That time when a simple real estate litigation turned out to be more than just mental gymnastics…

I’m great, Morgan, thanks for having me.

All right. Well, I’ve got my drink too. I think I need something a little bit stronger than that. You know,  you know, as you know, I’ve been an attorney for over 21 years, so I’ve seen some really strange stuff over the course of my career that would make your toes curl, that would keep you up at night, that would make you sweat. And then some of the stuff I’ve seen that’s so egregious and whatever is like routine now. So, it doesn’t really affect me, or it’s another person will be like, Oh my God, how can you deal with that? However, with that being said, there is one matter that sticks out to me and that’s pretty  egregious, that’s, or egregious that’s, um,  that we’re going to talk about today. So without further, um, as you know, or as you may not know, most of my focus is on business law. So, I try to stay in my own lane and not go outside of that lane. But sometimes I do. One of the things  I am proficient at, I think, is real estate litigation. So,  I had a matter about four or five years ago now that came in that was a real estate litigation matter. Now, ordinarily, um, like I said, I focus on business litigation, I also do real estate litigation. So I’m like, problem. So, the issue was, and again, obviously, as you know, on your show, Morgan, we changed the names, the dates, the locations to hide the innocent. There are no innocent people in this story, but, um, you know, so it’s going to be a little distorted, but bear with me.

So, this family comes in where the daughter is the authoritarian control figure of her elderly parents. Okay. She speaks for them. She makes all the moves for them. She has the power of attorney over them. You don’t talk to them. You talk to her regarding the old people. Okay. For lack of a better term. Okay. So they came into this thing with a deal where they lived in a gated community in Naples was a very nice area of Florida. So they lived in a gated community in a house that they all, or I should say the parents, were renting, and the daughter claims she doesn’t live at, but she lives there for all intents and purposes. So they made a deal with their elderly neighbor across the street, who I guess is even older than the parents, where this guy had a single-family home. He’s an old guy, like in his eighties or whatever. And he agreed to,  I guess, let them take over his house and he would stay there, and they would perform the upkeep and the sweat equity. And then he would eventually sell them that house at a lower market price than it would otherwise be worth. And then they can leave their rental and then go to their, um, go to their house that they have been up keeping and the old guy would move out. So that was the deal. Now, as you may or may not know, having to be… I just want to repeat the deal back just to make sure I and the viewers under understood it because it’s, it’s already a bit, uh, a bit convoluted. Yeah. Older couple and their daughter living in a house and they made a deal with the person across the street that they could renovate, upkeep and improve the house and then eventually because  they’ve improved the house so much, they could then at some point buy the house but at a lower than market value. Is that right? Yes, that is right. As convoluted as that sounds, You’re paying attention, okay?  Now, issues that we’re going to run into are many, but the first is that as You may or may not know, at least in Florida and for most of the country and most of the organized world, you can’t buy and sell real estate without a written contract. So they never had a written contract. They had all verbal, like all verbal, all verbal. Okay. All verbal. All right. So they had, sounds like you’re not Naples, Florida Naples, Italy with the mafia. Even Naples Italy wouldn’t touch this one.  So,  they never had a signed contract. had the daughter who fancies herself some kind of  dealmaker had a on a piece of notebook paper. They have what was called a term sheet. Okay. And I hate that term. hate using that term because it’s so stupid because it doesn’t mean anything, but they use a term sheet and they had like, I would say under 20 words written on this piece of paper that said like, will rent  house,  will then buy a house  for under market value. And then it was signed by the old people, not the daughter, the old people, but not the owner of the house who. They were going to buy it from. Okay. It’s the key, the key person. The person you want to have it, to have it do it over. He never signed it. So lo and behold, they go ahead and they upkeep the property. Like they fix a roof repair. They fix the pool. Cause again, it’s a nice, nice, you 3000 square foot house in Naples has four bedrooms, a pool, whatever gated community. So they go ahead and do all that stuff. They pay for the landscaping.  They do all this stuff.  And then  their  lease  on the house across the street is about to run out. So that’s like the impetus for them to now buy the house and move across the street. The problem is they still don’t have a contract. They still, you know, don’t have a closing date or anything else. So  they go ahead and they kind of tell the guy,  the old man who owns the house, that this deal is going forward. We’re going to move in by the end of our lease term and you better be ready.  And so apparently the old guy was, you know, I guess kind of a little bit out of it, not senile, but not really whatever. And he had a son who’s a businessman in another part of the country who’s not really a strange, but he kind of doesn’t really keep closed tabs on his father. So his son came down to visit him, and this plan was revealed to the son, and the son is like, what the hell. Are you doing that? What is going on here?  You know,  you can’t sell to these people. You don’t have a contract. You don’t have any deal, whatever. Okay. At the same time, the buyers who just used the term, the buyers, they went to a title agent and they got all the title work done and all the stuff ready for the sale. And so they arbitrarily made up a sale date, and with no sales contract, by the way, just all the title worked on in the term sheet that was unsigned. And they make up a price as well.  Yeah, they made up a price, and that was under the market value that they claim that the old man agreed to. And then they’re ready to have this closing on this sale. And then the old man’s son steps in and says, Hey,  before you go on, I just need to interrupt this site almost stretches the bounds of credibility. it’s, it’s, it’s so crazy. But what makes me believe it other than you being trustworthy and,  and you’re not being here if you’re just inventing this is I’ve had ex girlfriends long ago who literally like invented relationships  with me. And I’ve known people who just like invent  wild stories about other, about other people and their relationship and their head. And this, it’s like, feels like it’s that same  sort of idiosyncrasy, but like at a  much, bigger level. Yeah. So  then we’ll don’t worry. We’re going to add some more layers to it to make it even more incredible. Oh my goodness. So  one of the,  so  there’s the allegedly agree on a sale price, but there’s no confirmation that the seller, the old guy agreed on the sale price or whatever.  So, one of the other factors is that this  house isn’t an HOA. Okay. Now, one of the things you need to buy and sell a house in the HOA is the HOA’s written approval. Guess what? They didn’t have it. While the buyers were renters in the community, and this comes back to something I said initially, the daughter  really lived there, but Quote unquote didn’t live there. Okay, so the daughter is there 24 hours a day seven days a week  and She claims she doesn’t live there. She lives in another city When someone asks her but she really lives at the property but the is is in so far as you know, is the reason why she did that  you’re gonna enjoy you’re gonna hear why  oh Because  she was an unapproved tenant at the property. Again, the HOA needs to approve all tenants as well. So she was never approved. She was, for lack of better term, a troublemaker. She would get in fights with other neighbors.  She would be like a condo commando around the community, even though she was not even technically a renter in the community and caused a lot of problems.  So the association said to them tacitly, If this deal ever goes through and you try to seek our written approval, we’re never going to approve you for the sale because of your daughter, unless your daughter guarantees that she’s not going to quote unquote, take care of you or stop by or anything. It’s unless your daughter guarantees she’s not going to live with you. We’re not going to approve the sale. All right.  So  with that in mind, we go back to the alleged sale date of the property. So the title works done, everything’s done, the price is there and they get ready to have the closing and the seller, old guy doesn’t show up. He gets a letter from, he has a letter sent out from his son who again, remember is the estranged son who came down to visit. He has his attorney come down and send out a letter saying, you all, know, for lack of a better term, I’m gonna need some brevity here. All these people are crazy, okay? You’ve taken advantage of this old man. This old man never agreed to sell you anything. I don’t know what you’ve been doing at this property, but you are banned from the property forever. You’re not to come over anymore. You’re not to care take it. You’re not to renovate it. You’re done. And we’ll figure out everything else later. Okay? So then that’s when I become involved in the case. So one of my very good referral sources is the attorney who did the preliminary title work in this case. Okay. Very good. Okay. Never failed me in several years of referring to cases, very respected in the community, very reputable. Great. End up guy. Okay. So, for some reason, he was bamboozled by these buyers into thinking that they were like straight and narrow people and that this daughter didn’t really have anything to do with it. It was just this old couple who’s going to buy a house or another old person. So he knew  my referral source knew that I’m the litigation guy and this is going to require litigation. So he sends me the clients. Okay. And this is where I’m introduced to the daughter and the daughter as the overlord of the parents with her power of attorney and you were to speak to me, not my parents,  but include them on all emails and include them in all the stuff that I speak for everyone. Here’s my power of attorney, et cetera. Okay. So I’m like, well, you know, you may  have a problem because,  know, generally speaking, when you buy a house, you have a sales contract and, know,  and You know, I understand you have your term sheet, which is what you’re going to say is the un-executed sales contract. But you know, without his signature, you’re limited to your remedies. So. What I did was  I crafted a lawsuit that under Florida law, totally cognizable,  you know, I had to really use my brain to come up with this lawsuit to come up with counts for like betterment, which is a cause of action when you go and you improve real property and then the owner doesn’t pay you back. So, cause they really did do these upgrades and upkeep and stuff. So betterment. We sought a trust for the property because they put money into the property that was unaccounted for.  And so we said that the property should be held in trust. We  sought an accounting, which is a remedy where you want to show where all the money that went into a deal or a transaction or a business went. So we wanted to see where all the money went. And then  we treated the term sheet as a precursor to a real sales contract. So obviously we admitted that the term sheet was not the end contract of itself, but it was a promise  to enter into a contract. in Florida, can’t, we have a revenue is called specific performance. It makes you perform under a contract. So, obviously we didn’t have a sales contract, but we had a agreement to enter into an agreement. And so that’s what we sought to enforce was the agreement to that he that the seller was going to enter into a sales contract for the alleged agreed upon amount of money, whatever.  Interesting. have a question before you go on. Sure. From the backstory that you just gave that you just gave us before you showed up, it sounds like the daughter is a little bit  crazy. Did you realize at this point that she was like of the knocker is here’s here’s  Morgan. You’re you’re slightly ahead of the game. We’re going to get there.  I’m going to give you I’m going to give you I’m going to give you a side story right after this next thing to tell you how we start figuring out that the daughter’s a little touched in the head. So  so  all right. So I come up with these brilliant, totally  cognizable, totally above board legal theories, which are totally whatever. At the same time,  the old man and his son file a lawsuit right before we file our lawsuit against the couple and the daughter seeking what’s called,  um,  uh, Ejectment  and,  um, unlawful detainer, which is causes of action for when someone occupies a property and isn’t really a tenant, but is somehow  at your property and you want them off. So even though they were off the property, the sellers wanted a legal adjudication that they were to be off the property and not come back.  So they filed that lawsuit. I simultaneously then filed a counterclaim based on what I just told you. Okay. And so it’s all one giant lawsuit. So here’s where we start talking about the daughter. Okay. So the daughter.started out what we will agree upon the term normal. Okay.  What you think that means in parlance, everyday  conversations, normal. Okay.  As the situation went on that I told you about and came to an initial focus point at the filing of these lawsuits, the daughter  started drastically going into a left field and here’s how. The daughter would  send me legal theories that she thought I should be using in various arguments. The daughter would then send me stream of consciousness emails  about just her thoughts  in general on things. Just because  at all hours of the night I’d wake up things  related to the lawsuit or just like related to a lawsuit or something in life that then relates to the lawsuit or a parable or a story that relates to the lawsuit. And then she would like say, the brilliant idea coming up with this brilliant idea. Brilliant idea. So. I’m like, this person’s a little weird  and it’s getting weirder. But I’m like, it’s kind of outside the bounds of, you know, some of my clients, I don’t want to misspeak about them, but are peculiar.  Um, this was getting weirder by the moment. So she would start emailing me stuff. She would then forward me emails  that the mother and the father would want me to see, but wouldn’t send to me directly, but would send to her to send to me. And then I would have to reply all to all three of them, right? Response to those emails. Okay. We. Own. We, the lawsuits are filed and we file responding papers and stuff. And because these are  what’s called summary proceedings, they’re  set for hearing very quickly because it deals with possession of property. It’s not like some kind of other cause of action or whatever.  And so  I’m,  I tell the daughter  in indirectly the parents that look, we’re going to have to go to court with evidence  and you’re going to have to testify in person, not via zoom because it’s a trial trials or, know, most of the stuff now is on zoom, but big time stuff like trials and stuff is in person. So we’re going to have to go in person  and we’re going to have to prove all the allegations in our counterclaim regarding your deal, what you paid, all this other stuff, whatever. So, I try to make them understand that  and we get set for essentially a summary trial.  the other side is obviously ready. The other side  has the old man and the son who are both pretty cognizant, able to testify that that’s not the deal, et cetera. We want them off the property,  whatever, they even offer off the record to settle the case by giving my clients some money to go away. And my clients totally, uh, poo poo that they’re going to do it. And it was a pretty good offer. was about the amount of money they spent on the property. And they just said, no, we want the property. So I’m like, okay. Like here’s the CYA letter explaining that all to you, whatever. So then, we’re gathering evidence  for  the summary trial. And like, I’m like, you have to send me the proof of everything you paid for this  company or if not for this company for this property. Okay. So you have to send me receipts for like pool repairs and receipts for roof repairs. And, you know, if you paid the dues, the dues you paid and all that stuff, you have to send me that. So they send me some of that stuff. And then the daughter sends me in like the most incomprehensible format ever of photocopying a phone, not like a screenshot of a phone, but literally like putting it on a photocopier of a page on a phone and hitting copy and then sending it to me. of photocopy pages  of texts  between her and the old guy and the old guy’s son talking about this deal. And so I’m like, I’m like, well, you know, daughter,  what order are these in? There’s no dates on them. I need them put in an order in some kind of cognitive fashion to present. Could you maybe just upload your history to the Internet and send me that way as opposed to no, I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know what’s going on. I just know how to make these copies. So she sends me these copies. These are questions for clarification. Approximately how old was the daughter? Daughter was probably mid 40s. Mid 40s. Oh, old enough to know better. Or yeah, old enough to know how to upload things to the internet or whatever. And also these were conversations she was having with the old man and the son. Why? Like about the settlement. like even though you’re the lawyer just going, no, was all yes while I represented them still  having conversations with them not telling me about it. Talking about the deal about how much money they wanted, how much money they invested, how they were going to own the house, how they were going to do whatever. All in the same and I’m like, I told the door, I’m like, okay, well, you know, out of the  hundred pages you sent me, there’s maybe three that are actually germane and useful to your case and the rest are totally  nutso. Like, you threatening the old man and of you threatening the son that you’re going to do things to them or hurt them or, you know, but in like a kind of passive aggressive way. And I’m like, you really don’t want the court to see those  text messages.  So I finally  weed that down to the the useful ones and then I get their bills and stuff and I get ready to do whatever. So then  I’m like, okay, well we got to prepare for trial. This is gonna be a real trial. Oh, and by the way, it was a jury trial.  Because they demanded a jury trial. So I’m like, you’re gonna have to convince six people in Collier County.  they, the, your client demanded jury trial or the other? Yeah, they demand an injury trial. What’s funny about crazy people is they’re so in their own world. They can’t even recognize they’re in their own world. They think they’ll convince everyone that they’re sane. Yeah. So they wanted to convince six people in Collier County about this deal. So I’m like, okay, well, that raises the bar higher of what we need to do and how to do it. We need to stay very focused to our very refined counterclaim that I put forward.  Get rid of all your extraneous stuff and  do whatever. So then  as we’re getting ready,  the association  gets, the homeowners association gets wind of this, okay? And they’re like, we will never allow them ever to purchase a home in this community based on the daughter, even if the daughter agrees never to show up there or whatever. So then they come on board and they intervene in the case on the side of the old man and his son to block us from, uh, buying the house by saying that they will never approve them to buy the house. it’s a waste of everyone’s time. So I’m like, you know, guys, that money that they offered you looks pretty good considering that, you know, even if this goes through and we sneak all the holes and everything that, you know, the association said they’re never going to let you in. no,  no, we’re going to go forward. Okay.  So then I’m like, well,  daughter, you know, I need to prepare your parents for the trial. Okay, I know you like me to communicate through you and I know you like, you know, whatever, but I need to kind of talk to them and get them ready and go over documents with them.  Wait, so  at this point, have you also spoken to the parents or one on the phone? spoke to them on the phone. All right. Everything goes through the daughter via email copied with the parents. So the parents are on all emails, but the daughter is me. So I’m like, look, I got to talk to them. Okay, well here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to arrange this, okay? Daughters like my parents are gonna stay in a hotel the night before the trial, and you’re gonna come meet us there, and we’re gonna meet in the hotel room and go over everything before the trial. And then the next day, the day of the trial, you’re gonna come over to the hotel, and we’re all gonna go over to the courthouse as one. And I’m like, let me get this straight. You live in Collier County, but you’re going to stay in hotel in Collier County to go to the courthouse instead of just go. And the daughter’s like, yes, my parents really want to be focused on appearing in court and we’re going to  stay in the hotel the night before that’s going to happen. I’m like, okay, all right. So I’m like, okay. So then I get all my stuff ready. I get all my exhibits ready. I do all the pre-trial stuff, get everything ready, make sure they’re all informed of everything that goes on, get everything you’re ready to get rid of. So I’m like, okay, well it’s time to meet the parents.  And he’s like, well, my mother doesn’t feel up to it. So we’re just going to meet tomorrow morning before the trial. And I’m like, I’m like, okay. I’m like, um, I know I’m getting nervous. I know because I emailed them that they know that this is whatever. if you say, I’m like, this is go time. This is whatever. So then the day of the trial comes and mind me the whole time that I’m getting these stream of consciousness emails from the daughter the whole time of various things going on. Her takes on life, her takes on things, whatever. And in there, there’s like a little line about the case and then a bunch of crazy, whatever, right? The day of the trial, I’m like, okay, I got to go to the hotel, meet them, prepare them the best I can and then go. And then she emails me, she’s like, Oh, I’m just gonna meet you at the courthouse. My parents are gonna come over during when they’re needed to testify during the trial. And I’m like, do you really think that’s smart? Because you know, and she’s like, Yeah, okay. So then, I go to the trial. I’m so scared. I go to the trial. Okay. The courts there, the bailiffs there, the clerks there, they’re all ready. The other side is there with their attorney who I get along with, who I have a good relationship with. The father’s there, the son’s there, the daughter’s there with me, but there’s no parents. And I again tell the daughter, I’m like, you realize in order to have any kind of chance at this, you’re gonna have to your parents come over, right? She’s like, yeah, I know, they’re gonna be here. I’m like, okay. So then the judge, who’s very nice beforehand, It’s like, and again, the settlement discussions we had beforehand before we went to trial was they don’t want to sell the property. They just want us to go away. They’ll give us money. Okay. So, so then the judge is like, you know, is there a possibility before we start this jury trial, before I bring up 40 jurors to in panel a trial or two in panel of six person jury that you can talk one last time and try to settle this case. And I’m like, you’re on. I’m always open to settle the case. I’d always rather settle a case to go to trial. And then the daughter is like, okay, we’ll try one last time. And so we spend the next hour and a half, instead of starting the trial of having negotiations from various standpoints.  Oh, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you in the story. In the sales, in the closing that they were going to do,  the parents  and the daughter, but the parents as the buyers. They put down like a hundred thousand dollars as a down payment for the house, for the sale. Okay. Oh, so that, that key point, uh, guy to remember that happened like way back when in the beginning with a napkin unsigned term. Yes, yes. They put a hundred thousand dollars in escrow. Okay. So that’s an important point I forgot. So it’s an important point because it makes a unsigned term shape. It’s a little bit less crazy. Okay. If they, if they put real money into escrow. Yeah. Yeah. So they put the money into escrow so no one could touch it.  And so  the  son, the  seller and the son were like, well, if this deal doesn’t go through, then we’re going to take the escrow money which is novel theory, but could possibly happen. So then  I’m like, okay. So then while we’re going through the settlement things, I’m trying to tell the daughter who’s there, who’s got the parents on the phone and is texting the mom and dad because they’re still not there at the courthouse.  I tell her, look, you could lose  all the money you put into the house  and the a thousand dollars, or you could take their deal of them paying you and you walk away. And the daughter’s like, no, we really want the house.  So I’m like, okay. I’m like, well,  in order to do that, you know, we’re going to have to throw all the paradigm out the window of what we’ve been doing this whole time. And we’re going to have to ask the sellers, can we have an arms length transaction sale for real, not some deal or something, but for actual,  the actual value of the house, less your escrow money and pending the association’s approval. So, we then discussed this for an hour among all ourselves and the seller and the seller’s son are so sick of my clients  that they actually say, sure, we’ll do that. So then, My daughter gets the approval of the parents on the phone to make the deal. So the deal is made. Okay. And the deal is, is that they are now going to sign a real sales contract within X amount of days  for  the market value of the house  based on whatever the comps come in at, yes. And they’re going to have this sale within 30 days pending that and pending the association approval. Okay. So I’m like, well, I didn’t see that coming. So, due to how screwed up this deal is and whatever, and how all these people are. The court makes us write up the 10-page settlement agreement in court right there on our computers, not go back to the office drafted and signing or whatever. So that takes us another like hour plus to draft this agreement. Okay. So the agreement’s all drafted or whatever. So they printed out, both sides review it. Everyone’s okay with the agreement. The daughter still has not had the parents come over to the courthouse yet to sign the agreement. So  she gets  the judge is like, well, I want to hear from  the parents. So she gets the parents on the phone and the judge is like, there’s this settlement agreement. The other side assigned your daughter has power of attorney to sign for you, but I want to hear from you that you agree to these terms. And they’re like, yes, we agree to these terms. So then the daughter uses the power of attorney to sign the agreement. So they’ve been sight unseen this whole time. The daughter then on the record turns to me, shakes my hand, and says, thank you for doing such a great job. Okay, on the record. Court then ends. Okay, the deal is in place. Okay. I tell the daughter, I’m like, look, okay, you now have a real sales contract. You now have a real close and date. You now have a real sales price. You now have real money in escrow. Your issue is that you  daughter need to not live with the property and need to  verify that your parents are actually going to live with the property and not you because this association said they will never approve this deal if you set foot on that property due to all the problems that you’ve made in this association. So the daughter agrees. That sounds great. Okay. I speak with the association’s attorney who was there because he was ready for the trial. I’m like who I know from years ago. I know this attorney and I asked them, I’m like, you’re going to obviously this person’s going to agree. They’re never going to be there. Okay. Will you give them like a fair yes or no vote based on just the parents? And he’s like, yeah, of course we will. I’m like, okay. So then we all break up. We all go back to our offices and homes and he goes and picks up his parents at the hotel or she goes and picks up her parents at the hotel. And  we all go back, all the contracts are signed and everything.  And the daughter  starts an email campaign  threatening the association that unless they approve the deal for her parents,  she will have them sue the association in federal court for civil rights violations and various other crazy ideas. So then the association attorney turns to me and he’s like, you know, this woman sent me this crazy email threatening  me and my clients.  And like, you’re their attorney, get a hold of them.  I’m like, yo, yo, yo, I’m like, I’m trying to,  I don’t know what’s going on. So essentially, we have 30 days to now get this deal done for real. Okay. They go, and they allegedly get a loan  for the parents  from a bank that’s approved. They get all the title work and everything ready to go.  And, the parents are to be interviewed by the board of directors  for approval. And so the parents come in  and the daughter doesn’t show up in person, but starts emailing the board of directors directly, their attorney their management company and threatening all of them that they need to say yes to her parents moving in. Otherwise, she’s going to sue them all in federal court for  some kind of discrimination and civil rights violations and stuff like that. So  the board is like, we don’t need to deal with this person.  What the hell’s going on here? So, and the attorneys like they don’t want to deal with these people. They’re, know, whatever, you know, I don’t want to use the term nuts, but they may have said that. And so they probably said much worse things that you heard not saying in this. They’re like thumbs down, man. This deal’s not going through. We don’t want anything to do with these people. They’re deranged men. Like they’re emailing us individually, threatening us. Or I should say the daughter’s emailing us and really threatening us daughter’s emailing their attorney threatening them, the daughter’s emailing their management company threatening them. What happens is  the  daughter  sees that the deal is falling apart and starts to go  off on her own. The daughter starts emailing, in addition to the people who I just said, the daughter starts emailing the my opposing counsel who represents the old man and the son. And then the daughter emails the old man and the son as well, all different emails, threatening all of them, saying that they’re going to sue them for civil rights violations and all kinds of stuff and whatever.  And she emails them maybe five  to 15 times a day. All this stuff. And so they all come to me, and they’re all like, what’s going on with your client? I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m like, this is all not my, I don’t know what’s going on here or whatever. I’m like, you realize you’re going to blow this deal and you’re going to lose your money because you’re threatening all these people. They agreed to give you a fair vote on moving in, and you’re threatening them all. She continues to threaten everyone. She even emails the court. Okay. The judge to say that the judge, yeah. The email, the judge saying that, um, this is, uh, you know, whatever, this is not what we agreed to all of sudden, it’s not what they agreed to. This is what she starts saying now, and that this is unfair and that the association is being unfair and all that. I’m like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I’m like, have written confirmation of what we agreed to have a court record of when we were in court of what we agreed to and that’s what you agreed to. And everyone asked you 50 times, is that what you agreed to? said, yeah, so, so, needless to say, things start going downhill very quick. The daughter is emailing all these people, threatening all these people five, 15 times a day, threatening them with now bar grievances for attorneys, bar grievances for the opposing attorney, the association attorney, threatening RICO actions threatening all kinds of things. And remember, she claims that she’s a non-resident and whatever. So then the association trespasses her from the association during this. What does he mean to trespass someone? I’ll be known as now because she’s not a she’s not a, um, a resident with rental property. So they don’t enter into the lands. So, in the HOA, they had the police issue her a trespass that said she’s no longer allowed there. And if she shows up there, she’ll be arrested next time. So, needless to say, guess what? She still shows up there, but she doesn’t get caught. So, the situation totally goes out of control. I’m like, I tell them, look, man, I’m like, you’ve stirred up a hornets nest here. Your best goal is to either. You know, disassociate yourself from your daughter, go get this vote yes or no from the association and go forward from there, or just get your money back and go to another house, man. I mean, there’s houses all over the place. That was like, uh, too far for the daughter. And then the daughter turned on me for me saying that to her parents and starts threatening me with like, you’re a terrible, can’t believe you did this. Can’t believe, uh, you know, whatever, this isn’t what we asked for, yada, yada, yada. And so the daughter starts emailing me like 50 times a day in stream of consciousness is telling me how horrible I am and how I got them in this situation and all this crazy stuff. So I’m like, all right. I tell my referral source who referred me this case. I’m like, they’ve gone overboard and, uh, you know, I’m to have to withdraw from this case because they’re threatening me now personally and saying whatever. So then, he’s like, I understand. He’s like, I apologize. I had no idea they’re like this. And I’m like, let me show you some emails that they sent me. And so I sent him some of the emails. He’s like, Oh God, I’m sorry. I’m, know, I can never make this up to you, whatever, whatever. So then  I fought, I’m like, all right I file a motion to withdraw citing irreconcilable differences.  I withdraw from the case.  The sale gets continued another 60 days before I withdraw. Okay. I give them all the advice, I tell them what to do, yada yada yada, they don’t do it. Then 10, I get a call from another attorney who wants to come in and take over the case.  And I’m like, new attorney. I’m like, why don’t you do yourself a service and just call the opposing counsels?  What they have to say about this case. I’m not going to say anything. I don’t want to bias you one way.  I’m like, why don’t you just call the other attorneys and see what they have to say? I’m not going to say. Yes, sir. I’m just telling whatever files you need, whatever things you need. I’m here. gave them all to them. Send it all over. I sent it all over to the daughter and to the parents. So, needless to say the new attorney appears and files a new lawsuit against the association for  civil rights discrimination and all kinds of other crazy stuff. And then sues  the father and the son again for this time for intentionally blowing up the deal. That case goes on or those cases go on as of today, four years later.  And I was sent for every day for probably a year threatening emails from the daughter like, you know, borderline, like I could go get like a restraining order against her, but like, you know, whatever of just threatening me, threatening to come to my office, threatening to come to my house, you know, saying I abused her elderly parents, just all kinds of crazy stuff. So I’m just like, whatever. And then one day they stopped and I’m like, Hey, that’s pretty weird that you kind of missed it that they stopped. I’m like, I wonder what’s going on. So I do a little digging and I look in the adjacent counties court filings and I see that they all were sued by another neighbor in the neighborhood for like aggravated stalking and like batter or Sultan battery or something. And they lost because they didn’t appear at a jury trial and they got a verdict against them for $1 million  against my former clients for like a million dollars.  And due to the fact that they didn’t comply with any court orders or anything, the daughter has an arrest warrant out for her  in this other case. And that’s why she disappeared because she went underground because she was the one I wanted to find her. And that arrest warrant is still out there right now. And so, so needless to say, have distanced myself  as best possible from that case, even though obviously I don’t think I do anything wrong. Exactly what they want to do, whatever the old people, they just wound up moving to a new rental is what I found out in the same community in a different community because they wouldn’t allow them to rent in the same community because they banned them and they trespass the daughter. Yeah. So they moved to another community. They’re still fighting over the deposit money. This even four years later,  and they’re still fighting with the association for their discrimination stuff. And it’s still going on today. I see from just looking at the document, I see they’ve gone through three other sets of attorneys.  In addition to the one who called me up on the phone, wants to know about the case of going through three sets of attorneys  and  uh, you know, it’s a lesson learned. I as much my takeaway from that is as much as  my referral source was very trusted and still is very trusting. Whatever you still have to do due diligence  in  reviewing these referrals to you,  because even if someone else vouches for them,  normally that’s a pretty good  screening method or a clearance method, but it’s still not good enough.  And, I’ve also said, even though I do real estate litigation, I’m not going to do it outside of a commercial setting anymore because of situations like this.  I’m not dealing with, you know, control figures  over other clients or whatever. Either  I have a personal relationship with my client, or I should say a business relationship with my client directly,  or I don’t represent you. I don’t have a proxy that I go through, even though it’s legal and whatever, I go through you personally. So these are all things that I’ve changed over the last four years that I’ve learned from. And, you know, it’s made things less stressful. I mean, have I lost out on making some money? Yeah. But can I quote unquote sleep at night? Yeah, I can. Do I enjoy not seeing totally bat shit crazy emails in my inbox every day? Yes, I do. All right. Do I enjoy not seeing emails from other attorneys saying your client threatened me or threatened me or whatever? Yes, I do enjoy not seeing those. So there’s a case where in theory, if everything was right, a little weird, but it was a viable case, but it was just the personalities were just nuts, particularly the daughter who was just totally unhinged and out of control and now has an arrest warrant out against her.

Listen, if  I put all the details in there, there’s no Netflix or Amazon studio that would even gamble on how crazy the story is. I put, if I threw in all the, you know, names to be changed, it’s like the innocent or put in all the details. Um, you know, you know, I just, one of the, you know, one of the main things too, is that I am glad that they never, uh, had my personal cell phone number. It’s one of my great things because otherwise I would have had to choose my cell phone based on the number of emails that I got. And luckily, I put them in my spam filter, and like I said, they stopped showing up. But one of the great things, you know, that’s why I don’t give clients my cell phone number. You can call me all the time you want in the office. I’ll return your calls, whatever. But for that kind of reason, because I found out one of the other things,  the daughter found out the other attorney’s cell phone numbers and started sending the same deranged stream of consciousness emails via text message to the opposing council and to the associations council as well. And so I’m like, well, good thing I didn’t do that. But yeah, those are definitely some interesting stuff. Definitely learned a lot. Definitely learned a lot of control practices and business practices from that case.

Yeah, no, that’s 100 % true. If they act as a control figure for someone else, that’s an automatic red flag right there. I’ll drop that case. I want to be near it, you know, because that’s a layer that I don’t need between my client or some kind of handler control figure. So that’s a indicator of bad news right there. And then obviously the stream of consciousness whacked out emails is obviously,  I mean, that’s a double, triple, quadruple red flag right there. So,  you know, from now on, if someone emails me something like stream of consciousness, what the hell is that? That’s another red flag right there when like, this isn’t for me.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, you like I said, the thing that obscured the initial red flags was the fact that this came from such a trusted to the world’s source and was vouched for, which is what put down my guard initially and let them get in. So now that guard is up. I don’t care.  I don’t care if my mom or my dad called me up and refer me. So I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know,  getting it out and checking it. I don’t care who’s sending it over.

Yeah, exactly.  But no, definitely. And then definitely, you know, one of the things as an attorney, obviously you owe a duty to your clients and all that kind of stuff. can’t leave them in a bad position and all kinds of crazy, or not crazy, all kinds  of rules of professional responsibility and ethics and everything that you gotta follow. But at the same time, there’s a certain degree of self-preservation that goes into it where I have a certain amount of dignity and a right to exist. And I don’t need to be abused by someone. So, you know, yes, I can get out of a matter early now  if they initially get in and show that they’re whatever.

Correct. And that’s something that holds more true. today, probably than it did prior to this situation is that, I’ve taken over cases from attorneys before and I’ve had, for whatever reason, attorneys take over cases from me before. It’s something that happens in the legal field, but there’s also,  you know, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So, I mean, obviously if someone’s jumping around, there’s a reason why they’re jumping around. If there’s a reason why someone withdrew, there’s a reason why they withdrew. And that’s always got to be taken into your intake process is you’ve got to factor that in think I don’t know what kind of problems these people have had with their successor attorneys, but obviously there are because they all withdrew. you know, I mean, it is what it is. It’s an interesting situation to, I still kind of treat it, keep tabs on it every once in while to see what’s happening.

You know, it’s true. mean, like I said, we got our arrest worn out and a million dollar judgment in another case and some other stuff going on. So I guess it was then not me.

Yes. And totally, totally insane. Totally insane.

Yeah, no, it’s true.

Thank you, Morgan. I appreciate it. I’m glad I made it out in one piece, knock on wood.