The McTexLaw Email Alert for December 15, 2002
| New on The McTexLaw Business Owner’s Resource Center and the McTexLaw Commercial Real Estate Resource Center:
LAWYERS DO THE DARNDEST THINGS Raymond Phipps at one time owned the land in Illinois that once was Abraham Lincoln’s farmland. He was running into hard times, and so in order to make ends meet he decided to form a corporation, the “Abraham Lincoln Land and Cattle Co.”, and transfer this land to the corporation. He then had the corporation sell souvenir deeds to Lincoln’s farmland, by the square inch with none giving the right to possess any land. Nieman Marcus even included these deeds in its 1976 Christmas catalog. What a brainstorm, he thought. And so it came to pass that L. Stanton Dotson, an attorney in Central Illinois, bought one of those souvenir deeds for one square inch of land. Alas, in the mid 1980's the operation became insolvent anyway, and Phipps lost all but four acres of land. Somewhere along the line Lawyer Dotson apparently assumed the role of devious lawyer, the kind who gets lumps of coal this time of year, and he devised a dastardly plan. He revived the Abraham Lincoln Land and Cattle Co., and prepared a deed transferring his claimed interest in this land to his wife. He strung barb wire around a portion of “her” land, and posted “no trespassing” signs. He began receiving and paying the annual property tax bills. And for the completion of his coup de gras, when the time was right he filed a lawsuit claiming the land had been abandoned, and seeking a court order that it was his outright. Dotson vs. Former Shareholders of Abraham Lincoln Land and Cattle Co., Case No. 4-01-0989 (Aug. 1). All on the basis of that basically worthless souvenir deed he purchased so many years ago. The Illinois trial court even bought his convoluted legal theory. Phipps must have been astounded. But the Court of Appeals restored some sanity and reversed on all counts. Apparently, Lawyer Dotson omitted one important detail–the fractional interest he actually bought wasn’t an acre, as he now claimed, but one square inch. On top of that, the Illinois Court of Appeals basically said “you can’t use the laws we have to get from where you are to where you want to be.” In Texas, we’d just say “that dog don’t hunt.” This loss however, was only the beginning of Lawyer Dotson’s troubles. It seems Santa Claus decided lumps of coals weren’t enough for him, and tipped off the Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission (the state’s ethics board for lawyers), who filed a complaint against Lawyer Dotson and thereby put his license in play along with the souvenir deed. I suppose they saw this as a groundless lawsuit and an officer of the court being a little too creative with his lawyerly interpretation. Wisely, Lawyer Dotson has evidently seen the error of his ways, and is taking the ethics complaint very seriously, reportedly willing to compromise his lawsuit in order to protect his law license. Merry Christmas, Lawyer Dotson, from Nieman Marcus and every one of us in Texas. HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y’ALL It only took 10 days to go from the height of happiness, walking on the beach in the Bahamas, to the depths of discord as we picked out the family Christmas tree. It’s never easy. I want a perfectly formed tree that will hold about 1,000 lights and all our ornaments. It’s “Christmas Vacation” waiting to happen. My wife prefers an inexpensive “Charlie Brown” tree, while her son just wants the first one we see so he can get back home to his video game. And of course we wait until the trees are good and picked over before we even start looking. This holiday season threw us several curves. Thanksgiving was later than normal, and we left the day after Thanksgiving for a week in the Bahamas. Darn the luck, I know. But while there, we managed to go 4 days without turning on the TV or reading the newspaper. When I did catch up on the news, the first story was about an Al Quaeda bombing, and the second story was on the impending war with Iraq. The stock market was still going down, and an ice storm was headed for the Southeast which would eventually cause death and destruction across several states. When we are exposed to problems like these on a daily basis, we really do become conditioned to it. I was stunned at how different the news looked from Nassau as compared to Dallas. This is an uncertain world in which we live, now moreso than in recent history. Living with the complexity of the terrorist threat, and their ability to strike us on our soil, makes the old USA vs. USSR days look simple by comparison. Here we are in the midst of the holiday season, a season of “peace on earth”, and it’s anything but. The first line of a most appropriate Christmas song describes the whole scene so well: “Hurry, Scurry, Panic, Worry, Shout--‘Joy to the World.’” Just remember this. When your time on Earth is up and you’re looking back over your life, what is it you’re going to remember, other than your lawyer who designed and implemented a wonderful estate plan for you? All the fuss and uncertainty of this holiday season? I don’t think so. I know I won’t. I’ll remember the fun times I’ve had with friends and family, the experiences I’ve had that no child growing up on farmland in East Tennessee even knew existed. People make the difference. The great thing is, there’s no reason to wait. There’s no time like the present to look back over this year and remember all the great times you’ve had with family and friends, and be grateful that you had the opportunity to make such wonderful memories. Gratefulness helps begat peace. And so, as 2002 goes into the history books, here’s hoping you don’t forget the meaningful times of 2002, and to having even more wonderful memories in 2003. Happy New Year, y’all. REFERRAL NETWORKS Your new client referrals are a big part of our continued success, and the same is true about this newsletter. Please take a moment to think about friends and colleagues you know who might enjoy receiving our Email Alerts and forward this to them. Individual subscription information is below. ARCHIVES This Email Alert and all prior McTexLaw Email Alerts, are archived at www.mctexlaw.com/ for your convenience. Feel free to browse through any newsletters you may have missed. SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT
COMMENTS This is a "send only" communication. Please send any comments about this Email Alert to the author at mark@mctexlaw.com. Close
Window
|