Forum Overview :: Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego
 
The time I did legal research for Mrs. R. by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 10/20/2019, 8:38pm PDT
Back in the mid 1980s, I was working for Mrs. R., a tax preparer and real estate broker, who lived in and worked out of her house in La Mirada, CA, a small town on the edge of Los Amgeles County, in fact, where we were at was only about 3 blocks from the Orange County Line. Anyway, Mrs. R. ended up owning a property in New York state, which she used a managrement company to handle details. By accident, we discover that nobody had bought liability insurance on the property. How we found out was the tenant's son fell on the sidewalk after a snowstorm, and according to the papers her lawyer ha served on us, was terribly injured.

So, what we had to do was find out our exposure. Since I was fairly bright and she only had to pay me minimum wage, she had me do the research. Since I was going out on a Saturday, I had to go to a law library that was open and had the law books for New York State. The easiest one to get to being the law library at the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana. So I took a lunch with me and rode the buses over there, then used a pay phone to call my boss and let her know I'd gotten there.

I had several pens and plenty of paper and took notes. Lots of notes. New York State landlord-tenant law and court cases involving slip-and-fall accident, and landlord liability. When I got hungry I stopped, went outside, ate, then went back in and back to work. At the end of the day I had a general understanding of the situation.

When there is a snow storm either the tenant has to tell us or we have to have reasonable notice. Next, we have to have reasonable time to clear the snow after it stops. The child was injured either while it was snowing or very soon after it had stopped, i.e. a few hours, not even a whole day. Ergo the incident happened too soon for us to be liable, but that would have to be argued in court.

So it turns out to be a "good news-bad news" situation. Good news is, we have no liability for damages. Bad news is, we still have to hire a lawyer in New York to defend against the suit. So when I get back to work on Monday, I give her the summary orally, and my written notes to allow her to understand how I reached the conclusions I did. A few weeks later I get to find out from my boss how much her little "self-insurance" issue with that property ended up costing her. "About $6,000." Which is probably about what 30 years of insurance premiums would have cost. So, anyway, one thing Mrs. R. started doing was, for every property she and her husband owned, whether she ran a property herself or it was managed, that all necessary insurance was purchased and issued for it.
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The time I did legal research for Mrs. R. by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 10/20/2019, 8:38pm PDT NEW
    Ja, ja, wen interessiert das? NT by Baron von Bitcoin 10/21/2019, 4:36am PDT NEW
    How many times did you go outside? NT by pinback 10/21/2019, 12:28pm PDT NEW
        Twice. Once to eat, once to go home. Restrooms were inside. NT by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 10/21/2019, 12:32pm PDT NEW
    Reasonably bright NT by Accepts minimum wage 10/21/2019, 12:49pm PDT NEW
        It's a trade off by Mysterio 10/22/2019, 7:58am PDT NEW
        Accepting minimuum wage by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 11/13/2019, 9:39am PST NEW
            What's a typical Tdarcos job interview like? by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/13/2019, 10:09am PST NEW
    Why couldn't you drive all the way back then? by Everybody drives in California 11/13/2019, 6:05pm PST NEW
        Re: Why couldn't you drive all the way back then? by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 11/14/2019, 7:29pm PST NEW
            Re: Why couldn't you drive all the way back then? by - 11/14/2019, 8:10pm PST NEW
                Re: Why couldn't you drive all the way back then? by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 12/07/2019, 10:04am PST NEW
 
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