The Mutual Broadcasting System presents the Mysterious Traveler, written, produced and directed by Robert A. Arthur and David Cogan, and starring tonight, two stars of stage and radio, Wendell Holmes and Roger DeCoven, in an original radio drama titled, The Man Who Vanished. This is the Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of strange and the terrifying.  As you hear the story I call, The Man Who Vanished. Story begins in a small white-walled hospital room. Charles Ordway, a man of 45, is just awakened. He looks about him in puzzlement, then memory returns to him and he begins to call frantically. Doctor! Doctor Ness! Where are you? I must speak to the doctor! Yes, Mr. Ordway, what is it? Are you the doctor? No, I'm only the attendant. Do you want to speak to Dr. Harvey? Yes, yes, I must. It's a matter of life and death. Okay, Mr. Ordway, okay. Dr. Harvey, 402, please. He's coming now. Thank you. Tell me what day it is. It's Friday, isn't it? It must be Friday. Sure, sure, it's Friday, Mr. Ordway, but here's Dr. Harvey now. Good morning, Mr. Ordway. You want to speak to me? Yes, doctor, but tell me quickly what time is it? It's just 10 minutes past 10, Mr. Ordway. Oh, sir, my brother John isn't dead. There's still time to save him. Your brother? Yes, doctor. When I woke up, I didn't know how long it was since I was brought here to the hospital and drugged in the silence, but I don't suppose they told you about John. I'm afraid they didn't. Well, then I'll tell you. I'll make you believe me. John's safe for several hours yet, so I can tell you the whole story. The story, they wouldn't give me a chance to tell. Yes, go right ahead, Mr. Ordway. I'll just sit here and make myself comfortable. Well, I'll try to tell it calmly, doctor. I don't want you to think I'm hysterical. First of all, you have to understand that my brother John is a freak of nature. A freak? Yes. He's perfectly healthy and highly intelligent, but he was born without any natural coloring at all. His eyes are pink. His skin is chalk white. His hair is like bleached flax. His eyebrows and lashes are practically invisible. Yes, the most unusual condition, but it happens once in a while. It's called albinism. Well, it's a hideous condition for an intelligent, sensitive man. John's boyhood was a torture for him until our father took us both out of school and had us tutored to spare John the misery of being considered a freak of nature by the other children. Yes, I understand, Mr. Ordway. Please go on. Well, as we grew up, John's chief interest was science, so I studied it too. Our father had a complete laboratory built in our home. After his death, we continued to live there together, working on experimental research. Along what lines, Mr. Ordway? Well, our efforts were centered on discovering a cure for John's condition. To achieve that, we worked hopefully for years, but we always failed. My brother remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he began to brood. Then, one evening, he came into my room. Ah, Charles. Well, yes, John. Finished in the lab? In a way, Charles. I have something to show you. Show me? You mean you found a cure? Not exactly. Look at this wire cage. Examine the white rat I have in it. White rat? This morning, that was an ordinary white rat. But now, look at it. It's like a rat made out of glass. It's almost transparent. It is transparent. You can see completely through it. But, John, this is amazing. This is what I've been working on these last months, Charles. I've been developing a serum that would alter living tissues to make them transparent. I wouldn't have believed it possible. I don't see why not. Nature does it all the time. She makes jellyfish that are quite transparent. Oh, yes, of course. I didn't think. But this is only the first step. My next step is to develop the serum further to make living tissues invisible. Invisible? You look skeptical, my dear Charles. But look at this rat. He's half invisible already. In a dim light, he'd vanish. Yes, that's true, but the basic principle is perfectly natural, Charles. It's only a matter of refining it. And then, Charles, well, take a freak like myself. So colorless, he's already well-started toward invisibility. I'll find out what it's like to be completely unseen. Some day soon, Charles, I'm going to have a real surprise for you. That was my first introduction to John's experiments. After that, for many weeks, he worked in secret. Then, one morning, he called me into the laboratory and showed me a cage that seemed to be empty, but there was something scurrying about it. A rat. An invisible rat. To the touch, it was warm and furry, filled with life. But to the eye, if the light was not too bright, it was nothing. Well, Charles, you convinced now? Yes, yes, I'm convinced. You've succeeded, John. Not quite. I haven't made myself invisible yet. Well, you're not going to try your serum on yourself. Of course I am. Listen, Charles, always I've been considered a freak. Now I'm going to turn the tables. I'll mingle with people and I'll laugh at them. I'll be their superior, able to come and go without their knowledge. Able to control their very destinies, if I wish. John, that's madness. On the contrary, it's scientific fact. You'll see, because you're going to help me. No, I refuse. Surely you're not going to let me down, your own brother. Of course, John. I knew I could get your help.  All I want you to do is to inject it into my arm and watch the result. I tried to refuse, but John wouldn't let me. At last I gave in. I injected the colorless serum into his veins. At first, nothing happened. As we waited, he removed his garments, for of course the serum could only affect his living tissues. Finally, the change came. His skin became paler and paler until suddenly I realized I was looking not at it, but through it. After that, the change was rapid. His body seemed to fade away before my eyes into nothingness. Well, Charles, what do you say now? Well, John, this frightens me. Why should it? I feel fine. In fact, I feel so good I'm going to take a little jump downtown to see how the world looks to a man who's invisible. Oh, no, you mustn't. And why not, Charles? Well, you aren't ready for it yet. There may be aftereffects, reactions you aren't prepared for. Ah, nonsense. There's only one thing to be careful of. The tissues must return to normal within 24 hours. If the neutralizing serum isn't injected before then, death occurs. Otherwise, it's perfectly safe. So I insist, Charles, that I'm going on a little invisible sightseeing tour tonight, and you're going to conduct me. Again, I tried to say no, but John was insistent. At last I gave in. His was always the stronger will. We took the car and I drove downtown. He sat beside me, unseen as the very air, laughing to himself. John! John, let's turn back now. You turn back, I should say not. Drive to Main Street and park around the corner from the Watson Jewelry Store. The one where our old schoolboy companion Harry Watson works for his father. Well, why, John? Because I'm going to try an interesting little experiment. That's why. John was in a strange mood, and I obeyed his orders with misgivings. I parked the car as he directed, and we got out. And stood on the sidewalk. With evening crowds drifting past us, completely unaware of John at my side. Suddenly John spoke. Now's the time, Charles. There's nobody in the store but Harry Watson himself. Come on, we're going in. Ask Harry to show you some stopwatches. Keep him occupied, and don't worry about me. But what are you going to do? Never mind. Just do as I say. Whatever happens, pretend not to notice. Come on, open the door. All right, John. Now up here. Well, I'd like to look at a stopwatch, Harry. Stopwatch? Of course. Over here. Here's a beauty, Charles. This Swiss chronograph is timed to one-one-hundredth of a second. Oh, I'm afraid it'd be too expensive. Oh, well, perhaps you'd like this one. It's American made, and it... What was that? What was what? Herd noise in the back of the store. I didn't hear anything. There it is again. There's someone back there. But there can't be. There's nothing in sight. Oh, just the same, I think. There's someone back there. Excuse me. I was putting away some valuable diamonds when you come in, and I've got to see about them. He hurried back into the shadowy rear of the store. I held my breath. If he should bump into John, then I heard Watson cry out. I've got you, you thief! Now, you're not going to get away. What are you doing? Hey, Charles! Help me! John! John, what's happened? Come on quickly. We have to get out of here. What happened? The fool bumped into me in the shadows. He was so excited he didn't even realize he couldn't see me. I used a paper knife I picked up and taught him a little lesson. He's not dead. Come on, we've got to get out of here. Someone may have hurt him. We got out of the store and to the car. But as I drove home, John refused to answer any of my frantic questions. When we reached the house, he hurried me into the laboratory. You've got to give me the neutralizer or make me visible again, Charles. John! No questions. Here we are. Here's the hypodermic. You've got to inject it. Here, here's the mark from the previous injection. Now go ahead. I press the plunger and the drug flowed into his blood. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, like a man materializing out of nothingness, he grew visible. A misty figure that took on solidity until it was a man. John gave a little gasp of weariness and pushed me out of the room. Now go on, Charles. You get to bed. I need some sleep. This stuff seems to drain away my energy. We'll talk in the morning. Pleasant dreams. The next morning, I was having breakfast when John finally appeared. Good morning, Charles. Sleep well? John, look at this news paper. Anything in it? Yes, there's something in it. Look at these headlines. I see. Local juror kills, store up $50,000 worth of diamonds missing.  Yeah, so it seems. Now pour me some coffee, will you? John, I don't understand you. You've killed a man and you act as if it amounted no more than swanning a fly. Where does it? Of course it does. I can't feel that way about it. When we were small boys, you remember that Harry Watson was one of my chief tormentors. Yes, but... I've always planned to pay him back. Last night, I decided to play a little joke on him. Murder is hardly a joke.  I just meant to make a way with one or two of his father's diamonds. After Harry had had a chance to explain their disappearance, I was going to mail them back. Yes, diamonds. The paper says $50,000 worth of missing. Oh, probably an exaggeration. However, put your hand into your left coat pocket, Charles. What pocket? What? Dozen loose diamonds here. Yes, I put them there last night. I couldn't very well carry them myself. We must send them back at once. I'm afraid that might involve us somehow. No, we'll have to keep them. John, what's happened to you?  Please understand this, Charles. For years, I was an object of curiosity. I even had offers to appear in side shows. Now the tables are turned. I can walk among men unseen, invisible. That gives me a power that is very sweet to me. I haven't decided yet how I should use it. But in any case, I won't have you interfering. Is that clear, Charles? With that, John retired to his laboratory and remained there alone the rest of the day. It wasn't until after dark that he emerged to find me staring with horror at the evening paper. Charles, what does the paper say? It made you look so pale. The police found your fingerprints on the knife that killed Harry Watson. What? Let me see. Here. The police, investigating the murder last night of Harry Watson, local juror's son, state they are trying to trace down fingerprints found on the paper knife used as the death weapon. They also admit they have been discovered further evidence, which they hope may bring about an early arrest. Maybe here any minute. Ah, nonsense. Even if I did leave a print, how can they trace it to me? The talk of an early arrest is just bluff. And besides, it may be the police now. It is what we do. Oh, it can be. Whatever it is, let them in. Let me do the talking. All right. Yes, what is it? Mr. Charles Ordway. Yes, I am. Mr. Charles Ordway. Yes, I'm Charles Ordway. I'm a specter long of the homicide squad. I'd like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind. Well, no, no, no, no. Come in. We can talk in the living room. What is it, Charles? Well, John, this is Inspector Long. He says he wants to ask me some questions. Really? What in the world about? I don't know. I confess, Inspector, I can't imagine what. I want to ask you what you can tell me about the death of Harry Watson. Watson, the juror? The one we were reading about in the paper? That's the one. Your brother was seen leaving the jewellery store a few minutes before Watson's body was found. Someone recognized it. Why, yes, that's true, Inspector. Charles dropped in last night to buy a watch for me. But he didn't find quite what I wanted. I'd rather hear him tell it. Well, that's all there is to it. I looked at the watches and then left. Watson was all right when I left. I see. There's no one else in the store? No one I could see. Well, I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I'm sorry, too. Well, just for the sake of helping us, would you be willing to let me take your fingerprints? Well, of course you don't mind, Charles. You're thinking of the prints the paper says were found on the death weapon, aren't you, Inspector? Frankly, yes. Well, they aren't, Charles. I can assure you it's just a check. Hey, Mr. Ordway, if you'll just press your fingerprints against this gelatin plate I have in this envelope. Make peace. That's right. Thank you. You wouldn't want mine, too, I suppose. Well, if you'd like to add your fingerprints, well, if you'd like to add yours to your brother's... I was just joking. By the way, Inspector, how do you go about tracing down unknown fingerprints such as those of this killer? Well, this is one way and... Oh, excuse me, a cigarette? Oh, thank you. Are you asking how we check fingerprints? Well, we have several methods. The FBI records, the Army and Navy records, and the one source few people know about. And what's that? Hospital birth records. For a number of years now, they've recorded the footprints and fingerprints of every baby born in this city. In the morning, we'll start checking these records as far back as they go. Well, that's very interesting. Well, sorry, Inspector, we couldn't be more helpful. It's all in the game. Good night, gentlemen. Good night, Inspector. Now, I'm about to show me a... Did you hear that? They're going to start checking fingerprints on hospital birth records. And our prints were among the first ever to be recorded in this town. Father insisted on it. Perhaps they'll overlook you, was... I can't risk it. But I'll stop them. I'll stop them somehow. Without explaining, he hurried into the laboratory. Ten minutes later, he emerged, dressed to go out. His hat pulled well down over his face. And his face... What is it? Why are you gobbling at me? Your face? I can't see it, or your hands, either. Of course not. I took an injection of transparency serum. Now, I'm going to drive downtown, Charles. With this coat and hat on, I'll look like an ordinary driver to anyone who sees the car. When I get where I'm going, I'll take off these garments and leave them in the car. Then no one on earth will be able to see me. But where are you going? To police headquarters. With that, John left.  Then I could do nothing but wait. The hours crawled slowly past, and I grew more and more nervous. The clock was striking eleven when I heard John's key in the door at last. John, is that you? Yes, Charles. Come here. I need you. What is it? What's happened? It's my ankle. I think it's broken. Here. Lean on me. I'll help you out of the living room. Careful. John, your coat's all black. Yes, they shot at me. Nick, my side. It's not serious, Charles. Here. Let me sit down.  No, no. We'll tend to the bullet scratch and the ankle ourselves. It's a reasonable price to pay, considering that inspector long is dead. Dead? Yes, he fell from the window of his office on the sixth floor of police headquarters, while apparently quite alone in the room.  Of course I did. I had to. Luckily, he had the paper knife there in his office. I was able to wipe all my prints off it. I found the photographs of the prints in his desk, too. I tore those up and I burned them. How'd you get hurt? I tried to slip out of the building again during the confusion of followed inspector long's accident. I'd reached the first floor when a clumsy cop bumped into me in a dark hall. He yelled and grabbed at me. I had to duck through a door and lock it. I got the window up and was just climbing out when he fired to the door. The bullet nicked me and I lost my balance. When I picked myself up off the ground, my ankle was broken. But I hobbled to the car somehow and, well, here I am. John, what are we going to do? Just sit tight, that's all. The evidence is destroyed. Inspector long is gone. We're perfectly safe. But suppose they have some other clue? Nonsense. I've taken care of everything, you hear? John. What is it, Charles? John, just stop in front of the house. John, see who it is. Yes. Please, John. Oh, we've got to act fast. They mustn't find me like this. What did you do? First, I've got to get these clothes off. I haven't time to take my neutralizing serum. Now, I just have to hide. They'll not find me if they can't see. John, you're ill. I feel weak. It's a loss of blood. It's nothing serious, Charles. But I may faint. If I do... Yes, John? I might close in the kitchen hamper. Then carry me down to the cellar. Put me in the empty storage room. Lay me on the Excelsior there. Now, if they look in, they'll see it's empty. They won't go stumbling around. Do you hear me? Yes, yes, I hear. But, John, I... He fainted in my arms. I had no time to think. Swiftly, I did as he instructed. I carried him down to the small storage room in the cellar, placed him on some Excelsior in a corner, and hurried back upstairs. Already, the police were pounding on the door.  Then I hurried the door. Yes, what is it? A police, Mr. Hardway. We're coming in. Bill, Joe, come on. Yes, Captain. The rest of you watch the house and see that no one leaves. What is the meaning of this? I demand an explanation. And you'll get it. Now, where can we talk in here? Good. All right, please sit down, Mr. Hardway. I'm Detective Captain Belden. My Chief Inspector Long was here earlier. Yes, I know, and I answered all his questions then. Well, now I'm asking more questions. Long's dead. Inspector Long dead? But even so, why? Listen, Hardway. Long smelled a rat in this setup someplace. And earlier tonight, when he got your fingerprints, he also got your brothers. But he didn't. He got them on a cigarette case when your brother took a cigarette. No trick. After he died tonight, we found the case in his pocket. Carefully wrapped. Well, what of it? In some mysterious way, all the pictures of the murder prints we took off the paper knife that killed Watson had vanished. But we had the negatives. We made new prints and discovered they checked with your brother's prints on Long's cigarette case.  Well, that's completely ridiculous. Is it? OK, we'll see. Where's your brother now? He's not here. He went away on a trip. Hiding, huh? Bill, Joe? Yes, Captain? Search the house from Salad Attic. And don't miss a thing. Right here, Captain. Come on through. Half an hour later, I knew that further concealment was impossible. The police had not found John, but they had found the bloodstained clothes he had discarded. And in my desk, they had found the diamonds which John had stolen. I knew then I must tell the truth. Well, Hardway, ready to talk yet? Yes, I'm ready to talk, Captain. My brother did kill Watson. OK. Where is he now? He's hiding down in the cellar. Captain, that's the monarchy. We looked in the cellar and he ain't there. Of course, you didn't see him. He's invisible. He's... He's what? He's invisible, I said. You say your brother is invisible? Yes! That's why they couldn't see him. Hardway, you know what I think? I think you killed your brother in a quarrel over these diamonds and buried his body in the yard someplace. That's how he's closer, he's got bloody. Isn't it? Come on, admit it. No, my brother was wounded by a bullet after he killed Inspector Long. That's how his clothes got bloody. Yeah, I suppose he was invisible when he killed Long, too. That's why nobody saw him, huh? Yes!  He's discovered how to render his body tissues transparent. He's hiding down in the cellar now, invisible. He's none of you as a fruitcake.  Hardway, your brother is down in the cellar now. Yes, he is. He's fainted and I carried him down there. And just which room is he in? The little storage room at the foot of the stairs, the one at the metal door. How about it, boys? Did you look there? Sure we did, Captain. We looked in there twice. There ain't a thing in that room, but a little excessive. Frank, we both looked. That room is as empty as a busted piggy bank. You see, Mr. Hardway, if he'd been there, my men would have found him. But he's there. They didn't see him because he took the serum. He made himself invisible. All right, all right, Mr. Hardway. Just calm yourself. Now listen, my men say the room is empty. Yeah, except maybe for rats. We heard a couple stirring in the excelsis, so we bolted the door after we looked in. Figured we might as well keep the rats inside. You bolted the door? No, you mustn't. Captain, we've got to let John out. If he's not let out, he'll die. I've met plenty of whacks, but this is a new one. Yep, he's got a bird. Hardway, I'm afraid you don't have to come with us. Now will you come quietly while I have to put the handcuffs on? No, you can't take me away. I have to let John out of that room if he doesn't get an injection of the neutralizing serum inside 24 hours. He'll die. All right, Mr. Hardway, but come on, boys. Give me a hand. Got to get into the psychopathic warfare. No, you've got to believe me. You've got to let go of me. No, no! And that's the whole story, Doctor. They wouldn't believe us. They brought me here to the hospital charged with John's murder. And when I kept trying to tell them he was alive, they gave me a narcotic. But he is alive. He's locked in that room in the cellar. And if he isn't let out soon, he'll die. 24 hours is the limit, but there's still time to get to him. Yes, I understand, Mr. Hardway. I'll see to it that he's released at once. You mean to talk to you believe me? Yes, of course. Oh, attendant. Call me, Doctor. Yes, go get my car ready, will you? We're going to Mr. Hardway's home at once to release his brother. Yes, sir. Right away, Doctor. Oh, thank heaven you believe me, Doctor. You'll be in time to save John. You'll find the serum. He'll need to bring it back to normal in a green bottle in the laboratory. I'll take care of him. Now you go back to sleep now, Mr. Hardway. Yes, I will. I can't sleep now. I can sleep. How's he now, Doctor? He's quiet now. He'll be all right. You know, Doctor, sometimes I can't help thinking. Yes, Jensen? You know, he's locked up here at State Hospital for bumping off his brother. Eventually they found his brother's dead body locked in a little room in the cellar. But I can't help wondering what the cops would have found if anybody had taken Mr. Hardway serious. That night he was brought here 10 years ago. This is the mysterious traveler. So John could make himself invisible, could he? Well, unfortunately, he did too good a job of it. For he hasn't been seen around for a long, long time. That's the trouble with having unusual powers. Sometimes they get you into unusual difficulties. And speaking of difficulties... Oh, you have to get off here. I'm sorry. But I'm sure we'll meet again. I take this same train every week at this same time. You have just heard the mysterious traveler, a series of dramas of the strange and terrifying. All characters in tonight's story were fictitious, and any resemblance to the names of actual persons was purely coincidental. In tonight's cast were Maurice Tarplin, Wendell Holmes, Roger DeCoven, Art Carney, and Richard Cougan. Original music was played by Paul Taubman. Broadcast engineer was Al King. Sound was by Hal Reed. The mysterious traveler is written, produced and directed by Robert A. Arthur and David Cougan. Listen next week to a tale titled... Very deep. Another strange and suspenseful tale of the mysterious traveler. This program has come to you from our New York studios. Another program of tense and dramatic action will follow in just a minute. Stay tuned to the station for official detective. Carl Crusoe speaking. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.


And we're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa time for us to go through the papers this morning We'll call it off the press Chris Cain in one do joins the conversation This morning by zoom Chris is good to have you join us. Good morning Thank you for having me. Good morning. All right, then let's take a look at the punch We set up for the punch new narrow notes or new narrow governors parties begin legal battle over CBN debt line Erufi Mata Wale Yahya Lo Sioux federal government demand extension court backs parties stop CBN Buhari from shifting date line EFCC Knaps a Booja Bank manager hoarding 29 million our new notes. These are the riders you find this morning court stops Lagos International Airport concession or Tom Sean's article campaign are you Slams governor or government Will hunt down 16 Nigerian killers in Burkina Faso. Well, how is good that to say I mean really when people begin to ask How about those who have killed Nigerians in Nigeria? We thought charity begins at home. There's also a picture The spin captured of what's going on partially of what's going on in Turkey following the Edquick you have underneath that picture. Well months as Edquick kills over 2700 in Syria and Turkey Talks disrupt rivers APC rally and destroys Vico 613 billion Sukho born or banned Spends on roads and bridges. That's what the federal government is quoted to say and Lowans Supreme Court's victory daylight robbery That's the what the camp of Bashir is quoted to say. That's the much we can take this morning Let's quickly go over to the nation now have some interesting headlines at the front page of the nation CBN The CBN snare swap issue takes out of the lead story in the Gwila space On that front page. Governors ask Supreme Court to halt CBN's Naira swap deadline Governor's ask Supreme Court to halt CBN's Naira swap deadline Kaduna Kogi Zamfara states see you Federal government for political parties get high court injunction to block extension EFCC arrest Bank officials official with 29 million era and units are some of the kickers or the riders rather to that story 3500 killed in Syria. Turkey earthquakes Buhari world leaders mourn. I think this takes it to the last I checked for two hours ago It was 4,300 really sad trial of a queer man who wife a child doctor begins while NLC or why NLC opted for consensus to pick leader and We have the Mirfield is Naira redesign dance and the general election is an opinion piece Nali analysis by law all or gay not born is managing the editor for the nation new super Katzina who hurry six two million votes for tenable that terrorists will be defeated says a PC candidate and Final two stories machine. I loses. You'll be a PC senatorial ticket to law one and 391,145 PVC is uncollected in Osho Warring statistic there if you ask me some headlights on the front page of the nation Well, we take our attention to the Guardian court restraints Buhari CBN on February 10 deadline three APC governor's you federal government of a naira scarcity or basaki backs cashless policy protesters accused banks of hoarding and selling naira notes to politicians for vote buying 14 political parties threatened to boycott elections if Naira redesign cash withdrawal policies are canceled Naseema CBN should have introduced 5000 notes not redesign. Wow. I mean, we could just hear a lot of things going on back a Spitfire over canoe now redesign and feels scarcity and just before move away You have a Katzina attack debt toll may exceed 100 as government urges resident to comfort to confront terrorists NIPC moves to improve FDI's reduce Niger's Apatite for loans That's not going to happen. That's so much we can take on the Guardian and a very final one as daily trust with these headlines Naira fuel crisis could hamper Niger elections World Bank I think this dovetails into some calls for election to be extended and then some people pointing at what the The head of INEC is saying had said last week with a logistic challenges that may be faced by the The electoral umpire. Well, the riders to that Kaduna, Zamfara, Kogi, Sioux federal government CBN as court stops extension 14 political parties threatened to boycott poll and Buhari must act to douse tension That's all the headlines there pictures of the unfortunate earthquake And the crisis going on in Turkey and Syria thousands of lives lost and caption under that death toll in Turkey Syria earthquake hits 3000 like I said and last I saw about two hours ago was that it come to about 4,000 plus NAF aircraft loses time makes emergency landing in Lagos AFC CRS a budget bank manager for hoarding 29 million Naira new notes and Buhari once killers of 16 Nigerians in Bokina Faso Purnish Purnish You may know of Supreme Court of Firm's law on his APC candidate IDP stranded as fire raises 200 houses in Borno Camp three soldiers wounded six villagers killed in Benu attack A Chris anyone is I guess is a the executive director African Governors and leadership initiates a rejoin says va zoom from Lagos or in Lagos Chris. Good morning to you Let's start off with them the you've been off Sectorial seat. I think the daily trust of a caption or captured that on his front page. What are your thoughts on the Supreme Court ruling? Yes, exactly Litigations in Nigeria, so as to say once And use a joint name Is to appeal to God And this instance the Supreme Court has put in that is what it is they have their reasons for Give me so you go join things and a lot of discussion on some in the what the Electoral Arts Stated and what the Supreme Court say there for me personally, I just Which some of the children come down from the Supreme Court now. I'm just looking at the Supreme Court as the weakest the weakest link and now at the workplace. I'm not saying to share it now Because there are some of the judgment that it has handed out to present that lots of men possibilities because if By the provision of the Electoral Arts instance, it's best it that I think a candidate cannot be called to different forms at the same time You cannot be contested by the president president and she want to also be contest for the machine and this is what has happened and It has not discovered precedent in the law once a judgment at the give it Then what the doubt suits that follows along that line to throw that line So and that is what's up on the start of a thing was umahi I don't mind he or I can't remember which one that came from Any of us also points Case that is so little related to such people the same way and that is what has happened back up my Appabio and now The president of the of the Senate I'm a lower and then that's what it is. There's not anybody can Think ask how they go out there with their hoops by President It's not in the joy of sports. Well, you know, I remember really vividly after the judgment of the court of appeal which was in February of his opponent. He came us saying that He's no longer moving for them for that or it's not going to challenge that judgment of Supreme Court And I handed over everything to Well, it's probably when he showed me. I don't know probably when it's all enjoyed meant if above my and Not about that. He said that them. I have some chances and that is what to do. That is what it is What about the fact that this this has been I mean you talk about Supreme Court and then the details of a, you know Lowance emergency. We've also talked about What's his name again? David Umahi and all these are candidates. I think an adabio to that list and all these candidates that Purchased presidential forms from their parties and Contested the party primaries and then popped up in senatorial elections in their states But quickly a follow-up before we move away from this headline The the Supreme Court was clear that there was or there were technicalities on which grounds they ruled in favor of Law and the Senate president and it says that them the the the appellate courts the lower courts Were wrong to have given their own decisions You know in favor of machina even though there was a split Judgment between the five member panel at the Supreme Court less by it by below the normal justice Centers in Wainey, but what the majority decision held is that them? Machina or to have Commenced his suit by a writ of summons going by the allegations of fraud against APC in transmitting law and slim to INIC that he didn't start his suit by a writ of summons And that's a technicality So can we give it to the Supreme Court that okay? They have gotten the decision right because of this technicality which is law I cannot in law you don't just jump in judgments You must read the whole judgment by lawyer to get the decision So I cannot just take a paragraph from what you've read and I now start Alluding some kind of Sensions to what the judgment that is not what we are taught in law So until I read the whole judgment the cause as it were then I can take a Conversation and make statements on that as I've said earlier It is the decision of the Supreme Court and as far as the issues consigned Supercut is a best cut in Nigeria and was it a technical decision on that matter? That is where it ends whether I can start it from the High Court Out of appeal the judgment of the Supreme Court is the Supreme so And the ground norm is the Constitution as we say So if it's based on the technicalities then the lawyers of the office of a mentor All right best Yeah, so as I said the judgment is what it is and they will have to just All right, let's take a look at the punch news before this morning the new narrow and The saga Scarcity of the new narrow Governors and parties have actually started legal battle over the CBN deadline and what are your thoughts especially when you have Three APC governors so the federal government and you know the ruling party is the APC and Also, I like you to comment on the fact that for team political parties I mean they have intentions of boycotting the elections If there's any possibility of cancellation or extending the period of for the Naira exchange As I've always said the new narrow policy is a very good policy initiated by the central bank of media And that is where the problem is is the implementation that is causing because even the CBR the CBR has That is a women power Effectively implement policies that it takes is In the best interest of the economy and the experience that is so CBN is within its mandate to put it in the implementation of these policies is what is giving so much of them and And Let's go. I'm sure you must have seen a video making the rounds social media just the last night And yes, they have this one of some bank officials jumping the fence just for them to escape from the crowd I was a that video is all over social media. I can go and check it out They were using I saw ladies even in skates blinding ladder of high walls Just to jump over the fence of their office from the back to escape. That is the level at which Continue and my problem is not the return Retrieving of any word. I've known it. I've not depositioned his own Well, it's on his own The problem is that I still have the new The problem is Central back not making enough new narrow not available for ninjas to process from what we had The certain back is retrieving about two trillion narrow from economy old loads. And we are hearing that they've not printed more than five five hundred billion New current new currents and that in itself is putting so much pressure in what of the five hundred Billion allegedly printed by them. How many are the bank is where you see the ackee-panky? On the court businesses being done by the pants since that is where Just yesterday a bank manager operational manager was arrested by a FCC for holding 29 million nine and new cash You know nothing in the in the bank with some weeks. We saw what's happening, you know, or your state We saw what's also happening some part of it. We also As soon as that is where the banks himself are sabotaging the effort of central bank. So with this new With this with this restraining order from the High Court in Appuja yesterday, that's That decision on It was them for political parties I think about both parties that went to court and They got the restraining order. So it's not just an iniquity factors about open Also about 50 political parties have come together to say that if the central bank extends the The deadline of February 3rd and they were caught in elections. So now in the serious Problem, I think that is something that central bank can can solve that. I personally personally asked me Message Kofi, I will say that we should not extend that let us retrieve Let us stop the issuance of this order and maybe this one that we make the past to release the money and make central bank Also print more they come up with a policy in such that individual can pick up five hundred thousand and then for Private account or individual account and five million are how come now they came up to say that if I just talk at the point Of them from issuing at new narrow nodes across Canada Then the now last week they come up with a policy of 20 million now that can show that shows the The summer thoughts in terms of policies knowing that this is that our banks doesn't seem to get it right And I've said it together God in a monthly site to become a politician and other than a banker. That was the day he lost it But as a stance today except as any order order from any court in the land We probably might come from the same sort of appeal then this string order by the court have to stand up means that by the 10th of February 12 midnight, then the issuance would be a thing of the past So, right? Yeah, let's see if I mean Looking at that scenario now, so we're going to have I Mean the CB and I've also said that it will be okay to Take this old note and get to the bank to deposit this money But what now happens because I think that the current society that we have is a combination of the new Note and the old note. So what happens if the old note? There's no longer a legal tender and then we don't have enough of the new note. We're not even Cash policy ready because you go to some of this business places They don't have the pure s and even when you want to carry out transfers on your phone you could take you forever because of you know Connectivity issues and that could probably be from the bank. So where exactly are we headed with all of this confusion? Let us not get it. Mr. You said that at expiration the expiration of your language you take your Ordinary That is wrong. That's what they did. That is not the diet. It was a drop on who would take down money to the central Not in the commercial that is the dieting of the Pressure in statement issued and I don't think that's been anything to the contract Now the we are running into serious If by the end of the week and just cannot access their money then that's good to be serious issues Central bank is not pushing that Problem we've already seen people stripping themselves in the banks you've seen the women these men stripping They have said you have seen the shoveling and in part it has gotten to a point where In Nigeria and died in the bank where I was trying to make transition or trying to Cure for money and the rest of them. That would be more chaos and if this is not living but hopefully the fact that we're having serious Petroleum issues Scassity this may not go all into what we're not able to have they'll be protested in some states like they do Your state and rest of them. I hope this will not spread by next and that in itself is going to bring to question and may affect the The 2023 election as it were as I said earlier on this is a policy We're taught that that's badly minted and that is what is happening and don't forget just as of this morning The transport workers already threatening that they're going to enjoy their services to I know I think he's banking on using about 100,000 vehicles for the election now that we are you as you said, we are they going to get it They're going to be designated police stations. We are these vehicles are pretty People cannot travel now because it won't you don't have the Naira to you don't even have the money to be I wanted to pick up money from the QS and yes As you get to give me 10,000 so it doesn't happen that can only give me 5,000 I say how much is it said see it was going to charge me 700 now for 500 that is over 10% On that amount and I can tell you go for a It is much much easier for you to get the dollars to buy the last night That is the point which we have now you even in there We're having we're having the parallel market and official market now for Naira Because what you ask nice? How much are you buying? How much are you buying? So that means that become disparate it just like what had to be dollars and foreign For a currency and this is not good enough. It's not it's done. So the presence of should give me seven days I don't know how did seven days go to laughs. I'm sure it has just a few hours a few days to go And they come out of court as a the worst angle We are coming back if now that judiciary is being called into this I know what suppose when the judge judiciary comes into issues like it We're going to we're going to sit on the very very long team I hope this will be resolved or not before the desperation of things So that might be ask are able to assess this one as it will All right, Chris. Let's look at the the next story of interest This was still I'll still go back to the daily trust and This is about the field crisis last night I asked a set of people on another program if If they would want to see it to be okay with the idea of extending the elections And every single person by maybe one or two said never hey So the wall bank has put its its mouth in this debate saying that the elections could be hampered by the Naira and fuel crisis and This is a wall bank. We're talking about here What are your thoughts on this? Well, it's obvious with that said the wall bank tell us what it is I am very sad that it's going to have a serious impact But I would like it or not what that is able to solve it between now and Which is more of a presidential and senatorial Addition or not, but there's going to be it's going to impact on this and Seriously, don't What I'm going to do where we're going to see of it is they're going to be more like put us apart You may you see that a lot of people might not be able to turn up the coach Because they are Distantive with the system and because they are going to feel bad. Why should they go? You know the mentality of our brain and you watch that In this kind of situation, so why would I go and waste my time and go and start QE when I don't even have My very good or generator when I don't have When I cannot feed because it's getting to that point Nigerians are finding it very very difficult to be messy mention of something about For the past 48 hours, I'm trying to make some From my account I cannot I find it difficult. I cannot do that when you get to the portal you enter the Is not even opening a Particular is not even opening. So what does that mean? That means I have to go back to the bank physically to go and And who blames you because the system the way it was programmed and the sturdiness of Yes, of where the cbn. They have not given the banks enough to expand their technology If initially they were they were servicing less than 10 people using that technology online There with the new cbn policy of it That means they had the most I've added about 90 more people to that and that in this Self is going to strain The network They have enough bandwidth to be able to handle that they have enough back ends Inhouse to be able to handle that expansion of such technology because it's not something that it's done within two days Or one week they must invest more in bringing on more pastaking and that is what is happening So you are talking of a cashless society Which you are not even expanding the necessary infrastructure to be able to capture that that is what the Nigerians are Nigerians are And you even talk to me of The average woman that sell lacquer on the road you want to sell like value more you want to sell the vegetable Is going to you go to the market now you want buy vegetable third woman Give me a country to transfer who will go to the most of them. I couldn't read it Not ready to so there is a total law in the economy and that is where we're saying so The one back report. It is just uh, it's just an addition to what we're doing And If this issue is not resolved within the next election is barely about Today's seventh is we have a barely about 18 days to the general election and we are still global This is the first time we are facing this kind of value the first 2015 election was because of the security possible spoon that of 2090 was consumed by one day because of logistics Pets what are we going to say? All right, then uh, Chris came the one to thank you so much. We have to let it at this point We appreciate your thoughts and as we proceed in 2023. We look forward to having you on the show There is god Chris you have naira notes with you. I mean, I don't know. We're looking for I don't know Mercier's For people at high school, I would have gone to take one or two from here. Don't even have where to move around. So Right now it's easier to get fuel than to get the naira. It's easier to get a dollar than to get the naira So That is what you know what people are doing now What we're doing now is that they are making transfers to some because their book. You don't need a cash from you Only just is just giving you a Just, you know collect your account number to transfer the money you want and they just give you a dollar cash But are you going to spend dollar at the market to buy vegetable and that is where the problem is Okay, that's a very valid question. Thank you for your time Thank you very much. Have a nice Chris K. Noado is executive director african governance and leadership initiative Well, that's the size of it. We take a break and when we return we'll be looking at a first Conversation right here for team political parties are threatening or have threatened to withdraw from the race If there's an extension, I mean so you have those who are for and those who are against this policy extension Whether you that would be the crux of a conversation when we return, please stay with us. Good morning


their addition of condo insider. I was down at the legislature last yesterday listening to testimony and I heard a member of the real estate commission staff say that there's a hundred and sixty eight thousand condominium units in the state of Hawaii. Now if you said figured there were three people per condominium that's four hundred and eighty thousand residents were pretty much more than about forty percent of our population. So we hope our show brings a lot of interesting educational material to board members and homeowners alike about living in an association. That being said we've had a tremendous rise of the state bird the construction crane and if you look all over Kakako and all over the state we're seeing more and more construction for many more new condominiums. I thought I'd invite back to visit with us today D Hopper who's a lawyer and expert on construction litigation to help guide boards through the issues that may be related to that. So D welcome again to the show good to see you. Thank you Richard I appreciate it. Would you remind everybody a little bit about your background and your firm. Well basically my firm has focused on construction defect litigation for over twenty years and that is something that I have done my partners have done and we have cases here in Oahu we have cases in Maui all around the area. And is that a prevalent problem construction defect litigation. Unfortunately it can be it's it's it's more prevalent than we would like to see but you know it's in condos and townhomes and individual single family homes. We've also seen it in commercial litigation. It's you know it's not limited to just homes. So when a new board of directors and a new condo I guess it applies to older condos that may have had a big construction project or a renovation project as well. But when that board starts to think it may have some problems so just wait till they know they have a problem or what should they start thinking about when they when they suspect it might be some issues. We think boards should be proactive in fact what we what we would recommend is that they contact a law firm that does construction defect litigation tell them that they think they may or may not have problems and then set up an evaluation of their project to see if they in fact have issues. Now is there any validity to a concept maybe after the construction is complete they should just get an inspection generally speaking or or you know kind of say well thank you Mr. developer and thank you Mr. builder but we're just going to have everything checked out once is a value to that or absolutely I think that is a very valuable tool. There's you know they have a duty the boards to the members of the association to make sure that everything is is functional and running properly. That's one of the things they can do is early on is provide and get an evaluation or an inspection of the properties and then can continue to do that on a regular basis. So from your experience here in Hawaii anyway now you also do business on the mainland are there any particular the normal things you find in construction litigation is it mechanical plumbing is it structural where is there any kind of common thread to all of this. You know there's really not we've seen issues that range from for example in a home you might have cracking in the ceilings in the walls around the doors or windows. You might have leaks in the roofs leaks around the doors and windows. There's structural issues. There's defects with certain systems like the plumbing system the electrical system the air conditioning heating systems. There there is no single issue that we see prevalent in any place. It really depends upon the project how it was built and what was done. I would assume not everything they see would be necessarily construction defect. It could be normal wear and tear or normal useful life like you know sometimes buildings settle and you get some light cracking in the drywall which wouldn't necessarily mean it's a construction litigation serious defect. Correct. That's why we believe you need to bring in an expert some an architect an engineer somebody who's familiar with these types of problems to evaluate them. One of the things I and I know probably more than the average person about this but you know they always say it's the developer. The developer built me a bad building but doesn't he really hire architects and engineers and they hire contractors is it is it quote the developer is it really a bunch of people. Well it can be it can be anyone from the developer all the way down the line to the subcontractor that's involved in this process. You have the developer who starts it they bring in their contractor the contractor brings in subcontractors and just like we people always ask us well who are the bad builders and we always tell them there are no specifically bad builders per se this builder you know can have lots of good properties that they've built but they bring in the wrong sub or the developer brings in a certain contractor who brings in certain subs and they cut corners and you can have problems with that project. It's not one particular builder or developer that's bad. So some of that come from hypothetically because the sub bids it and he bid it too low and now he sees he's going to lose money or not make any money and so maybe I don't want to say it sounds intentional or unintentional he starts for looking for ways to cut corners. That can very well be the case unfortunately it can be. So when you're a board and there's problems I would assume that there's statute of limitations issues as well if you don't I mean if the board starts to see the problem I don't think they have forever to to figure out when they're going to do something otherwise they could lose their rights. Right. What is that what is the statute of limitations here in Hawaii it's 10 years. So what we always encourage boards to do like you said earlier you know the sooner you start the better but if once you start getting especially towards that 10 year period that age in your property you want to be very proactive as far as getting inspections done to check to make sure that you don't because after the 10 years there's not a lot you can do you're in trouble if you have problems. Another example is just say they saw something after two years and they did nothing about it for six years. So it's now eight years into the project. Wouldn't that defendant the developer the contractor whoever be able to say if you told me about it six years ago wouldn't be as bad as it is now. And you should have mitigated your losses and told me about it instead of letting you get worse and worse and worse. So doesn't that kind of say you should get on this right away because they're going to try to use the defense. I would think that gosh you've known about this for six years and you haven't told me and it's now worse than the fix that it was originally. Yes I mean you it's like anything you want to be active as far as looking for these things if you're board members as far as your maintenance people you want to keep excellent maintenance schedules as well that's another thing that we've come across dealing with this because eventually if you have a problem and the builder sees that you had it early on they may very well try to use it as a defense against you. Can it be successful that defense? It can be it can be that's why you want to that's why you want to be active with these types of cases. Certainly it's a plausible argument to make before an arbitrator or a judge that you know judge if I had known about this earlier if I'd fixed it it wouldn't be anywhere near the cost or expense and a problem today as it would be before so I mean when judges and arbitrators from my experience they look at that and say well there's some validity to that and that kind of maybe chops down what they think you might be entitled to. Very well Ken and in fact in Hawaii there is a right to repair by the builders so they can come in and say if you say that there is a defect and the builder comes in and inspects it they have the right to come in and repair that and if they say well if I would have known about it sooner I could have done a better repair there's always going to be those types of arguments back and forth. Well that's that's a good point let's let's go back and review the process so the board looking around I think they have a problem they see they do have a problem they get your firm or another firm to come in and some experts and they say you know we have a problem. What is the process from that moment forward? What do they do next and kind of walk me through the steps that they go through? The first thing that takes place is if we go out we provide an expert to come out and do an evaluation of the property if in fact there are defects we produce a report attach that to a notice that notice then is sent to the builder. The builder then sends that notice to all the subcontractors and then that group comes out and does their own inspection of the property to determine what types of problems there are. The builder then at that point decides are they going to make repairs are they going to offer a settlement possibly for repairs or they're going to deny any problems. That process then the next step is the mediation where there's a mandatory mediation requirement in Hawaii and the two sides get together for the for that mediation to try to work something out. And does mediation work? Mediation can work it's really a difficult process if there is no pressure being put on both sides. The plaintiff side the sides that we represent the homeowners we believe that we always want to get repairs done we always want to move forward and get the case resolved. The other side with the builders doesn't always have that pressure unless there's been a lawsuit filed and during the notice process you're not allowed to to follow lawsuit until you've gone through that mediation. So oftentimes we find that it's after the mediation when a lawsuit is filed and the builders allowed they bring in their insurance companies and their lawyers that's when we find that there's oftentimes more pressure put to the situation. And to clarify the definition what is a builder? Is that the tenor contractor? Is that the developer? Is that the subs? Is that all of the above or when you say we give notice to the builder who is that? It's typically the contractor the general contractor and do you notice the developer at the same time or we do we can it depends on the on the circumstances on each case but usually we will. And so you've gotten an expert now to look at the costs and the repairs and say I have this problem. When you look at that I've had some experience with boards that because all of a sudden someone said we have a million dollar problem they kind of say well we need a million dollars and my experience in construction litigation in other cases is that boards need to have a realistic look at what they might or might not be able to get. It's never always one-sided and so clear that because an expert has said a million dollars you can just hammer that in your head and say I'm not taking a penny less. How do you feel about that? I think that's pretty accurate oftentimes if you say it's a million dollar case it may very well be a million dollars worth of problems whether you're gonna get a million dollars to solve all of those problems is the question that you're raising and more often than not if you settle a case if it's resolved outside of court outside of a trial then you're not gonna get that million dollars because it's a mediation or in some cases even an arbitration where the two sides have to come to some type of middle ground in order to resolve this so sides have to be realistic. We didn't think of breaking a few seconds let me ask you one quick question for a quick answer who if association files this construction litigation who pays the legal fees and is that recoverable in the mediation? The legal fees are paid by well in our cases we're contingency fee based so we don't get anything unless the other side and let's our side win something in the end and in the end it is our hope that the builder will step up and pay those legal fees. All right well we're gonna take a short break we're on condo insider talking about construction litigation with all the cases and all the new building we have going on in Hawaii they'll be right back in one minute. Aloha everybody my name is Mark Shklav I'd like you to join me for my program Law Across the Sea on thinktechhawaii.com. Aloha. Hello and Aloha my name is Raya Salter and I am the host of Power of Hawaii where Hawaii comes together to figure out how we're going to work towards a clean and renewable energy future. We have exciting conversations with all kinds of stakeholders everyone who needs to come together to talk about renewable energy be they engineers advocates lawyers utility executives musicians or artists to see how we can come together to make a renewable future Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Hello this is Martin Despeng I want to get you get excited about my new show which is humane architecture for Hawaii and beyond we're going to broadcast on Tuesdays 5 p.m. here on thinktech Hawaii. Welcome back to condo insider we're sitting here with the hopper talking about construction litigation and why it's important for a board to examine these issues early so they don't lose any of their rights due to statute of limitations and before we went on break we were talking to you about legal fees and I'd ask him about whether the legal fees in association and CURS are recoverable in the mediation and you basically were saying you hope that we recover as part of the settlement because it's a settlement amount more times than not you feel that you get to meet legal fees you think more times than not boards have to be cautious about how they pursue this well I think it depends upon the type of the firm that they hire because firms approach this differently like I said we do it in a contingency fee basis meaning unless we recover something for the board of the board doesn't owe us anything we cover the cost and the fees in a case there's other firms out there that handle it on an hourly basis where the board has to pay by the hour for whatever it is they're doing but we just have a different business model that's how we do it yeah I guess the example being I don't mean to be unfair to anybody but if you take a settlement offer to just make it up again per million dollars and the board thinks they need a million too and you go spend $200,000 to get a hundred thousand dollars more on our traditional bill by the hour basis you're really a hundred thousand dollars short yes because of the fact that trying to get that last bit of money the expense and the time and the cost even the time value of money may make it not a good a good thing you have to look at this and example I would use as a condo association I'm aware recently settled a construction lawsuit and it was for some of money a substantial sum of money and it probably was in fact I know it wasn't near what they were asking although it was pretty sizable when they looked at the case number one the defendants had a very limited type of insurance policy so all the claims of the association weren't covered by insurance then they look at the original builders and developers the people involved they didn't have much financial net worth correct and so the issue is going to be sometimes where's the money going where's the beef where's the money going to come from right there's a lot of factors to consider and you oftentimes have to compromise and you find that how usually works as compromise in all this there it really does it really is very few of these cases ever actually go to trial to a jury for a verdict so who was going to trial we got through the mandatory mediation and and the disc and to evaluate in the building for its deficiencies this but then we have to go to trial what happens you probably complain that what okay we file the complaint and at that point then the next steps after that are what's called discovery and that's where both sides get together and they exchange information we had asked for documents in a document production the builder the defendant has to then produce certain documents to us they will ask us for documents we produce those documents to them after both sides have gone through and examined and reviewed all those documents then you sit down and you have what are called depositions depositions is where you like for example will depose the expert engineer for the for the contractor will sit down and ask him all about everything that he believes he found were defects out on the property they'll do the same thing with our experts after we've gone through all that process then will typically have another mediation at that point to try to resolve the case once we've gone through all these documents and depositions it seems to me and I know nothing about this but that mediation might have a better chance of being successful because there's more facts on the table you know we're early on this I I've had experience where builders have said yeah that's a problem I can fix it in the early stages because it wasn't a big problem so that early mediation has worked but it's not primarily in major cases been successful from my point of view correct I agree with you on that and you find that when it gets to the second mediation is it usually a mediation or arbitration typically mediations typically mediations in what we do there are some cases where there are binding arbitration clauses in the contracts with the builders between the homeowners and the builders and in those cases will go through an arbitration but if there's not those types of clauses then it's a mediation that we do during the litigation process and then after that does they're usually go to trial or does it go to binding arbitration to people when the trial has a lot more rules of conduct and procedure and stuff I think so does it you find as they get really close to the end they end up agreeing to binding arbitration is a more time than not go to trial I think more often than not you you your desires to push it to trial because I believe that has more serious consequences and ramifications for the other side I believe that the closer we get to trial the closer we get to resolving the case in a solution well let me go back to this mediation thing as you know under the current law they have to go to mediation and I'm gonna take a minute and just describe this to you our legislature in 2013 passed Act 187 for condo associations and the condo association basically on governing document issues house rule issues homeowner board type issues can do what they call a valued of mediation where they can each for about a hundred and fifty bucks get before retired judge and that retired judge with can take the gloves off and tell each side this is what I think of your case and try to drive a settlement there's currently a bill before our legislature to mend act 187 to allow it to include construction defect litigation cases and there's a mixed bag and how people feel about that in the sense the current statute only gives you thirty five hundred dollars to do the mediation under a value of mediation and possibly another thirty five hundred seven thousand if the mediator feels he's making progress and can resolve it with a little bit additional money I have a hard time seeing that that would be really effective based on the process because at that moment in time you haven't gone through all this discovery period I agree I think like we discussed earlier in the program the mediation process can be beneficial it but it depends upon when that mediation takes place in the process when it's early on prior to complaint being filed prior to discovery with the document production and the depositions it's hard to get any type of resolution at that point because there just hasn't been enough typically done for for for the in our opinion for the other side to see that they need to move on this I guess the counter argument be you take the first mediation which we know is the builders right and probably more times than not doesn't work so now you get through all the discovery which you've paid money for and you've hired your attorney then the question is well can you begin the second mediation by beginning with that one eighty seven mediation saying well let's try to get the first seven thousand from the condominium education fund in this sense we'll start it this way but it seems to me from my experience those cases are going to take much longer than the seven thousand dollar word chest you might have and you get the argument why should other people in the condominium education fund all the other condos the 1700 condos in the state be subsidizing an individual construction defect dispute right by subsidizing the first seven thousand I might feel differently if there was a high chance of success with seven thousand dollars to cure a construction defect litigation case but the small cases that really small cases probably get resolved on their own I mean it's not worth anybody spending all those legal fees to do it so correct smaller cases can't have successful results but some of the larger more complex cases like we were talking about you're saying a minute ago you referenced you know a sizable case with worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars those very difficult but I don't know what the legislature is going to do on the act 187 I know there's other components to the proposed amendment we support act 187 for a homeowner condo board member disputes we also believe that we want to allow the parties themselves to use act 187 for binding arbitration of both parties agree it just makes it another step to having finality to a dispute but most of us in industry have concerns about adding in construction litigation because it's kind of a whole lot of other issues are relating to this that I'm not sure that having a condo education fund subsidize it makes business sense but we shall see what the legislature does those bills are before the legislature today and I am not I think some of them are still alive they've been passed out of committees with changes but no one has seen the amendments yet so we're not you know it's kind of a moving target over there and and so it's a process well I know that someone asked me today whether it's causing me to drink more red wine I said I am confident the consumption of red wine and Hawaii has gone up significantly since January 18th yes you know I'm not taking personal liability responsibly for that but I would say I played my small part on that because we all do it's it's the legislature and zone rights an interesting process and I frankly thank the legislators for their hard work as they're cast into having to do the best for the people of Hawaii and they're not gonna be experts in all this either so you know they rely on other people like yourself right and it's just like we see nationally and locally and in politics just two sides and both sides not only argue their position maybe at times exaggerate their position and sometimes hard for people in the middle like the legislator to understand really what is the right thing to do and so I respect that and I've been in this a long time and all in all I think we have a good system and I'm just not sure about that part of the bill right so is there things that board can do to mitigate cost of doing one of these construction defect litigations or sure I mean construction defect litigation cases are very costly regardless no matter what you do they're gonna cost typically a large amount of money because you are involving experts on both sides have to come in architects engineers those types of experts come in and have to spend a significant amount of time providing reports and evaluations and inspections testing but again that's one thing that our firm does is we pay all those costs for a client so that they don't have to and that then they are recoverable at the end of a case so we're down to our final minutes so tell me what's your number one recommendation to a board who thinks they might have some construction defects contact us contact another firm contact a lawyer that does this type of stuff get in touch with them so that they can then take you through the process of at least providing from the beginning an evaluation or an inspection of your property to see if in fact you do have defects so in my late term just don't stick your head in the sand investigate it because the board member you have a fiduciary duty and by failing to investigate it you may expose yourself to some liability you can't ignore these things you've got to investigate them as your business judgment rule to make sure that the you had the best information for making your decisions you took the words out of my mouth you just don't put your head in the sand all right well again thanks all of you for watching condo insider this week we hope you've enjoyed our conversation with the offer and I certainly hope you never have construction litigation problems but in the real world it happens all the time so again aloha and thank you for watching condo insider


Team keep it clean What's going on? It's engraving here with another video and another episode of NFL questions from subscribers This question I usually do the regular videos for these questions But for this one, I said no, I got a string say I got a string I got a stream it got a stream it this question came from a boy get old vegan You already see the title of the video. So you know what the question is already, but he asked if if Lamar Jackson Just balls out in preseason and training camp and flakko just looks terrible in both And flakko just has such a bad preseason such a bad training camp such a bad all of that stuff If Lamar is killing it and flakko is playing like he wants to be killed Can Lamar Jackson win the starting QB role before the regular season starts Can he win the starting role before the regular season starts? Well, before we answer that question, let me introduce myself It's been oh so long ever since we did a stream about a question from subscribers, but me. I'm engraving vids This is my youtube channel engraving vids, and I'm a Ravens fan, but on here. We just talked football period We talked football period so no matter what team you're fan of make sure you subscribe to the channel Turn your notifications on and leave a like on the video. Click that thumbs up button Appreciate all 33 y'all coming through so fast Make sure you leave a thumbs up then you can follow on Instagram Twitter and snapchat all three are engraving vids now Back to the question Where's my boy get old vegan it he should be in here by now man. What's up? Oh real quick. What's up everybody? My boy JB smooth.  What's up, man? Andrew? What's going on, man? Rejoto everybody appreciate y'all King Swaggy P Josh Prius Everybody thank you for coming through make sure you subscribe if you haven't already and again leave a like on the video Click that thumbs up button so Ken Lamar become the starter can he become the starter? What's up John Estrada? Ken Lamar become the starter if Flacco is just looking God awful. Well the answer to that is no It's a no It's a no It's a no bro bro Leo. What's up? He said if we wouldn't have got Lamar Jackson and he wouldn't have been getting all this hate that he get all The sudden because we got a new quarterback. Oh, trust me a lot of this is not it's not necessarily hate my friend It's not hate a lot of people been wanting to change for a long time I called for it two years ago. Some people been calling for it since right after the Super Bowl Some people been calling for it since last year some people been calling it calling for it before then and they will call it after Then too, so it's not that it's hate. It's not that it's hate. Trust me me love Flacco Love him. Love him. Love him. Love him. Love him. Love him Does Flacco play like he's getting paid 25 million a year? No No Uh-uh Do I love Flacco and everything he did for the Ravens? Oh, yeah, and everything that he's done for the Ravens too. Oh, yeah Love Flacco like I said it why I guess I didn't put out the video yet, but I said in another video Flacco has actually given the Ravens to something that they never had a quarterback before and that's actually stability That's stability at the quarterback position not saying stability as in play, but for the last ten years This will be his 11th year for the last ten ten years He has given the Ravens the Ravens already know they've known for ten years who they're starting quarterback was gonna be ten years straight What teams can say that besides the Patriots? What teams can say that besides? the Falcons What teams kids? They're not a lot of teams that can and I know there's more of course Don't get me wrong, but there's not a lot of teams that can say that Joe Flacco has given the Ravens consistency at the one position that they had never had consistency yet before ever So trust. Oh, yeah packers charges. Yeah, it's not many teams though It's not many teams, but y'all get my point y'all get my point but yeah, Flacco has He's done this thing here and we love him. So again, it's not hate towards Flacco.  That's it, but um Hey Appreciate that Berlin. Hey Berlin if you got Twitter hit me up on Twitter send me a DM and we could talk man Let me know. I'll be down to I got you But yeah, if if Flacco We love Flacco, so it's not hate. It's not hate, but a lot of people just Looking for change and on wall. Yes. I want the same thing too. He said he can't wait for Flacco to go off this year He said he can't wait for Flacco. I'm hoping the same thing because a lot of people They've been a lot of NFL questions from subscribers that we've been doing where people have been like man Is is Flacco gonna be extra motivated? Is he gonna come here with a different swagger?  Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. I hope so 313 said this will be Alex Smith all over again Flacco will ball but at the end he'll be replaced just like Smith Oh, that's such a good point Wow, you are wow 313 JMO appreciate that I ain't even think about it like that, but that that could be right man Oh look foolish demon just said the exact same thing He said I think it'll be Alex Smith situation Flacco elevate his game to keep the job. Oh, but Alex Smith didn't keep his job He got sent he got shipped. Let me sit down though, man. Anyway Back to the question. We've been talking but we didn't even get to the question Can Lamar Jackson wouldn't start in QB job before the regular season starts? No, he can't he won't he he won't reason being This is This could be it for a lot of people in the Ravens organization This could be it This could be it. This could be it for Flacco. This could be it for Harbaugh for Marty Offensive coordinator. I'm not even gonna try to say his last name. It could be it for him possibly It could be it for It could be it for a lot of people even a defensive coordinator too, this is his first year But this could be his last two Jerry Rossburg, man. I just if they do go a different direction that head coach They just need to hide Jerry Rossburg, man But this could be this could be it for a lot of people in Baltimore. So They know what they have in Flacco They know what Flacco is capable of as a starting quarterback in the NFL. So With that they've given him weapons. They put him in a position to succeed And they're not going to be like just cuz he has a bad preseason if he has a bad Training camp or whatever they're not gonna take that start and roll from from him They are all in on Flacco right now at least this season Flacco knows we all know people whether you want to admit it or not The end is very near for Flacco whether this is the last year or next year is his last year It's gonna be one of the two There's like no doubt about it. The end is very near for Flacco very very near You do not draft a quarterback in the first round of the NFL draft to have Him just sitting there year after year after year, especially when your current starting quarterback is making a lot But your offense is not playing like a lot of money They don't do that Onward different situation my friend. You got to let me finish me. You got to let me finish my friend I see you type that Aaron Rodgers comment before we finished But now it's all good man But this is a new day in age. This is a new day in age the Ravens. No, they understand They know that the part of the side of the ball that this team has lacked on literally for forever now Has been the offense It's been like that since their first Super Bowl It's been like that for literally forever now. The offense is the weak point of the Ravens team Defense always been fine for the most part Special teams they've been fine for the most part Offense has always been the weak link It's always been a problem anytime people talk about the Ravens struggles They point right at the offense and the offense came pointing nobody else At least on a consistent basis. I mean I know the defense ain't been closing out these games the last couple years But what the defense has been doing at the beginning of the season Oh, the defense will be oh mr. Reliable the defense will be ready the defense will be aggressive The defense will be hungry, but then at the end of the season When it's time to close it out, I guess the defense just feels like man, we've been doing this all year long We've been doing this for 15 games Sometimes it ain't for that man, but you get what I'm saying in that 16th game They just collapse they collapse They collapse And I'm sure they're tired of it They want some help from the offense We want some help from the offense as fans of the game as fans of the Ravens As fans of the NFL the NFL right now is geared toward offense The offense has the advantage the offense has just everything that they they That everything that they need in order to succeed the rules are set toward the offense the NFL They set everything up for the offense to succeed but with the Ravens They've been one of the teams that just can't keep up with the times And that's a a big appreciate that Jake But and that's a big reason we talked about this in other videos though That's a big reason why a lot of people do not have a problem with ozzie news I'm stepping down because ozzie as much and again It's not hate on ozzie because a lot of people I hate when they do this So this is hate right here. This is hate from me. I hate When people think just because you criticize something or analyze something or call something out that's true Whether it's good or bad, but even if if you call something out that's true People think oh man, you're just hating. No, it's not hate. You got to understand the difference appreciate that cj You got to understand the difference between hate and just being real about stuff There's a lot of people that unsubscribe from this channel Plenty of times they say oh engraving you're hating on the Ravens. Why are you hating on this hating on that? It's not hate. It's just about being real and being honest man.  We're gonna talk about it. What's up, jagger, but It's true That that's just what it is I call stuff how I see it and a lot of people and they don't just do with me They just do a period and we actually got a video or nfl question from subscriber That I ain't put out yet when somebody asks why are ravens fans so negative? I should put that out tonight. I think I will but either way, um Just because you call somebody out on something it's not hate But anyway, what I was saying with with adi knew some of the reason why a lot of people are not going to be upset when he's gone is because He thinks that this is old school football. He thinks the rules of the nfl are Still way back in the 70s the 60s the 50s. He thinks we're still playing back then and we're not We're not Kareem say somebody screen shot this maulin Humphrey going off this year.  Love maulin Humphrey. Um, but anyway, yeah, he Oh, he said that's what we had to deal with in Philly. Oh, sorry to hear that man That's what we've been dealing with forever here. But anyway, um, adi knew some again It's no hate towards him. We love everything that he did for the ravens organization. We do but He's living in the past. It's an offensive game now. Now while we love having a good defense Oh, trust me. We do you have to invest in the offense too. You have to and The way that the draft went this year It showed that okay. It's time things are changing Things are changing first round draft pick a tight end. Hayden Hurst Then first round draft pick a quarterback. Oh, hold up. Wait a minute Wait a minute Uh-oh spaghetti, yo Things are changing so With with them focusing mainly on offense where they really hit on needs in this draft and I loved it um But hopefully all those needs play and they do their thing But with with adi knew some focusing on offense um In this draft is it shows that it's time man It's time and and who knows how much of an impact erig the cost of the future gm had on that draft Because he could have had a big impact on that draft um As he should because he's going to be taken over but Ozzy's been living in the past too much He doesn't invest any money on the offense in the shows But now they drafted a new quarterback because they know it's they they feel like it's time for a change too They know They know they get it And whether flacco retires whether he's cut whether he's traded well, whatever happens The end is near The end is near Um, but yes jack you are right flacco starts unless he gets hurt if he doesn't get hurt then He'll be the starter for sure. He'll be the starter for sure. There's no question about it. There is no doubt about it Flacco will be starting Appreciate you g money Flacco will be started. I mean it's it's no question about it but Things are going to be changing in baltimore real soon, man real soon real soon um, and this Lamar is not going to start this year. Well, at least not before the regular season It's a possibility that things change, but yeah, I expect flacco to to play lights out this season He got receivers young old. He got a good mix of both He got tight ends. He got running backs He got an offensive line. I um, well, I didn't put out the video for it But I think this could be one of the best offensive lines in ravens history One of the best in ravens history not Not recently but in ravens history They can stay healthy. I think this offensive line can be great Ronnie Stanley Marsha yonder Orlando brown Following the footsteps of daddy um Alex louis, hopefully he can stay healthy. Hopefully marsha yonder can stay healthy, but even with marsha yonder They need to prepare for the future for him too You addressed you addressed the uh, oh no, this ain't a heart take I was thinking about I talked about this in a video that I did Uh, about maybe like an hour and a half ago. I didn't put it out yet though But I really do believe this could be one of the best offensive lines in ravens history If everybody stays healthy, I think they could do it, man I think they could do it So anyway appreciate y'all coming through. Thank y'all for coming through I love y'all make sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't already or you wait from spain appreciate that man Right tack. I think they put brown there center. We'll see we'll see who they put there We still got some guys coming back. But anyway, appreciate y'all. Thank you all 71 people that's in here right now Make sure you leave a like on the video. Yeah, shout out to spain, man shout out to spain So thank you Subscribe Turn your notifications on so when we put out another video, you'll be right there, man So thank you all appreciate you all Are we out, man?