Chapter 6
570 Words
Chapter 6
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
Meecham and Seer Law offices
Denver, Colorado
“They’re offering to settle.”
“They can take their offer and shove it. I don’t owe them a thing and Lisa sure didn’t either; bunch of blood suckers...”
“Now just wait, hear me out.” Frazier Cross, the young lawyer who’d been dogging the case for the past couple of months, held up a hand to me. “This very well may not go our way. We may want to give serious consideration to a settlement offer.”
“You’ve heard something you’re not telling me, haven’t you?”
“No, no. Nothing like that.”
I caught the nervous shake of his hand as he pushed his glasses up a little on the bridge of his nose. “Why do I feel like I’m about to get royally screwed then?”
Cross cleared his throat but his voice still cracked a little when he spoke. “Ms. Wysocki, when Ms. Falk made out her last will and testament, it was just after the two of you married, correct?”
“Yes. We both did wills at the same time. You have to be careful when your marriage isn’t universally recognized...fat lot of good that it did us.” I couldn’t see where this was going but he was quick to fill me in.
“At the time, there was one bar owned in her name. It was not specifically named to you in her will. It simply refers to ‘business assets’; nothing more detailed.”
“That’s because we had no way of knowing at that time what business assets we would have control of at a given point in time, should either one of us pass on.”
He was quiet.
“Are you saying we should have named everything and updated our wills every time something changed? Because we didn’t, its coming back to bite me?”
“In an ideal world yes, you would have done as you suggested.”
“So what do you think the outcome will be if we don’t settle?”
“The court is likely to order the three bars held in Ms. Falk’s name to be sold, all attorney fees and court costs paid, her final expenses be paid and the remaining proceeds divided four ways.”
A horrible taste invaded my mouth. I shook with rage. Taking a few deep breaths first to try and calm down, I finally leveled him with my gaze. “Those people have been no part whatsoever of Lisa’s life for nearly twenty years. It’s my own fault, I know; had I not told them she passed, we wouldn’t even be here. I’ll be damned if I’m going to just hand them 3/4ths of her estate, her life’s work!”
“If we don’t settle, you won’t have a choice.”
“You’re certain?”
“As I can be. I told you once before, we’re not in the odds laying business but precedents have been established in the courts that point toward the sort of outcome I’ve given you.”
Sighing, I resigned myself to what appeared to be inevitable, “What sort of deal are you recommending we make?”
“Your home and the business in Steamboat are yours, free and clear under joint tenancy. We don’t even put those on the table. We stipulate that all of Ms. Falk’s personal assets – her car, her IRA – roll over to you.”
“Those vultures don’t want those things anyway. They’re in this for a big cash windfall. The money is in the businesses.”
“Right,” he nodded. “So, we propose that you keep one of the three bars and liquidate the other two. I would suggest selling the two you think would be the easiest to move in the current business climate. The resulting monies would be split between the three plaintiffs minus court costs and their attorney fees. They would agree to have no further claim on Ms. Falk’s estate.”
“What about Lisa’s bills and your fees?”
He leaned back and pursed his lips.
“So those are on me?”
- Writer
