Laying Down the Law: Accountant Edition

Attention: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you for your understanding!

Speaker1: [00:00:03] From the beyond a reasonable Doubt studios. In association with fighting production.

[00:00:11] It's lay down the law.

Speaker1: [00:00:19] With your host, Billy de Klerk.

Speaker2: [00:00:22] Hey, that's me.

Speaker1: [00:00:23] Yeah, that's right, Billy. That's you. Featuring Green, Barry Lucas, Lorne Michaels and Curtis Rutherford. Only a madman would dare to bring these people together to build a world of law and order only to tear it apart with laughter. That mad man is attorney Billy de Klerk. The result is a podcast blasted to the farthest reaches of the Internet. That podcast is this one, and it starts right now.

Speaker2: [00:00:55] Welcome to Laying Down the Law Earmark Edition, the Law and Comedy podcast hosted by me. I'm Bill de Klerk, and I'm what you get when you Cross Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with comedian Lily Tomlin at one ringing e! Jenny's on the.

Speaker3: [00:01:11] Line.

Speaker2: [00:01:12] If you don't know that reference, you're too young. All right. I'd like to introduce my guests first, a returning guest. He's a writer, improviser and host of the hit podcast, Improv Beat by Beat. His writing can be found on McSweeney's and also on Twitter. Like a lot. He's a member of Megaplex, the improvised movie Lefty and Ghost. He's part of the steering committee for the Comedy Co-op. The Comedy Co-op is a performer led co-operative in Los Angeles that believes that live comedy should be accessible, affordable and adaptive to all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, size, age, ethnicity or ability. How cool He is the one Curtis Rutherford.

Speaker4: [00:01:56] Hello. Hello. Hello.

Speaker2: [00:01:58] Welcome back.

Speaker4: [00:01:58] Curtis. Thank you very much.

Speaker2: [00:02:01] Welcome back. Another returning guest. She's an actress, comedian and writer. You can see her perform stand up at the Hollywood Improv Lab and catch her latest song parodies and sketches on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and YouTube and all other social media platforms that haven't been invented yet. Please welcome the hilarious and very talented green Barry Lucas.

Speaker3: [00:02:21] Hi there. Welcome back.

Speaker2: [00:02:25] And finally, we're pleased to welcome back an actor and comedian who enjoys writing while riding a bicycle, even though she's from Dayton, Ohio. She studied theater at the Stella Adler studio and mastered making mistakes in New York. We're going to talk about New York in a minute so that she could share her gifts as a standardized patient in Pittsburgh. Influencing and impacting doctors to be And you're welcome. Doctors and.

Speaker3: [00:02:50] Patients.

Speaker2: [00:02:51] In Pittsburgh. She enjoys camping and cross-country driving trips, which led her to discover that Los Angeles, California, is her natural home. She performs stand up comedy weekly while procrastinating on other pursuits. Welcome back to the podcast. Once again, Miss Lauren.

Speaker3: [00:03:11] Michaels, who? Well, thank you, Jane.

Speaker2: [00:03:17] Thank you. I'm thrilled to have you all back on the podcast. But first, before we get into it, a word from our sponsor.

Speaker3: [00:03:24] Insert advertisement here.

Speaker2: [00:03:27] And we're back. Are you ready to get into it?

Speaker3: [00:03:31] But first, the product.

Speaker2: [00:03:33] I know. Yes. Actually, I saw I'm a big fan of Love It or Leave It on Crooked Media. And so I went and saw the live recording last night, and it was great to see it. Like with no commercials, you're like, Well, after this, we'll talk about such and such.

Speaker3: [00:03:48] And we're back. And I'm at a time I'm.

Speaker2: [00:03:51] Like, okay, okay. Nothing for Ziprecruiter right now.

Speaker3: [00:03:55] Okay.

Speaker2: [00:03:58] So this is a case that comes out of New York not realizing I invited three people with strong New York connections.

Speaker5: [00:04:05] Yes.

Speaker2: [00:04:06] Lauren, NYU, Curtis. I know, UCB, New York. And Kristin, you lived in New York or grew up in New York?

Speaker5: [00:04:13] Yeah. Yeah. I studied at UCB in the pit in New York. And it was a theater company. Yeah, Yeah, I lived there. I lived in a lot of different places in there, but yes.

Speaker2: [00:04:23] Awesome. Well, I have never lived in New York. The one one time I drove there from Washington, D.C. and saw Phantom of the Opera and then drove back to Washington, D.C..

Speaker3: [00:04:34] Nice.

Speaker2: [00:04:37] But that's pretty much it for me. So you'll have to fill me in on the New York oriented thing. Everything I know about New York is from movies.

Speaker5: [00:04:45] It's just like that.

Speaker4: [00:04:46] By the way, the, like four hour drive from New York to D.C.. Were you just, like, thinking that about, like this? I saw Phantom. This is like a long drive today. It's like I just finally.

Speaker2: [00:04:57] Let it soak in. You know? It's actually the thing that people don't realize about Phantom of the Opera is it's really, really layered. So you have like, there's like, different there's like.

Speaker3: [00:05:07] It's complexity.

Speaker2: [00:05:08] It's almost like, like, you know, like Dylan Thomas levels of just polar poetry.

Speaker3: [00:05:14] Sort so subtle.

Speaker2: [00:05:16] It's so subtle and there's so much to it, you know? What is the music of the night? Is it that really a metaphor for the human condition?

Speaker3: [00:05:26] The music's great. You know, my niece saw it and God love the youth because she said, Why does she like him? Didn't he just kill somebody? Yeah, that's.

Speaker4: [00:05:37] A good.

Speaker2: [00:05:38] Point. The new generation, the younger generation. So, you.

Speaker3: [00:05:41] Know, these love stories don't hit them.

Speaker5: [00:05:47] I've seen it and I do not remember any murders.

Speaker2: [00:05:50] So there's multiple murders. That's the kind of thing that's sort of the phantom thing. That's kind of.

Speaker3: [00:05:56] What I like. Very sexy about the murder.

Speaker2: [00:05:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, since we got in Phantom of the Opera, so when I was in in middle school, you know, my parents, I was really into theater. My parents knew that there was this show, Phantom of the Opera, that was really popular. And it was. We were in the Bay Area. And so, I don't know, maybe it was touring at that point in time, but my parents decided they they found tickets really cheap and they took us to see The Phantom of the Opera by Ken Hill. The Ken Hill Phantom of the Opera, which involved literal opera and a retelling of the story, which was 100% driven by people like my parents, didn't know the difference between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ken Hill.

Speaker3: [00:06:38] So we're like, I don't think this is the same thing. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Speaker2: [00:06:44] And that's literally how I said it, because my voice hadn't changed at the time.

Speaker3: [00:06:47] Same thing.

Speaker2: [00:06:50] And my dad's like, Well, there sure was a lot of singing. I don't.

Speaker3: [00:06:53] Know. I don't know. Sounded like offer to me.

Speaker4: [00:06:59] I loved it. Even Phantom of the Opera has, like, were the original famous raise. Like, you know, like one letter off, like we're Microsoft.

Speaker3: [00:07:08] So they.

Speaker4: [00:07:10] Really tried to just, like, get in the.

Speaker2: [00:07:12] Rooms. Exactly. Yeah. Well, we were the rubes, that's for sure. So this this case is a case from 1966.

Speaker3: [00:07:22] Wow.

Speaker5: [00:07:23] It was a good year.

Speaker2: [00:07:24] Yeah, well, Karpovsky versus Carlton.

Speaker3: [00:07:28] Oh, this is that like Warhol, New York. Yea. Oh, yeah. These are.

Speaker2: [00:07:34] The go go.

Speaker3: [00:07:34] Years men.

Speaker2: [00:07:36] Oh, yeah. High boots, short skirts, a lot of dance.

Speaker3: [00:07:40] You know.

Speaker2: [00:07:41] My entire knowledge of the sixties comes from watching episodes of Laugh-In.

Speaker3: [00:07:46] By the way. That's a little like the little Windows.

Speaker2: [00:07:51] Yeah, I think they did do that on Laugh-In. Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:07:54] Belly The more you talk, the more you're like cable guy. Like all of your experiences are like, guided by television.

Speaker2: [00:08:03] I pretty much don't leave my little basement down here.

Speaker3: [00:08:07] Everything I know. Basement valley.

Speaker2: [00:08:11] Yeah. So I guess I'm just tying it together with the Lily Tomlin reference up top, because I do believe that Ernestine Tomlin was Laugh-In character. So John Winckowski was injured by a taxicab.

Speaker5: [00:08:22] What?

Speaker2: [00:08:23] Yes, severely injured by.

Speaker3: [00:08:25] Oh, I wasn't kidding. Well, tell us.

Speaker2: [00:08:27] About your taxi cab industry. We're going to talk about Green Berry's taxicab injury and how that relates to this case. Go ahead.

Speaker5: [00:08:34] Okay. How does it. Okay, So I was just walking across the crosswalk, minding my own, and a cab hit me and was going pretty slow. So I didn't like fly into the air. I think it was like all things considered, very, very not bad. It got hit. It spun me around. The Catholic stopped on my foot, just like Paul just say parked on my foot. And then like it, I felt like there was a very quick response time from the fire department. And no bones are broken. But it was it was it was a terrifying time. People were the people on the street. They were giving me a lot of attention. So if you're looking to be a star in New York City, just just walk slow and start walking and you might get your fandom.

Speaker3: [00:09:22] I just think that's probably the same.

Speaker2: [00:09:24] That's what she was after, actually. So how much money did you end up getting it?

Speaker5: [00:09:30] The settlement, I think, was like 5000. It wasn't a lot.

Speaker2: [00:09:33] Oh, $5,000 and had a lot. Lauren, how old are you?

Speaker3: [00:09:38] It's more than I got. What right. You've been hit by a cab to. Yes. What the hell? Yes. When you were in the crosswalk, was your cab making a left turn? Yes, that's what my cab was doing. I was also right away in the crosswalk. I was making a left turn. It rolled over my foot and I slammed on the hood and I was like, Wow, Wow. And he pulled over and made him stop. And then, yeah, like the bomb on the corner grabbed, like five cops and half a second. And before I knew it, I was like, wiggling my toes in front of these cops and they were like, you know, the foot spreads. You know, it's happened to me too. It spreads. Especially when you think I need to get an ambulance. They're like, You got insurance? And I was like, No. And they're like, Well, you don't want to pay for that. It spreads. He'll drive you, me to the party. I was going to email. Was it?

Speaker5: [00:10:42] No, you got screwed. Spreads. What a.

Speaker3: [00:10:46] Spread. Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:10:46] What does this mean? The foot spread.

Speaker3: [00:10:49] The foot spreads.

Speaker4: [00:10:51] Like it's like.

Speaker2: [00:10:51] Like if you do a lot of yoga, you know, your toes get further and further apart.

Speaker3: [00:10:55] You know, it gets squished under something, and the bones, they spread apart, but they come back.

Speaker2: [00:11:00] It's like a.

Speaker3: [00:11:01] Pancake. Like. Like a like it's like a Looney Tunes doctor. Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:11:06] Because. Because also they're describing the injury, not the recovery. Like saying like, yes, I know there was a taxi on it. You look to say the foot returns to Lance. That's my worry.

Speaker3: [00:11:17] Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:11:19] That's what I'm looking for here.

Speaker3: [00:11:20] You drinking usually.

Speaker5: [00:11:22] The other thing.

Speaker3: [00:11:23] All my pancake foot that never.

Speaker5: [00:11:26] I guess you have this, like, floppy, fluffy, giant paper foot. I notice that now. I know.

Speaker3: [00:11:32] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:11:34] I guess. Pick first for soccer.

Speaker3: [00:11:35] Go ahead.

Speaker5: [00:11:38] Lauren. There's no fall insurance, so they did not understand. You should have been able to get. I didn't have insurance either. And that's terrifying feeling. So. Yeah. Yeah, you should have been treated.

Speaker2: [00:11:51] Yeah. And actually, insurance comes into play in Winckowski versus Carlton.

Speaker3: [00:11:56] The reason insurance does come down.

Speaker2: [00:12:00] So. So, Curtis, have you been hit.

Speaker4: [00:12:03] By a cab? I have never been run over, but I have been hit by a cab probably a couple of times while riding like city bikes in New York.

Speaker3: [00:12:09] Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:12:12] And did you get a pancake foot?

Speaker4: [00:12:14] I got no pancakes, but I got into yelling matches with people with, you know, people who had just tried to murder me and who's, you know, feeling about almost murdering another human being was. Well, you shouldn't have been riding your bike in the bike lane.

Speaker2: [00:12:31] You know.

Speaker4: [00:12:32] Classic difference of opinion, you know?

Speaker2: [00:12:35] Wow, I could not have planned this better if I could have hand-selected a guests for this particular case. I couldn't have done a better job unless, like all of the improvisers I know have been hit by cabs.

Speaker3: [00:12:48] And.

Speaker2: [00:12:52] Universal experience.

Speaker4: [00:12:55] I mean, anyone from New York? Yes. I think like on your way to your first your first improv class, you're generally hit by a cab. Warm ups, everybody say your name. And how long ago it's been since you've been hit by a cab.

Speaker2: [00:13:09] Have the sign on the wall dazed since being.

Speaker3: [00:13:12] Hit by a cab. Oh, back to zero again.

Speaker2: [00:13:20] Oh, my goodness. Well, we don't get to find out how badly while Tchaikovsky was hurt, but it's serious enough. Yeah, it's a thing about law school textbooks. We never really care about how bad the injuries are, because there's some some abstruse point of law we need to examine that doesn't have anything to do with the injury, so we just take it for granted. He was seriously injured. He was. The words in the case says he was run down by a taxicab.

Speaker3: [00:13:46] Okay.

Speaker2: [00:13:47] Run down.

Speaker3: [00:13:47] Doesn't sound good. Those cars were heavier than I think.

Speaker5: [00:13:53] It.

Speaker3: [00:13:53] Spreads. Yeah, these are the ones.

Speaker2: [00:13:55] These are the ones from the television show Taxi from the Sure Big.

Speaker3: [00:14:02] Oh, it's a big run down.

Speaker4: [00:14:06] Feels like, you know, The Great Gatsby. Like, when is it like Daisy hits a guy? Like, I imagine that. I imagine, like.

Speaker3: [00:14:14] Olds going.

Speaker4: [00:14:15] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker3: [00:14:16] You are like.

Speaker5: [00:14:18] When I hear it, I think it's like it's kind of like this miracle where, like, it bumps him and he falls over and he falls down, he runs down and the car just keeps going. But there's really nothing too crazy going on.

Speaker4: [00:14:31] The optimist.

Speaker3: [00:14:32] Yes. What? Nudge?

Speaker2: [00:14:36] Yeah. So the abstract point of law, the reason why we're here has to do with the way that the taxicab companies are structured in order to avoid liability. The case was brought not just against the cab company that hit Wall Koski, which was C on CAB Corporation, but it was brought against the owner, A William Carleton But they also tried to bring it against nine other corporations in which other taxi cabs were registered because each of the corporations owned only to taxi cabs and all of the individual corporations were owned by this. William Carleton And two other guys.

Speaker5: [00:15:15] A little shy.

Speaker3: [00:15:16] Fella.

Speaker2: [00:15:16] Yeah. So every corporation to cabs and apparently you couldn't sue against the medallion because I guess there's a law that says you can't capture that asset as part of a judgment. So 10,000 minimum liability for each cab, that's the liability coverage that was required. And the Cavs were all mortgage basically. So there was no value in any of the companies. So while Costco's lawyers are saying we need to have a good defendant, we got to sue all ten cab companies. There's 20 different cabs, plus the owner of the garage, plus the owners of the companies. And they're basically they call it a single network and a single enterprise. The idea was Carlton was a controlling shareholder of these ten different corporations. They had no other assets.

Speaker4: [00:16:00] And so Carlton, because the minimum liability is that 10,000 per cab basically has the bright idea of like if I split it into nine companies rather than holding 180,000, he just has to hold 20,000, 20,000, 20,000, 20,000, right.

Speaker2: [00:16:15] So that when you get sued, the Max.

Speaker4: [00:16:17] Hydro type thing. Right. Exactly. If one of my companies well, I've got eight other companies that are.

Speaker5: [00:16:22] Exactly exactly. When you're saying hydro, you're talking about like a monster.

Speaker2: [00:16:27] Yeah. Multi-headed.

Speaker4: [00:16:28] Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:16:29] Monster.

Speaker4: [00:16:29] Although, like, different snakeheads, it's like, well, you cut off one head. Eight other heads. I've got more heads.

Speaker5: [00:16:35] I got more heads. That's why the Cavs are running all over New York. Running all the New York is over. It's because people like Carlton.

Speaker2: [00:16:43] Yeah, that's right. Carlton is just. It's just. And it is. Apparently it was kind of the norm to to set up cab companies this way. It wasn't.

Speaker5: [00:16:52] Unusual. It didn't change too much.

Speaker2: [00:16:55] Right. So the idea was the most you could get if you got injured is 20,000, because the only asset with these was the minimum liability insurance. And you couldn't go against all of the different cab companies. And basically the point of the plaintiff was you're a giant cab company, you have all these different cabs and you're pretending to be a little small company in order to basically defraud the public. He says the same three guys were the stockholders, directors and officers of all the corporations. All of the employees were all employees of the other companies. They were assigned interchangeably to the corporations. Basically, you know, you came in one day and they're like, you're driving cab number four night, but that's not a second cab. They're like, That's fine. You're going to that one. That's the one that's available. And then the allegation was that the receipts, the expenses, the assets and the properties were interchanged and intermingled by the defendants as their own, that they centrally purchased all their supplies, all the parts, all the oil, all the gas and all the tires. They were all garaged in one place. And all the operations of the properties were operated, controlled, managed, maintained as a single entity, unit and enterprise by the defendants.

Speaker5: [00:18:01] All finds this stuff out.

Speaker2: [00:18:02] Billy Well, these.

Speaker5: [00:18:04] Are a lot of research to find. Like somebody who is that.

Speaker3: [00:18:08] The.

Speaker2: [00:18:09] So procedurally where we are in this case is this is just the very beginning of the case. So these are just allegations in the complaint. So because of the type of a of a of a motion that we have here, it's an early motion, like a motion to dismiss, which means you can't sue me. Doesn't matter if everything they say is true, you can't sue me. So these are just allegations. You have the process called Discovery to go out and find out if it's true or do you know there's some investigation that can be done?

Speaker4: [00:18:38] And this is where like in the movie version of it, you have the classic lawyers going through the paperwork and then you see on cabs, they have the same address as see all cabs and stop cabs and see off cabs, right?

Speaker2: [00:18:52] Yeah. You know, because the corporation addresses it's public information. So it's pretty easy to put together. These are different things. And they could have alleged these things without knowing for sure that it's true or they might have known it by based on investigation. You know, they're going around in long trench coats and asking people questions.

Speaker5: [00:19:09] Ha. Always the trench coat.

Speaker2: [00:19:12] That's right. And they so they borrowed money for all the different corporations. And they're saying it was all mixed up. All the money was mixed up between all these different companies and basically said the point is that this is a fraud on the public. You're mixing all these different corporations together. They're just structured this way in a way that you don't see. You don't have to pay if somebody gets hurt.

Speaker5: [00:19:32] We are for that and we.

Speaker2: [00:19:34] And basically we should be able to sue all these other companies because otherwise the most we're going to get is $20,000. And John Walcott was run down by a cab. It wasn't just his foot, it was something more serious.

Speaker3: [00:19:48] So why not now?

Speaker2: [00:19:50] So so Carleton does a motion to dismiss and says, I'm not personally responsible for the Seun Cab Corporation, I'm just the owner.

Speaker3: [00:19:59] And.

Speaker2: [00:19:59] And the trial court says yes and agrees. So while Kosky appeals and the Court of Appeal, the middle level court reversed and said, no, Carlton can be sued actually to get it reversed. And then this goes up to the highest court. I think it's I forget the name of the court. The Court of Appeal, I think is I don't remember the name of the court in New York, but it's the highest court in New York, basically their Supreme Court of New York.

Speaker1: [00:20:30] Producer Jeff, here to set you straight. The New York court system has three levels trial courts, including the Supreme Courts, the appellate divisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Speaker2: [00:20:43] Court of Appeal reversed and said, Nope, Carlton's out. You can't sue Carlton. You can sue C on cab. Maybe you can assume if you allege certain things differently. But but basically he was out. So that's the basic part of the case.

Speaker5: [00:20:57] You can't sue Carlton, you can sue one of his cab companies.

Speaker2: [00:21:00] You can sue the one that was basically responsible.

Speaker4: [00:21:04] When the whatever New York State Supreme Court or whoever that is, the high court, when they reversed it, they were like, Well, it's only because you didn't dot this. I write, it was like a very precise you did this thing wrong.

Speaker2: [00:21:18] When the Supreme Court reinstated the trial court's ruling. Well, they said a couple of things, and I'll go through the reasoning now. But I was just telling you, kind of the end result is they say Carlton's out. You could go back and you could allege certain other things and maybe get Carlton back in, but not the other nine cab companies. This is dealing with really three different related legal doctrines. They're kind of all interrelated here. One is called enterprise liability, which is there are ten individual corporations. Each one is a different company, company one company, two companies. They're all registered as separate corporations. And the plaintiff wanted to treat them as one giant company. You can't just cordon something off as just one company. We can treat the whole thing together. And on that point, the idea of enterprise liability, New York Supreme Court said, No, you can't. These are separate corporations. You can't treat them all as one.

Speaker5: [00:22:15] Even though it's obviously shady.

Speaker2: [00:22:17] Mm hmm. Even though it's obviously shady.

Speaker3: [00:22:20] Kind of reeks of, like, some. I don't know. Somebody.

Speaker5: [00:22:24] Somebody might have paid off something.

Speaker3: [00:22:27] Yeah. The Cavs. I mean, all of the Cavs. That's like a lot of. Power rate. Ha ha ha ha.

Speaker2: [00:22:37] Ha ha ha. Well, you know.

Speaker5: [00:22:38] You can have power.

Speaker2: [00:22:39] There's direct way to bribe them.

Speaker3: [00:22:43] Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:22:43] You could just write the laws is one way to do it. You just write the laws, and then you don't have to bribe anybody. You just write the laws in a way that is favorable for you. That's what lawyers do.

Speaker4: [00:22:54] It's a classic pre bribe.

Speaker5: [00:22:56] Pre bribery.

Speaker3: [00:22:57] Bribe.

Speaker2: [00:23:00] The second version is the law of agency. So the idea of agency is that when someone is an agent for someone else, they can be responsible for the things their agent does. And so one theory would have been that Carlton was the agent of the Scion CAB Corporation.

Speaker3: [00:23:16] That was sued.

Speaker2: [00:23:17] And could be liable under that theory.

Speaker5: [00:23:19] So he can't. So you can be So as a driver, you're liable for what the agent is or as a driver, your agent is liable for what you do. So you're Carlton.

Speaker2: [00:23:31] So if I own C on cab company and it has a driver and the driver's name is Bob, and Bob's driving the cab, and Bob runs you down and you sue Bob the driver, and then you sue the company that owns the cab. Because. Because Bob is acting as an agent for the Scion cab company.

Speaker5: [00:23:55] Oh, Bob is the agent. Bob Carlton.

Speaker2: [00:23:57] Bob is the driver. He's the agent of the corporation. Carlton, maybe he could have been. It depends on the facts. But the idea is that basic idea of agency is when one person acts on behalf of another.

Speaker5: [00:24:08] Okay, so Bob's acting on behalf of Carlton because it's Carlton's company is driving the car around.

Speaker2: [00:24:13] I'm right. And so the Latin phrase for that is Respondeat superior.

Speaker3: [00:24:17] Cool.

Speaker2: [00:24:18] We love the Latin in the law, but basically that just means that you're responsible. It's vicarious liability. You're responsible vicariously for your employees acts. And then the third legal doctrine that's going on in this case is the idea of corporate veil piercing. So piercing the corporate veil means that we're going to disregard the corporate form and we're going to hold the individual owners of the corporation responsible. So it's a disregard of the corporate formality. The purpose of forming a corporation is limited liability. If you form a corporation, you have an LLC, let's say. And the idea is if the LLC, let's say, signs a lease for a theater and you're going to open a theater and then the LLC doesn't pay the rent because the theater isn't making money, if you've done it as an LLC and the LLC doesn't pay the rent, then the landlord can only sue the LLC. They can't sue you as the owner of the LLC unless you sign something else promising that you would. But if the company doesn't do it, you're not as the owner of the company responsible. So if you have a lawsuit against Microsoft, you don't necessarily get to sue Bill Gates.

Speaker3: [00:25:26] Okay. Okay. Right. Right. Okay. That's cool.

Speaker2: [00:25:32] So it's called corporate veil piercing. And in some situations, the courts will let you disregard the corporation. So in my LLC example, if Green Bay, Lucas LLC, only has one owner and basically Green, Barry is using the money to also pay for green, Barry's dry cleaning.

Speaker3: [00:25:51] And cat food.

Speaker2: [00:25:52] And everything. And basically it's just an extension. It's your alter ego, it's the other you, it's the other.

Speaker5: [00:25:58] I don't have a cat, so I'm eating the cat food.

Speaker3: [00:26:01] And eating the cat. It's fine. It's crazy.

Speaker2: [00:26:05] So that's the situation. You're going to pierce the corporate veil. And so the owner of the corporation is going to be responsible for the corporate liability.

Speaker3: [00:26:13] Okay. Wow. Uh.

Speaker5: [00:26:15] We're getting into some layers there.

Speaker2: [00:26:17] So these are all the different doctrines going on in this case. And the point. So because they've sued the Scion cab company, which was the owner of the actual cab that actually hit Tchaikovsky, and then Carlton, who's the owner of the cab company. So that's a piercing, a veil piercing theory, right, that you're the owner of this cab company. And so you're personally responsible for what this cab company did. And then the enterprise liability, also the other nine cab companies that you also own, they're all part of one giant enterprise. And we're going to hold them all responsible. Follow.

Speaker5: [00:26:53] I totally I get I'm getting every bit of this. It all makes sense.

Speaker3: [00:26:58] Are you sure? So when people.

Speaker2: [00:26:59] Get really quiet, sometimes my guests get really quiet and I'm like, okay, I think I've lost them. All right. Awesome.

Speaker3: [00:27:09] The purpose of corporation is limited liability.

Speaker5: [00:27:13] Oh, okay. I get about my cat food dinner.

Speaker3: [00:27:15] I'm thinking about, like. And that's why we have so many problems.

Speaker5: [00:27:22] Right? Road is the best place.

Speaker3: [00:27:24] Right? Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:27:25] I could start a new Enron, bankrupt everybody and go. Sorry. That was. That was Enron, too. That wasn't Curtis.

Speaker5: [00:27:33] As long as you don't buy cat food.

Speaker4: [00:27:35] Out of what? Cat food.

Speaker3: [00:27:37] Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:27:38] Yeah. I mean, there's a whole other diatribe about limited liability of corporations and things like that that we could definitely get into about policy issues. And actually, this case does get into some policy issues because this whole point is right. What the underlying policy issue is, you've got a guy who got run down by a cab and the most money he can get is 20,000 because they set this company up in such a way that he's not going to get bupkis.

Speaker5: [00:28:01] Which I realize now that he really do. You say, well, Koski is a woman or man or doesn't matter? John Winckowski they they, they, they Yeah. Little Koski they got. I'm realizing they must be pretty badly injured because 20,000 in the sixties is a lot more than it is now. And I was happy with my tiny little payout. So. So this person probably had a lot of medical bills and stuff that they were at least trying to at least get that part.

Speaker2: [00:28:28] I think so. And the insurance question is kind of a big part of the dissent. There's also a dissent, by the way.

Speaker3: [00:28:35] Do we know all this guy was Does it say, John, who got hit?

Speaker2: [00:28:40] Let me see.

Speaker5: [00:28:42] Aj Nothing about a number. Lauren. I need to know how much.

Speaker3: [00:28:48] Does he like? He was going to have a basketball career, but then that matters.

Speaker5: [00:28:53] That matters. Yeah, they they talked about that. I was going to have a basketball career.

Speaker4: [00:29:01] And now you're stuck in a basement eating cat food.

Speaker5: [00:29:05] We don't know our company.

Speaker3: [00:29:07] We don't.

Speaker2: [00:29:08] Know. We don't know what his injuries were. We don't know how how bad it was. We don't know.

Speaker5: [00:29:14] No.

Speaker3: [00:29:16] We don't know if he's married.

Speaker2: [00:29:18] We don't know where he was.

Speaker3: [00:29:19] Injured.

Speaker5: [00:29:19] Sexually afterwards. We have a lot we don't know.

Speaker2: [00:29:23] Yeah, I mean, we have to. I even checked the Wikipedia article. No Wikipedia coverage on this one. It's just he's just a schlub who got nothing.

Speaker3: [00:29:33] You know.

Speaker2: [00:29:36] That's kind of the setup for. For the case Corporations. Limited liability, we understand about that, right? Yes.

Speaker3: [00:29:42] Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:29:43] Basically, the law is designed to protect these big old conglomerations.

Speaker2: [00:29:48] Yeah. And if you set your stuff up right, you can totally avoid liability. That's the idea.

Speaker5: [00:29:53] Okay. Help me out, Bill. Give me some of this LLC.

Speaker3: [00:29:56] Tell him to play the game. That's right. That's right. That's right. Robin Hood. I don't make the rules.

Speaker2: [00:30:02] I don't make the rules. I just use them to my advantage. And I write them to my advantage.

Speaker5: [00:30:14] And I actually am the one who makes the rules. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:30:17] Actually, the the biggest example of. Of how lawyers write the rules to their own benefit, the statute of limitations to sue a lawyer for malpractice is only one year. So everything else is two, three, four years. But if you don't sue your lawyer within one year, you're done. You are out of luck.

Speaker3: [00:30:35] It's like, Yeah, they made their own prenup. Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:30:40] Mean their own prenup. You don't like.

Speaker3: [00:30:43] This. You to know that by the time you realize this could have gone better, it'll be too late.

Speaker2: [00:30:49] It's too late. But get this. The statute of limitations for the lawyer to collect his or her fee is four years.

Speaker3: [00:31:00] No. Well, you busy? Yeah. They need more.

Speaker2: [00:31:04] Time. So guess how many days you wait to sue your client if they don't pay the bill? Zero 366 days after you stop representing them.

Speaker4: [00:31:16] Because then they can't sue you.

Speaker2: [00:31:18] You can sue.

Speaker3: [00:31:18] Them.

Speaker4: [00:31:19] But you can see that.

Speaker5: [00:31:20] Got the math on that. Numbers are hard.

Speaker4: [00:31:25] So the so the idea is it was so agency, right? Agency.

Speaker2: [00:31:30] Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:31:31] Agency. The driver is working as an agent for the corporation so you can sue the corporation based on the actions of whoever this driver was. Who? We don't even know his name, right? No. Did we?

Speaker2: [00:31:41] The driver was I think the driver was sued, but we're just calling him Bob.

Speaker4: [00:31:45] Bob's a small, small Bob. Bob was sued, but Bob is just the agent. So we're suing the corporation, Right. And that everybody is fine with. Every court was like, Yep, yes, yes.

Speaker2: [00:31:54] Yeah, right. Yeah. You can sue the company that you know, that the person works for. Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:32:00] But then the corporate veil piercing part is where they like, or that's like what they were going for with with this lawsuit. That's what the the the people suing the company was going for. And then some of the courts were like, well, you can't actually pierce this veil. This veil is too good.

Speaker2: [00:32:18] Yeah. If you kind of imagine it like like a family tree, if you have Carlton kind of at the top of the family tree, and then he's got ten children. And the idea is with corporate veil piercing is you can reach Carlton. He's the papa, but you can't reach the siblings.

Speaker4: [00:32:33] So and also to be clear in this metaphor, also, Carlton is all of his own children just wearing I assume kiddy Carlton is about the pop.

Speaker3: [00:32:45] Had.

Speaker4: [00:32:46] All of this.

Speaker3: [00:32:48] Yeah. Now this is this company now.

Speaker2: [00:32:50] Right?

Speaker3: [00:32:51] I'm Carlton Junior. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:32:53] Exactly. So the enterprise liability piece, the court says there's no you cannot do that. You can't sue different corporations just because they have the same owner sometimes it's called reverse veil, piercing veil piercing being you're looking behind the corporate veil to the stockholder or the owner. So, you know. Green Barry Lucas, LLC is owned by Green. Barry Lucas We're going to Sue Green, Barry Lucas LLC. And we say Green Bay. Lucas treats Lucas LLC as her personal plaything and we're going to go right past it because Greenberg, Lucas has all that money, and Green Bay Lucas LLC, has got bupkis. But reverse veil piercing. As we say, we've been harmed by Green Bay, Lucas, LLC. We're going to sue Green, Barry Lucas and Green Barry Lucas also owns Google. What else does Green Bay Lucas own?

Speaker5: [00:33:41] A bunch of peanut butter stocks.

Speaker2: [00:33:43] Bunch of Peanut Butter Stocks LLC. It's the other company that Lucas owns. We're not going to sue a bunch of Peanut Butter Stocks LLC because it's a sibling. It's another corp.

Speaker5: [00:33:54] It's a bunch of cans, empty cans.

Speaker2: [00:33:57] Oh, the highly valuable cans. And in this in this scenario, we really need those cases.

Speaker3: [00:34:02] Oh, okay.

Speaker4: [00:34:03] And so in that situation, this is basically like, well, you looked behind the Wizard of Oz curtain, right? And the court is like, no, can't look. Ignore shut that curtain back. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

Speaker3: [00:34:13] You can't see the.

Speaker5: [00:34:14] Man behind the curtain.

Speaker4: [00:34:16] Right? Just sue the big guy. You could only see the big head.

Speaker2: [00:34:19] Can man behind the curtain. Exactly.

Speaker5: [00:34:22] Big head, Not the tiny head.

Speaker4: [00:34:25] It's the classic case of big head versus.

Speaker2: [00:34:28] So true. That is so true.

Speaker4: [00:34:30] Listen to laying down the law. Season one episode 400 Big Head versus Shining.

Speaker3: [00:34:36] Exactly.

Speaker5: [00:34:37] If we could go back to that hydra. It's a variation of sizes of heads.

Speaker3: [00:34:40] Right.

Speaker2: [00:34:41] All right. And the court says, look, if you think this is a problem, then you need to go to the legislature to fix it. Right. The legislature allows cab companies to set it up this way and they allow this minimum liability insurance. And if you think insurance ought to be better than go get the legislature to change the laws, we're not in the business of changing the law. However, they do throw a bone to Wall Koski and they say this not to say it's impossible for the plaintiff to sue Carlton. He just failed to do so here.

Speaker5: [00:35:11] Hint, hint.

Speaker2: [00:35:12] Right. And he says this is not a case of simple agency, simple agency being like an employment situation, but it's actually fraud. It's a fraud analysis. And so the complaint alleges that the separate corporations were undercapitalized and their assets are intermingled, meaning each corporation had very little money and they're just mixing the money back and forth. It doesn't have anything particular to say that Carlton and his associates were actually doing business in as individuals and shuttling their personal funds in and out of the corporations. So that's really the difference, that alter ego, when you're looking at the owner of the corporation, it's are they using the corporation as their personal plaything.

Speaker5: [00:35:54] The cat food?

Speaker3: [00:35:56] The proof is in.

Speaker4: [00:35:56] Greenberg is buying cat food. That's not. But if she's just using that money for that, was it Cans of Peanut Butter LLC, then that's fine. She can move all that money between those two and we can't sue her.

Speaker2: [00:36:09] Right? Right.

Speaker4: [00:36:11] But as soon as she takes out some money and buys that sweet, sweet whiskers.

Speaker3: [00:36:14] Yeah. Fancy whiskas. Right.

Speaker2: [00:36:18] Exactly. That's exactly it. And basically they say, you know, he didn't do it, but he could potentially go back and amend the complaint, amend it to fix it or redo it and could potentially sue Carlton if they can allege that specifically Carlton has taken money out of the corporation.

Speaker5: [00:36:34] So you got to find and I guarantee you, you can find that easy. Easy.

Speaker3: [00:36:40] That's right.

Speaker2: [00:36:41] Right, right. The dissent basically says this is bogus.

Speaker5: [00:36:45] What's a dissent?

Speaker2: [00:36:46] A dissent is when you have an appellate court, usually there are a number of judges. So the United States Supreme Court has nine justices, for example. Usually a lot of courts of appeal might have three justices. And so what happens is if the majority of the justices want to go one way on a case and another judge wants to go a different way, they disagree with that finding. They can write their own opinion. And that's called dissent. And dissent explains why I disagree. Cool. A lot of times, particularly when you're talking about the United States Supreme Court, as the law changes and evolves over time, the dissents become what the opinion is. And then sometimes the opinion becomes the dissent because the court is political and the appointees are political and the political winds shift and people's values change over time. And so.

Speaker5: [00:37:36] Absolutely.

Speaker2: [00:37:38] So sometimes precedent gets reversed in the Supreme Court.

Speaker5: [00:37:41] Based on that dissent.

Speaker2: [00:37:42] Well, not necessarily based on the dissent, but the dissent might have the trail of breadcrumbs, so to speak.

Speaker3: [00:37:49] Okay.

Speaker2: [00:37:50] What the reasoning eventually would be and it's really written to say, this is why I think the majority is wrong.

Speaker4: [00:37:56] And it doesn't have like you couldn't use that dissent in a court of law to prove that you're right. They're just doing it so that well, hopefully if the law changes, I've already said what I think will be the right thing.

Speaker2: [00:38:10] Right. And it does have I think the idea is that in a case like this where you could kind of argue the results wrong. That's not right. Like, it doesn't really mean. It doesn't seem right that you should be able to structure your company so that it's impossible for someone to ever recover more than $20,000, no matter how badly they're injured. That seems like it should be wrong. And here are the reasons why. And here's the legal reasons why I think that's wrong, because a lot of times legal reasoning is just a way of dressing up what we think anyway, sort of like using our argument skills to prove something we believed beforehand. Our biases. Exactly. And so he basically says, under the circumstances of this case, the shareholders should all be individually liable to the plaintiff for the injuries he suffered. The reason is that he says. A participating shareholder of a corporation that's vested with a public interest. So here you're talking about a cab company, right? They have a public interest in safety that's organized with insufficient capital to meet the liabilities which are certain to arise in the ordinary course of the corporation's business, which I will point out, I had no knowledge that all three of my guests would show up saying. Having been hit by a cab. And in Curtis's case, several times. Ha ha ha ha. So we can say to a certainty that that these liabilities will occur in the ordinary course of a taxicab business, he said. I think the rule should be when you do that, you're personally responsible. You set up a company that has no money and that company is going around hitting people. Then you're on the hook for whatever damages it costs. Judge Keating the dissenting judge, was outvoted and he was the only one. There were one, two, three, four, five other justices, judges that voted voted the other way.

Speaker3: [00:40:05] Too, He said the five judges.

Speaker2: [00:40:07] He said that they basically he didn't think that the legislature's idea was to allow this to happen. This is just some clever gamesmanship by the cab company.

Speaker5: [00:40:17] Oh, yeah, we know. We know what's going on. That that Carlton Cab Company is a real bunch of scoundrels. What's going on? They're running people over and it's just been happening since the sixties and it happens today. And I'm sure he still a lot. They're still alive, still running people over.

Speaker2: [00:40:36] Probably even more so I mean, after this decision, you know, they're like like why are we only have why are we having two cabs per company? Why not just one?

Speaker3: [00:40:44] Yeah, Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:40:46] Why not half a cab? You can only see the front half of my head. Sorry. The back.

Speaker5: [00:40:50] I bet that math tracks if it's a 5000 payout.

Speaker3: [00:40:58] Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:41:00] That's pretty.

Speaker4: [00:41:01] Much it is one.

Speaker3: [00:41:02] Company.

Speaker2: [00:41:05] Yeah. And this is, you know, it does raise some interesting policy questions when you think about corporations. If you can shield liability in that way, you could do some really bad stuff. And he's like, well, that's in a corporation. We're not responsible for whatever happens in that part of the corporation. So it incentivizes companies to put their riskiest operations into a shell company or into some kind of a small subsidiary so that the other parts of the entity are safe. So they get sued for, I don't know, having toxic chemicals in baby powder or something like that. They like, well, we're going to bankrupt that company. The rest of us is fine.

Speaker3: [00:41:39] Yeah.

Speaker4: [00:41:40] Johnson Johnson is fine. You want to sue Johnson? Johnson and Johnson?

Speaker3: [00:41:45] Exactly.

Speaker5: [00:41:46] You want the three Johnson?

Speaker2: [00:41:49] We're going to do a little improv.

Speaker5: [00:41:50] Oh, boy.

Speaker3: [00:41:51] All right, All right. Good.

Speaker4: [00:41:54] Excuse. Excuse me. I'm sorry, John. As my lawyer, you've been very, very good. I really. I generally appreciate what you do.

Speaker2: [00:42:04] I know you.

Speaker4: [00:42:04] Do. It's just that I was just looking back over the contracts, and there's a lot of. I don't know. You know, what it seems is. Well, let's see, like, right here, Right? It says that I owe you the normal amount. Okay, that's fine. But then it says also that you can slap me any time you want.

Speaker2: [00:42:28] That's right.

Speaker4: [00:42:29] I thought. Yeah, that's right. I'll. I'll, I'll stop. Okay. So. So I thought that's illegal, right? So I went down to the courthouse and I, and I looked it up. And it turns out that, John, you wrote a law that says that you can slap me.

Speaker2: [00:42:41] That's true.

Speaker4: [00:42:43] So could you. Could you not write that law? I guess it's my first question. And also, like you got a law passed just so you could slap me.

Speaker2: [00:42:52] Listen, if you want to file an anti slap lawsuit, that's got to do with the First Amendment. Forget about that. I'll talk to you about anti-SLAPP later. That's a lawyer joke.

Speaker4: [00:43:01] Sorry, I'm just a lawyer, Joe. I'm sorry.

Speaker2: [00:43:04] I don't ask Johnny Depp about it.

Speaker3: [00:43:09] Forget it. Oh.

Speaker2: [00:43:13] Yeah. So, you know, I figure if I'm going to write my contracts, I might as well write the laws. It's really not that different. The law is a contract between me and the rest of society.

Speaker4: [00:43:26] Why were you slapping me all of the entire time?

Speaker3: [00:43:28] You explain. How could you.

Speaker2: [00:43:32] Feel so.

Speaker4: [00:43:33] Good? Wait, wait. Hold on. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Also, could I just ask about the no flinching law?

Speaker3: [00:43:38] Right? Right.

Speaker2: [00:43:39] Well, I just don't want you to be a little baby.

Speaker4: [00:43:44] I'm not a little baby. I'm going through a divorce. That's why I hired you, right?

Speaker2: [00:43:50] Right. You're a man who acts like a little baby.

Speaker3: [00:43:54] I don't know.

Speaker4: [00:43:55] Stop flinching on the behind. Stop subject. At least slap me in the face. No more slapping me on the butt. I feel too much like a baby if you slap me on the butt. I don't care what the law says.

Speaker2: [00:44:05] All right. I'm going to have to write a law about that, too.

Speaker4: [00:44:10] Oh, my. Oh, my. As he's writing the law, I can see the words in the sky imprinted. Oh, my God. What is happening? This is like I was going to say stranger with fiction. Stranger than fiction. The Will Ferrell.

Speaker3: [00:44:24] Movie. Doesn't that happen?

Speaker2: [00:44:26] Well, everything I do is based on a movie, As you know.

Speaker4: [00:44:29] I'm actually I realized I'm thinking of the movie Delirious with John Candy, where he writes his own He's a mystery writer. He writes.

Speaker2: [00:44:36] Could you possibly.

Speaker4: [00:44:37] Wow, I just slapped me right in the nose.

Speaker3: [00:44:40] Oh, I'm.

Speaker2: [00:44:40] So sorry about that. Could you possibly imagine Imagine me in a movie that has me with more money, like, I don't know, The Great Gatsby or something? I mean, you know, it's just we're constructing this reality based upon your imagination. I'd really appreciate it if you could give me some of the things that I want in this imaginary world.

Speaker5: [00:45:02] I am a cab driver. I just read typing on my typewriter Here, put some eyeliner on and call me Bob.

Speaker3: [00:45:14] Bob, watch what you're going to hit that person. It was a red light, Bob. I think you just blew through a red light.

Speaker5: [00:45:22] What are you. What are you trying to dry? The backseat Driver? I tell you what, these cabs that made to run folks over that looks like a speed bump, whether they weigh £117 grand. Right.

Speaker3: [00:45:34] Throw them. Oh, God. You know, this idea back here says that you drive for three different companies.

Speaker5: [00:45:51] Hey, listen, I'm not here to talk about all the companies that I drive through. I want to get to know you. You look like an interesting person. I'm writing a screenplay, and I can see you like being a character. You could be like. Like, Oh, yeah. So she's got this beautiful, flowing lock the hair and teeth, this beautiful smile. Oh, my God. A smile melts my like my like my provolone on my sandwich is melting.

Speaker3: [00:46:16] My I'm happy to be interviewed. I just. I wish you wouldn't type while you drive. I want my typewriter.

Speaker5: [00:46:28] Let's do your name, cutie pie. I don't use I. I swear I never. I never do this. I never do.

Speaker3: [00:46:37] I really never do, because I. Echo Sweeney. You really have a charm about you. I thought. I thought you might do this to all the girls you pick up.

Speaker5: [00:46:48] I'm usually so focused on my craft here, my screenplay writing. I don't. I don't. Usually. No one catches my eye in the back there. You. You got an astute observation. You saw that I ran over a person. You're looking around at all my red light.

Speaker3: [00:47:05] Oh, God.

Speaker5: [00:47:06] You know, red lights are our suggestion. Oh, no. There's somebody afoot.

Speaker3: [00:47:11] There's a bicyclist.

Speaker5: [00:47:14] Oh. Oh, good. Because I thought. I thought it was a frickin foot. They spread. They. They flattened one of the feet. Do they do something to bones that get. They do something and they don't. Anyway, I'm going to put that in my screen. That's an interesting line. The bones do something and.

Speaker3: [00:47:31] Then they don't. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, man. You hit me. You hit me.

Speaker4: [00:47:35] I need a dog. I need a doctor.

Speaker3: [00:47:37] Now you see.

Speaker5: [00:47:38] Why I never stop at red lights? This guy biked right up to the window. Listen, I.

Speaker4: [00:47:43] Know you hit me. You hit me. I need a duck. Are you a doctor? You're also. You're typing. You're driving a cab.

Speaker3: [00:47:50] You've got.

Speaker5: [00:47:51] A stethoscope. Because you know how much medicine, medical school student loans are very, very high price. Even in this year, this day and time, very much on a large amount of money.

Speaker4: [00:48:07] Och, well, can you look at my foot real quick?

Speaker5: [00:48:09] Oh, yeah.

Speaker3: [00:48:10] Let's excuse me. I have to be somewhere.

Speaker4: [00:48:14] Okay, Bye.

Speaker3: [00:48:15] Yeah.

Speaker5: [00:48:18] Okay. I'm sorry. I see. I'm sorry. I thought whenever people let me practice medicine. Truthfully, I didn't tell this guy that. But I did get my medical license revoked. But I carry my stuff around because I still have the education. You know, I kind of told that guy what happened to his body.

Speaker3: [00:48:37] I hear a lot of cab drivers come to this country that they were doctors before. So, yeah.

Speaker5: [00:48:44] I like that you're like a medical professional or screenwriter. Which one are you more interested in?

Speaker3: [00:48:52] I think this is me. Just pull, right?

Speaker5: [00:48:59] No, no. It's around. It's around the block I've got. We're going around the block on that. You know, I don't mind. I'll pull you right up to the door. I don't mind it. I don't mind the pull. You turn right here. I'll just pull a U-turn. I don't care.

Speaker3: [00:49:14] Okay. Just pop the trunk so I can get my furs.

Speaker5: [00:49:18] You got it. Anything for you. I never got your name or your number or I got imagining this. This might be your apartment. If you're interested in me just popping by.

Speaker3: [00:49:30] I'm not sure if that's a good idea.

Speaker5: [00:49:33] You're gonna want to read the screenplay when it's finished. I'm telling you. It's. It's really. It's. I have a lot of nice things to say about you and about the city.

Speaker2: [00:49:45] So, Bob, I've been reading your screenplay, and it's actually really good.

Speaker3: [00:49:52] It's really. You.

Speaker2: [00:49:54] I feel like you've kind of redefined a genre with what you're doing here, and I want to get it produced.

Speaker5: [00:50:03] Well, that's what I. That's what I was hoping you would say. You know, I worked very hard working, you know, did a little don't tell the medical boards, but I did practice a little medicine, you know?

Speaker2: [00:50:15] Well, no, that's in the screenplay. And in the middle of the second act, of course, there were like the five pages that were splattered with blood, which I thought was so unique and metaphorical.

Speaker5: [00:50:26] Because that leaves the cab windows open. And when I squashed somebody straight in the windows, it's crazy.

Speaker2: [00:50:32] It's like the truth and and fiction and reality are just all blending together. It's I really feel like this will redefine the genre.

Speaker5: [00:50:40] Yeah, it's like a blender, you know? You have a blender. I'm really into smoothies lately. I was thinking about getting a car that has a smoothie blender in it. Then I could make my smoothies while I'm writing.

Speaker2: [00:50:52] Well, that's what I loved about, you know.

Speaker4: [00:50:55] Welcome back to Entertainment Tonight. We have, of course, Bob, who's the first 100 tuple threat. Not a triple threat, not a director writer, an actor, but a director, Writer. Actor. Taxi driver. Doctor.

Speaker5: [00:51:12] Casanova.

Speaker4: [00:51:14] Casanova. The first legally.

Speaker3: [00:51:16] Recognized Casanova.

Speaker4: [00:51:18] Ever. Veterinarian. Vet of the armed forces. The first person to ever walk on the moon?

Speaker3: [00:51:26] Yes.

Speaker4: [00:51:27] After Neil.

Speaker3: [00:51:28] Armstrong. Mm hmm.

Speaker4: [00:51:29] And about 93 other other threats that we will come back to later.

Speaker2: [00:51:34] Now, Bob.

Speaker4: [00:51:35] This movie. This movie is incredible. It. It's so multifaceted. Oh, wait. Okay. Sorry.

Speaker5: [00:51:49] I just have my lunch. I'm. I'm the reason I'm able to have all of those accolades as I do it all. You see, I don't. I don't leave any moment to chance. Here we are. We're. We're interviewing here.

Speaker4: [00:52:01] At a Quiznos.

Speaker5: [00:52:02] Yes, Yes. Having my. Having my dinner. You know, this is what they call having your cake and eating it, too, which I think is a misinterpretation of the actual quote. But it's what I'm doing. I do it all.

Speaker4: [00:52:15] Of course, threat number 42 is that you are a linguist. You are you have taken apart language in a way that many people have never.

Speaker5: [00:52:24] Scripted a part, tour the part and throw it through some scissors. That's that's what I did.

Speaker4: [00:52:31] If you threw it through some scissors, the first person, Bob, also to reinterpret how.

Speaker3: [00:52:37] We use scissors.

Speaker4: [00:52:38] No longer for so many years.

Speaker2: [00:52:41] I know.

Speaker4: [00:52:42] I grew up cutting them up, using the scissors with my hands rather than throwing things at.

Speaker3: [00:52:47] Me. You weren't thinking.

Speaker5: [00:52:48] You weren't thinking. I'm always thinking, you know.

Speaker2: [00:52:51] Thinking.

Speaker4: [00:52:52] Thinking.

Speaker5: [00:52:54] Just going to clip my toenails.

Speaker3: [00:52:57] Oh, okay. So it's.

Speaker5: [00:52:59] It's important. It's important to maximize every moment. That's if you want to be like me, that's. That's the key takeaway. Maximize every moment.

Speaker4: [00:53:11] And that was our last interview with Bob. Bob. Bob, wherever you are now, this is in memoriam for Bob, who was hit by his own taxi while cutting his toenails, singing opera and.

Speaker3: [00:53:27] Crying.

Speaker4: [00:53:31] For Entertainment Tonight.

Speaker5: [00:53:34] So I'm wearing a trench coat. I am allowed to ask you anything, and you should feel obligated to answer.

Speaker2: [00:53:43] Okay. So ask me anything you want to know.

Speaker3: [00:53:47] Okay.

Speaker5: [00:53:49] What type of undergarments do you wear?

Speaker2: [00:53:53] Oh, well, I usually wear at least two pairs.

Speaker5: [00:53:57] To double an.

Speaker3: [00:53:59] Absolutely.

Speaker2: [00:54:00] People would always ask me boxers or briefs, and I would say, How can decide?

Speaker3: [00:54:05] So I wear both very snug.

Speaker5: [00:54:08] You're really snuggling.

Speaker3: [00:54:11] Tight in there?

Speaker5: [00:54:13] Yes. Don't want to lose your marbles.

Speaker2: [00:54:16] Oh, I've said it once. I've said it a thousand times.

Speaker5: [00:54:21] Yes. Yes. So, as you know, there is a missing. Well, there was a severed head found in your apartment building in the laundry room. But I'm curious to know, how often do you do laundry since you're wearing two briefs?

Speaker2: [00:54:38] Well, I do laundry about two or three times a day. I've got to keep it clean with all my layering. You know, it's very cold and sometimes warm. And so I like to be ready for anything.

Speaker5: [00:54:49] Yes. You really know how to navigate this city. I like that in an interview.

Speaker2: [00:54:55] Absolutely. In front of the record, I did not see a severed head in the laundry room any of the 21 times I went in the week in question.

Speaker5: [00:55:03] Never. Oh, never did. It was set in setting very much in plain sight, which was an interesting choice. We thought you did see it like sitting right on the shelf by the the fabric softener.

Speaker3: [00:55:17] Well, here's the.

Speaker2: [00:55:18] Thing about duplicity is that when you see things two ways at once all the time, sometimes you see nothing at all. And that's what happened in this case.

Speaker5: [00:55:28] Is that is that is that like a bipolar duplicity? Is that part of.

Speaker3: [00:55:33] Bipolar duplicity.

Speaker2: [00:55:34] Is what you take what you get when you take bipolar and you stand it on its.

Speaker3: [00:55:38] Head.

Speaker5: [00:55:39] Okay.

Speaker2: [00:55:40] I have a two polls going on and you're switching back and forth and switching back and forth. Who's got the time? Why not do both at the same time? You can be you can be fully energetic and not be able to get out of bed.

Speaker3: [00:55:52] At the same.

Speaker2: [00:55:52] Time. That's what's fun. That's what I call a good time.

Speaker3: [00:55:56] That's a weekend, a week two.

Speaker2: [00:56:00] That's morning, noon and night. That's how I like.

Speaker3: [00:56:02] To do it.

Speaker5: [00:56:02] Wow. You're definitely very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Speaker3: [00:56:09] I think so.

Speaker5: [00:56:10] I try to stay on the case, but I just want to know more and more about you. But this this head that you did.

Speaker3: [00:56:17] Peanut butter.

Speaker2: [00:56:17] And chocolate. I got them both. Go ahead.

Speaker5: [00:56:20] Yes. Okay.

Speaker3: [00:56:21] Peanut butter.

Speaker2: [00:56:22] And jelly. Why not?

Speaker5: [00:56:24] Well, that one makes very much sense. It's very sensical. Peanut butter and jelly. Oh, most people do that one. Peanut butter and chocolate. That's a that's a.

Speaker3: [00:56:32] Pineapple on pizza.

Speaker2: [00:56:34] Who's got that going on? That's crazy.

Speaker5: [00:56:36] This one of my favorite toppings. I. I enjoy.

Speaker4: [00:56:39] Hold on. Excuse me. Sorry, sir. I want to talk to my officer first. It's real quick outside.

Speaker5: [00:56:45] Yes, Sergeant.

Speaker4: [00:56:47] You're too nice to this guy. You keep every every single time he talks about something, you get enthralled in his story. He said duplicity is an interesting thing. That's the most lying, honest thing I've ever heard somebody say. They said lying is interesting. And you said, Well, that's interesting that you put it that way. Look, you got to get this case, okay? I've got faith in you. You can you can close.

Speaker2: [00:57:11] This and see. Well, this brings us to the end of this week's legal voyage. And I want to thank you for joining me, your captain, on this earmark edition of Laying Down the Law. I'd like to thank my crew, Green Berry, Lauren and Curtis for joining me on this delightful journey into madness. And listener, I'd like to thank you for coming along with us. Wherever you are. You're also here while you're there via the magic of earmarks. Cpe I'd also like to thank the OG cello Performance CPA Blake Oliver for building earmarks CPE the mighty little app that makes learning fun and free. Mostly free. But now you can subscribe. Isn't that right? Blake That's right. Billy And speaking of mighty, thank you to the mighty Q Quentin Fichtner for the mighty cover Art.

Speaker3: [00:58:04] Thank you for the opportunity, Billy. And if you listeners want some cool art of your own, you can find me by pro dot com.

Speaker2: [00:58:12] Thank you to David Felton for creating the awesome all original music. And a special thank you to Geoff at Fight Productions. Hey, that's me.

Speaker3: [00:58:24] Yes, Jeff.

Speaker2: [00:58:26] That is you. Thank you, Jeff, for making a little boy's radio show. Dreams into a middle Aged man's podcast's reality. So until next time.

Speaker1: [00:58:39] Wait, what's this? You forgot something.

Speaker2: [00:58:41] What's that? I forgot something you say?

Speaker1: [00:58:43] Yeah. You got to do the thing. You know the thing.

Speaker3: [00:58:46] All right. If you.

Speaker2: [00:58:49] Want even more of that delicious little nut butter drenched in comedy chocolate, find the full version of this.

Speaker3: [00:58:56] And every amazing episode.

Speaker2: [00:58:58] Of laying down the law at home or wherever in the metaverse, you get your podcasts.

Speaker1: [00:59:05] That fit Procom find your productions not responsible for the preceding comments related to nut butter. If you or someone you know experiences, nausea, third eye blindness, sudden onset euphoria, or have an unrelenting craving for ham, seek help immediately. Laying down the law is protected by the Intergalactic Treaty of Euripides. Start 82182190. If you'd like a transcript of the show, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Colonel Steve Austin of the Foundation for Law and Government. Two, 21a Baker Street, Beverly Hills 90210. Any likeness to real places, persons or events is absolutely happenstance. We'd never intentionally crib real life happenings to make a podcast. We're not true crime after all. It's more likely a situation similar to the chimpanzees, typewriters and Shakespeare. Right? That's what attorney Steve says anyway. And if you know what's good for a you listen to Attorney Steve. I don't argue with attorney Steve mostly because he ain't right in the head and quite honestly frightens me a little bit. The last time we went to court, the judge started asking him all kinds of weird questions, like, where did you study law and why hasn't the state bar of California ever heard of you? Then attorney Steve started doing this weird, deep breathing meditation kind of thing and muttering under his breath about a monster drug fight and how the judge ain't got nothing on a £15,000, 2000 horsepower fire beating death cage on wheels, and then the killer heat running with his taser. And honestly, that's the truth. Steve, come with me. It was only traffic, for God's sake.

[01:00:19] I totally parked in the loading dock and I.