know, the situation like this, it's it's What do you do? Right.
And and this is a this is kind of an od this is like a Scooby Doo type situation, right? Are you gonna you're not gonna dig up a fi you don't really wanna dig up a family member and and relocate the family member, I would imagine. Maybe you do, I don't know. Um You know, I don't even know what I don't deal with that a lot, so I don't even know what's legal in that situation, what you can and can't do. But you don't do a lot of body removal law.
That's all we're going to do from now on. We're not going to do anything else. And that's all we're going to talk about. No more commercial landlord-tenant. We're talking straight cemetery law.
We're going to focus our areas of practice straight on accidentally buried in the wrong. That's how we're going to make all of our money. Yeah. The tail. The uh here And again, this is kind of a weird circumstance.
You're not going to hopefully run into this very often. But there are situations where someone's done something wrong, they've caused you damage. But like here, what's the monetary value of this? damage. Right.
You know, what's the, if you sue, the cemetery has buried your family member in the wrong place.
Somehow it's not figured out till uh later. What What's going to make it right? What are your damages? The family members are still buried just in the wrong place. And this happens a lot.
Like, what are the damages? What are you asking for? What's the remedy? How are we gonna make this better? And this is a situation where I think you'd have to talk to the funeral home, the cemetery, and be like, hey.
Anyway, there's probably a settlement somewhere between exhuming a body and reburying it and. Nothing. Right. Yeah. There's a happy medium there.
Legal questions continuing on the other side. We got one more segment for you here on Judica County. Again, complimentary consults in and around estate planning or a personal injury case you're facing. If you've got questions, grab one of the consults: 919-7727000. No cost, no obligation, 919-77270000.
Or you can visit the website wh.lawyer. Final segment, Judica County, coming up. Uh Um We are back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and they practice law right here in North Carolina. Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Puque Verena, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on. We're going to get to a couple more legal questions. Want to remind you: we do have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer through estate planning and personal injury cases. If you've got questions, grab one of the consults. No cost, no obligation.
919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000 or visit the website, w. Dot lawyer. All right, so next question up. The famous baseball card is the category.
Here's the question: An estate includes a baseball card collection stored in a basement for 40 years. One card turns out to be worth... two million dollars. The executor sold the entire collection to a dealer for $25,000 before obtaining an appraisal. Can the beneficiaries probably sue the executor?
Do you know? I I pay attention to to baseball cards. And so this thing talks about how it was in the basement for 40 years.
So we're recording this. It's the year 2026, right? I was in high school in the early 90s.
So let's say I got a box of baseball cards from 1996. That was how many years ago? 30 years ago? Yeah, a long time. We'll go back to 86 to make it like this question, right?
So we'll go back 1986, 40 years ago. Those cards are barely worth more now than they were. Then, right, because there were so many of them produced, right?
So, 40 years in the baseball court, like when I was growing up, if you were 1995 and you had something that was 40 years old, right, from the 50s, that's a good card. There's probably some value there, right? Yeah. 2026, you go back 40 years to the 80s. That card probably is not worth much more than you paid for it.
in nineteen eighty six.
Well, I mean, but from a collector's standpoint, let's say it's an oddity. Maybe it's a misprint. Maybe they're super, super, super duper. It could be. There are cards out there that are, you know it could be autographed.
It could be a one up well, they didn't really do that much back then, but um Anyway, it just strikes me because you would think that, right? I've saved this baseball card for 40 years and, you know, it. might be worth three bucks more than what you paid for it back in the day. But anyway, Here, this is kind of a play on the question we had earlier. We had the earlier question about an antique tractor.
That was worth 180 and they they were trying to figure out how to split it here. The executor maybe didn't do his job, right? The executor found this baseball car collection, he took it to a dealer. The dealer looked over it and said, Hey, I'll give you 25 grand for it. And he was like, Hey, 25 grand for baseball cards.
He took it. And maybe didn't have it appraised or reviewed ahead of time.
So here, the executor. It's probably Liable, right? He sold a collection that was worth it. That one card was worth. $2 million, he sold the whole collection for $25,000.
He's probably cost the heirs quite a bit of money. Um And so the executor and and and the executor here too is Usually, in most estates, the executor is an heir, usually, right? It's usually one of your kids, or your surviving spouse, or somebody you know.
So it's hard for me to believe the executors would have no clue. You know, but but anyway, either way Yeah, when you're an executor, that's part of your job is to figure out what assets are worth. And kind of divvy him up here. And here the executor failed that, and a $2 million. Baseball card is a is an expensive baseball card.
That's a good card, man. You need to keep up with that hobby, that baseball card hobby, man.
Well, I mean, any card. I mean, Jordan rookie cards, I mean, they're going through the roof. I mean, there are examples like this. And yeah, you would think that you would get it appraised before you do anything like just selling it in bulk to, I guess, a collector. I will tell you, in our house, in our house.
when when one of my boys was real little I'll let him put together a uh You know how people get the binders and they put the little sheets in the binders and they put the cards in them. We made one of 90s. late eighties, early nineties Jordans. The whole binder is just Jordans. Can't find it.
Don't know where it is. Are you kidding? Yeah. It's not the rookie card. It's not like a rookie card, but it's still.
You don't know. You might have it.
So, is your new hobby beating your kids then? Is that I beat them once a day just to remind them that. Yeah, you need to find this. But we can't. We got two things in my house we can't find.
I have an old Sega Dreamcast somewhere, an old video game system. I can't find it. Don't know where it is. And there's somewhere there's a binder full of. Sweet, sweet Michael Jordan cards.
I don't know where it is. That's crazy. You didn't have a yard sale you didn't know about? You didn't have decluttering you didn't know about? It's somewhere.
It's somewhere weird. And with the Christmas decorations or something, right? It's just somewhere weird. But the day we find it, know how disappointed I am in them. The day we find it will be such a joyous day.
That's what I'm trying to do. You know, I'm trying to turn the negative into a positive.
So one day we'll just have a super awesome surprise. That day is the day you die, and your son goes and pulls it out of his drawer where it's been hiding. Compounding interests. That's my retirement plan. We're going to find those Jordans.
There you go. There you go. All right.
So final question. We'll hit this real quick. The shared driveway is the category. Here's the question: Two neighboring homes share a driveway under a recorded easement. One owner installs an automatic gate requiring a code claiming it improves security.
The other owner objects because delivery drivers and emergency responders are delayed. Can the gate probably stay?
So, this is another question where we would, you know, there's a recorded easement.
So that means there's a document. um that governs how this easement's going to be maintained. Who has access to the easement?
So, we got a primary document that we can look at it and read to get a basic understanding of what the agreement was supposed to be. Um But it just depends, you know. The other owner has a pretty good argument and probably should have been consulted before this was done. They share the easement. We're going to assume it's the only way in and out of the property based on this question.
So, the other owner has a good objection. Um So, maybe, maybe not, right? If the owners hopefully can get together and figure this out and figure out an alternative, that's always the better way. Uh but but I think um You know, the objecting owner could sue, probably get a temporary restraining order to keep the gate open until they. figure out how they're gonna handle it and um I don't know.
I don't know. That's a good question. You know, when people. You know, I. Yeah, I don't know, man.
That one's got me all. confused and befuddled. It's going to mess your week up. Yeah, there's no easy answer to that one. That one, that's probably litigation if those two owners can't figure out a way to make it work.
All right, so to close out the show, Josh, just hit us with information on the consults. Again, the categories are estate planning and personal injury, and there are no cost, no obligation. Yeah, those are the consults that we offer for free. You know, if you listen to us on the radio show, just give us a call. We'll get you in.
Estate planning is a big one, everybody needs estate planning. And so we're happy to sit down with you and give you our advice, give you our experience. We've done tons and tons of estate planning.
So free consult there. And then, of course, if you've been in a car accident and if you've been injured. That's another one where we, for free, will talk to you, try to put a value on your claim, give you an idea of what the process looks like. Give you some do's and don'ts, that kind of thing.
So we meet with a lot of people. Our attorneys meet with a lot of people on those two. uh two matters. But those are the free consoles that we we offer there, Morgan. All right, opportunity in front of you right now.
Complimentary consult on estate planning, personal injury case you've got questions about. Certainly, everybody needs an estate plan. And if you've been involved with a personal injury case, there are a lot of things you need to be aware of. Grab one of the consults, 919-772-7000. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.
And it's no cost, no obligation. 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick.
We'll see you on the radio next week. And I don't know what. 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 inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.
