Jury Duty

[Caliga]

Well, you were all there for the trial, so if you guys were all paying attention, I'd think you'd all have the verdict when you got into the deliberation room?

Yes, but it was a rather complicated case with mountains of documentation.  I was the only juror who seemed even remotely interested in reviewing the documentation, and after I'd finished reviewing it nobody else wanted to look it over to even verify if what I was saying was correct.

[Barrister]

Well, you were all there for the trial, so if you guys were all paying attention, I'd think you'd all have the verdict when you got into the deliberation room?

Yes, but it was a rather complicated case with mountains of documentation.  I was the only juror who seemed even remotely interested in reviewing the documentation, and after I'd finished reviewing it nobody else wanted to look it over to even verify if what I was saying was correct.

And people wonder why I don't like juries...



So can you tell us what your case was about now?

[Caliga]

Beeb, I maintain my previous conviction that the existing American jury system is a joke and should be replaced by one consisting of professional jurists.

I had this opinion before the first trial I served a a juror on, maintained the conviction following that trial, and still hold this position today.

I need to run and grab lunch, so I don't have time for a big long post, but the hilarious opening deal for y'all to chew on is this:

The case was a contract dispute involving a gas station cafe/grocery/bait shop here in the county. 

[Ed Anger]

Well, you were all there for the trial, so if you guys were all paying attention, I'd think you'd all have the verdict when you got into the deliberation room?

Yes, but it was a rather complicated case with mountains of documentation.  I was the only juror who seemed even remotely interested in reviewing the documentation, and after I'd finished reviewing it nobody else wanted to look it over to even verify if what I was saying was correct.

People have lives, you silly man.

[Caliga]

People have lives, you silly man.

YUO ARE: reinforcing my position. 

[Malthus]

Beeb, I maintain my previous conviction that the existing American jury system is a joke and should be replaced by one consisting of professional jurists.

I had this opinion before the first trial I served a a juror on, maintained the conviction following that trial, and still hold this position today.

I need to run and grab lunch, so I don't have time for a big long post, but the hilarious opening deal for y'all to chew on is this:

The case was a contract dispute involving a gas station cafe/grocery/bait shop here in the county. 

Did they: serve barbeque?

[Caliga]

Ok, so let me set the situation up:

PART 1

There's a gas station in the county which is right at the junction of KY Highway 44 and Overlook Drive, that leads down to the lake's main boat launch and marina, making it a pretty good location to say the least.

Back in 1998, the guy who owned the station went bankrupt and the bank foreclosed on him.  The gas station was sold at auction on the courthouse steps for $75,000 plus back taxes to these two dudes (who are brother-in-laws) from Louisville who had begun speculating out here as the construction boom was beginning.

They fixed the place up, opened an adjoining restaurant and bait shop, replaced the old gas tanks (which were not up to EPA and Kentucky standards), added diesel, digital pumps, and prepared a portion of the property as a boat storage facility.  Their improvements drove business through the roof: in their first full year of operation, they grossed around $120,000; within five years, they grossed over a million dollars.

In late 2002, they decided to put the place up for sale, because they had been running it entirely themselves (with the help of their wives) and wanted to move on to other entrepreneurial projects.. I guess (they really weren't too clear on that).  They put it up for $1,000,000 asking price, and this cat came along and offered them $812,500 which they accepted.

[Caliga]

Did they: serve barbeque?

I do not know... neither the plaintiff's attorney nor the defendant's thought to question them about that. 

[Caliga]

PART 2

The guys who owned the place were basically blue collar wheeler-dealers: the one guy had only his high school diploma and had been a locksmith, and the other guy had gotten his GED (Euros = this means he didn't finish high school, and went back and took retard classes to get a sort of makeup diploma) and was a roofer.  They are what we call "good old boys" here--hard working, no doubt, but it goes without saying that they're going to be a little bit shady.  In fact, there was an allegation that they were involved in bootlegging and investigated for that: remember that I live in a county that had prohibition until last November.  Yeah, I kind of felt like I was in a time machine when that came up.

Anyway, the guy who ultimately bought the property from him was a career salesman who had a BA in business administration from Purdue and had previously been a VP of sales for Atlas Machinery, GE Appliance, and some other impressive places.  He had "gotten laid off" in 2002 and had decided he wanted to be self-employed after that.  He did not want to tap into his savings or re-mortgage his home to get the purchase capital, so he sought out an SBA loan and was approved for a loan in the amount of $650,000.  Obviously, $650,000 != $812,500, so they had to figure out some other way of closing the gap, since apparently the sellers liked him and were quite motivated to sell (and can you blame them, given the figures I've presented?)

So what they decided to do to close the gap was the following:

A. The sellers wrote a promissory note to the buyer in the amount of $150,000 plus interest (I forget the interest rate... think it was 5%), with no payments due for the first five years.  In years 6 through 10, the total accrued interest would be due in annual installments (each = 20% of total accrued interest).  In year 11, the principal would come due in full.

B.  To close the remaining gap and as a precondition of item A., the buyer/sellers agreed to a consulting agreement in which the sellers would give the buyer any advice he felt he needed to be successful, would agree to be on the premises for a transition period to help "maintain business/personal relationships", and so forth--basically teach the guy all he needed to know to run the business.  In return, the seller would pay them 0.65% of his gross receipts annually for five years.

Both parties agreed to the above and signed and there were no conditional clauses for either agreement (now this fact will become important later on in the story).

[Caliga]

Oh yeah, here's a website about the station:

http://www.kyhuntnfish.com/settlerstrace/settlerstrace.php

[The Brain]

which were not up to ... Kentucky standards

[Caliga]

Come on Brain, that was too easy.

[Caliga]

PART 3

Ok, so the business + property was sold in "as is" condition following seller's standard disclosures, in which they did not disclose any major problems with the property, and the business changed hands on 4/1/2003.  For the first year or so, everything was cool.  The new buyer continued to grow the business and make improvements (the first thing he did was install chicken broasters, and if you look at that website I posted he's quite proud of his fried chicken), such as expanding the gravel parking lot and putting in more restaurant seating, and he dutifully paid his first consulting agreement installment in January of 2004.

In the late spring/early summer of 2004, several customers who were storing boats onsite complained to him of "foul odors" coming from the storage area.  He wasn't really sure what to think of that, and didn't do anything about it until July.

He got some more complaints in July and thought to himself... hmmm...  well, this property does have a septic system, so maybe I should have my septic hauler come out and take a look (he had had his solid waste removed in January of 2004 without any apparent issues).  So he calls up the hauler and asks him to come out and do a removal.  The hauler was like "ok, I'll do it, but you shouldn't need to have your waste pumped out so soon"... but he figured he better have him do it just in case.

So the hauler gets there, backs his truck up to the septic tank cap (which was on a riser), and when he opens the cap so he can get the pump hose in there, there is an explosion of back pressure that lifts the cap AND him clear off the ground.

[Admiral Yi]

Hurry up with the next chapter bitch!

[Caliga]

Hurry up with the next chapter bitch!

  I'm also trying to get caught up on some work at the same time I'm writing this NIGGA.