Well the new client was a young lady, dressed like she was going out on the town, with her little dog named Sache as if she was Paris Hilton. Hair done up, lots of make up, t-shirt with some witty saying and bright pink shoes. She assured me she had lunch plans afterwards which is why she was so done up. No problem, I have met my share of interesting clients so maybe this would be no different. A Paris Hilton like youngster would be nothing compared to my "dancer" client who has some criminal prostitution actions against her, the twins from Arizona who could be professional "dancers" for all I know, my rapper client who I had to sign some documents at the county jail, and assorted others. What could this dog-toting woman possibly add that I haven't seen before....
"Lizzie" told me of her grandfather dying recently, with a house worth a couple million dollars, and her mom was the only heir but there was a deep dark family secret.... Since attorney fees in probate are based on the gross value of the estate a $2million plus estate would make for a nice pay day for some attorney. She asked for my assurance that everything she said was confidential and I assured her it was but of course if her story was good enough I knew I would have to change names and blog about it.... Well, she explained that her grandfather was really her dad and she had a paternity test to prove it. He apparently told her on his death bed of this deep dark secret and she had the paternity test done at that time. We discussed the fact that if Grampa C didn't have a will then she may be an heir to the estate just as her mom (aka: sister) is. At this point I am thinking she is half crazy but you never know so we kept talking....
I asked who had referred her to my office and she told me it was her grampa's friend Mr. Khan. Funny, because Mr. Khan is one of my most difficult clients I am currently working with but nice to know he thinks highly enough of me to give my name out. Note to self: thank Mr. Khan for referring his friend's granddaughter to me.
Lizzie explained that "Grampa C" lived at 1957 Rockwood Drive in SacTown which is one of the rare multi-million dollar properties in SacTown. Her zillow.com print out showed it to be $1.8mil. I, of course, looked it up on the title company website and saw that a "Clinton and Janelle Myers" owned the property. As I looked through the loans against it, in the public records, the number was over $3mil of debt which would presumptively mean the house was worth at least $3million. I asked if that was her grampa (dad) and she told me yes it was and that grandma Janelle had died before him a couple of years ago. I checked legacy.com and found it weird there was no obituary for either Janelle or her husband Clinton, a man with a multi-million dollar house. She assured me her mom was keeping everything quiet, yada, yada, yada....
As I looked further I explained that the house included, in the middle of the title chain, a time when "CC Myers" the large multi-multi-multi millionaire developer owned the property and had, just a couple years ago, taken out a $3mil loan against the property. Additionally, there was an additional loan of $65,000 in December of 2007 and Janelle's name was still on title which is odd since Lizzie had said she had died a couple years ago. Thinking this Lizzie was just some crazy person I did a Google search which confirmed that developer CC Myers had a wife named Janelle. Lizzie agreed her grandfather was not CC Myers the developer so this was seeming a bit odd.
As a tangential story let me tell you about when CC Myers spoke to a group I used to lunch with every week. CC Myers, for those that don't know, is apparently an extremely successful developer. He is the guy that rebuilt the Santa Monica Freeway (the "10") after the Northridge earthquake in '92 or so and later a portion of a freeway in Oakland. Each time he set up a payment plan that included some ludicrous amount, like one million per day, for each day he finished ahead of schedule. Well, that day he came to my lunch group I remember asking one of my friends "who is the beer bellied slob at the head table with mustard stains on his shirt?" Well, I guess that would be Mister Mustard Stain to you and me since he was the multi-millionaire CC Myers. He told us tales of taking the workers, down in LA, to strip clubs as small rewards when they were working fast. Thus, spending a few hundred bucks at the strip club led to him getting a million. Smart guy but maybe he should not have been bragging. He then went on to ask for our support in voting for a development he was working on at that time. I was a bit turned off and voted NO. Maybe next time he should have a PR person take the lunch club circuit!?
Anyway, Lizzie and I agreed this might not be her grandfather and possibly just a real coincidence in the names of Clinton and Janelle Myers. As I just had a probate case where that happened with an identical name (first, middle and last) I really didn't think much of it. She said that maybe her mom was mistaken about this being their Clinton Myers and I agreed. I explained that Myers was a common name. I looked through the real property records and found no other Clinton Myers, except CC's son, Junior, up in Natomas (I know where he lives as I know one of his neighbors) and it thus appeared that her Grampa C may not own real estate in Sacramento. Additionally, knowing CC Myers has a son I was starting to think this might not be adding up since she had told me her mom was Clinton's only child; well, at least it confirmed to me she was not the granddaughter of CC Myers.
I was trying to wrap the meeting up as it was clear this was a long shot for ever turning into a case my office would take. She might one day sue her mom (whose really her sister) but that would be for an estate litigation firm to handle. I suggested she do some research, talk to her sister, check the Court's website to see if mom initiates a probate, etc... and get back to me if she found any property that would be worth probating. She asked if the probate would per her deep dark family secret into the public like in the newspaper or something. I told her just in the probate Court and not in any newspaper. At this point I was thinking I would love to blog about this story though.... She asked if she should schedule a follow up meeting and I assured her that was only necessary if she found any assets. With that Lizzie and Sache took off.
As she was putting on her sunglasses I was wondering if Allen Funt would come out to tell me I was on Candid Camera. I was not smart enough to realize... that I had been set up by the practical joksters in my office. Lizzie was actually best friends with one of our associate attorneys, JR. It turns out that Lizzie's real name is Mari and she really should be an actress as she was really exceptional at fooling me... or I am easy to fool. The CC Myers thing was not planned so she did a pretty good job to get out of that little snafu. Apparently the pranksters picked a valuable house, one of the most valuable in SacTown (I heard it was recently on the market for $7mil) but failed to check that Clinton was actually CC. Nonetheless, Lizzie did an incredible job getting around that. The prank was followed by a surprise birthday lunch so thanks to everybody for that. It was a good one and they got me. Very funny! It may be years but I will get my revenge! Especially on JR but it would seem that AR was an active and willing participant too so she too might find a surprise at some point. Be especially watchful on April 1st! :)
peace out.
1 comment:
Whats Good Peoples? You have aged well, You know I'm in a time warp when I think of you all.
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