“I want to introduce you to Paul Madriani.” Just like that Tolt acquaints Conover with the hand aimed at his other pocket.
We shake. He gives me the same solid grin he offered charging through the door, the once-over to assess the latest lawyer trying to shake him down. He quickly turns his attention back to Adam and they talk golf, kibitzing and quizzing each other on current handicaps.
“We’ll have to get you over to Temecula,” says Conover.
“Seems I only get to play these days when I’m on vacation,” says Adam.
“Where’s that?”
“Out at de Anza.”
“You have a membership?”
Tolt nods. “We bought a condo on the fourteenth fairway. We spend some time there.”
“How is Margo?”
“She’s good. Healthy. She keeps me in shape.”
“De Anza. That’s a little rich for my blood.” Conover looks again in my direction. “You play golf, Mr. Madriani?”
“Sorry to say it’s not one of my vices.”
“Good. We’ll have to get you out on the course. I need somebody I can beat. Adam here chops the legs out from under me every time we get near the greens. Whatever he lacks in his drives, he more than makes up for with his putts.”
“Putz is the right word,” says Adam.
We laugh again as the line piles up outside the door to the conference room.
Behind Conover, a slender guy in his thirties is hauling a briefcase in both hands, trying to lift it over Conover’s shoulder as he slides in behind him to get to the table across from me.
“Excuse me,” says Conover. “Like you to meet Larry Melcher, house counsel with Devon. Paul Madriani. Is it Madriani? I am pronouncing it correctly?”
“That’s right.” I’m shaking Melcher’s hand as I talk to Conover. When I turn to look at the lawyer, he gives me the insurance eye, a play for dominance. There is much mutual sniffing here. This is well practiced by every indemnity lawyer I’ve ever met. He would frisk me if he thought he could get away with it. Instead he tests my hand for grip as if any contest between us will be settled by arm wrestling on the conference table.
“Now who exactly is it you’re representing here today?” Melcher hasn’t even taken a seat and he’s plumbing for information, trying to nail down my client. It wouldn’t do to be playing too many sides of the same fence.
“My firm represents Dana Rush. You may have met my partner out in the reception area?”
“I don’t think we had that opportunity.” He says it with a kind of fraternity grin that makes me think that whatever happened out in reception wasn’t that cordial. With Dana and Margaret in the same room, they may have to chip the ice off the walls.
Dana is next through the door, followed by Harry. I had to twist his arm to get him to come. I needed somebody to referee in the event Margaret and Dana decided to do best two-out-of-three falls while they were waiting.
They come around the long way to my side of the table, Dana taking a seat between Harry and me. As I make the introductions, Conover is busy filling his eyes with my client and flashing his pearly whites. He would no doubt like to ask her a few questions, perhaps undress her, but this is not the place or time.
While this is going on, Margaret wanders through the door behind him, ogling the surroundings, the French crystal chandelier over the table and the original oils on the walls, seeing how God might decorate heaven if He had the money. She is followed by her lawyer, Sue Glendenin, a bright, cheerful blond, perky and cute. Her slight build and sometimes timorous voice have deceived more than a few lawyers into playing patty-cake with her in the courtroom only to wake up with their pants on the floor and their pockets empty. As usual Susan is smiling. Margaret is not.
Glendenin moves to the head of the line, introduces herself to Adam, and starts giving out business cards. She repeats this with Conover and his lawyer, then nods to me.
“How are you doing, Paul?”
“Tell you in a while.” I wink at her.
“No need to give you one of these.” She puts the little case with business cards back in her coat pocket. This does not go unnoticed by Conover, the fact that lawyers representing the two adverse parties have been talking out of school and are still smiling at each other.
Moving slowly, like a wounded animal on a predator’s turf, Margaret cannot find enough things to look at. She stares at the paintings behind us, up at the clock, her eyes falling anywhere and everywhere. The only place they don’t land is on Dana. The invisible woman. While there are handshakes and introductions all around, no one possesses sufficient stupidity or enough balls to fall into the social pit of introducing these two women. For their part, they try as best they can to ignore each other.
“I think maybe we should get started,” says Adam. “Would anybody like coffee? Anything to drink?”
“A scotch and soda, but only after we’re finished,” says Conover. He and Adam laugh.
“Why wait?” I say. “Harry would be happy to pour.” More laughs, everybody but Margaret, whose fuse already seems lit.
“Please take a seat.” Adam assumes the duties as master of ceremonies, while his assistant takes orders for coffee and calls them out front on the phone’s com line.
There are adjustments into chairs all around the table. Since these are on wheels, I notice Margaret sliding perceptibly down the table away from us. Her lawyer stays close, right up next to Melcher, crowding him at the table, so if he wants to take notes, he’s going to have to hold the legal pad against his stomach to write anything in confidence.
Adam’s assistant, Glenda, has set up office at the other end of the table, taking notes in case there is any dispute later as to what is said or the ground covered.
“I suspect we all know why we’re here today.” Tolt sits up straight in his chair at the head of table. “Devon Insurance issued a policy of life insurance on one of this firm’s partners, Nicholas Rush. Mr. Rush, as we all know, is now deceased, and there appear to be two separate claims to that policy, each laying claim to the full face amount of the policy, two million dollars. One of these is filed by Mrs. Margaret Rush. One by Mrs. Dana Rush. Please stop me if anything I say is incorrect or if there are any questions.” Adam looks around the table. Nobody says a word.
“There are some details,” he says. “Complications that I’m sure we can all discuss if that becomes necessary.” “Details and complications” is how Adam covers the question of the marital settlement agreement between Margaret and Nick and the fact that the widow’s name is not on the policy as beneficiary, issues over which some Third World nations might go to war given the sums involved here.
Adam clears his throat and takes a drink of water from a glass that Glenda had poured earlier and placed next to his hand.
“The purpose of this meeting is to see if there is any accommodation that we can all arrive at here today, in order to resolve any dispute short of litigation.” Tolt looks at the two women as if to make his point. “That is, without having to go to court and have a judge make a ruling that perhaps none of us would be entirely happy with.”
“I could live with it if the court enforces the insurance policy.” Margaret shoots from the lip, unable to control herself any longer.
“Yes, but what if you lose?” says Adam. “There are other issues, as I’m sure your lawyer has explained to you. And none of us here today would want to see you without some recompense.”
Margaret gives a mean stare and holds it on Dana, convinced, I am sure, that Adam does not speak for everybody in the room.
“The same is true with regard to you.” He turns to Dana. “I honestly don’t think that Nick would have wanted either of you to suffer.”
This draws an audible groan from Margaret. “Oh, spare us,” she says.
Tolt ignores this. “The fact is that none of us here today want to see either one of you in a position in which you are harmed. I think that if you consider the risks, and think about it fo
r a while, you will agree with us.” For Margaret to arrive at this conclusion could take a couple of lifetimes.
Glendenin moves a little toward her client, puts one hand on Margaret’s arm, a gesture for her to calm down, to which she receives a contemptuous look from her own client. Then just as quickly Susan is back invading Melcher’s zone of privacy, leaving Margaret to drift in her sea of scorn.
“I hope that includes us?” says Conover. “I mean the part about nobody being harmed.”
“Absolutely.” Adam’s eyes twinkle as he gives this assurance. If nothing else, it provides a little comic relief.
“That’s reassuring,” says Conover smiling. “Of course we understand that we have an obligation to pay out,” he says. “The only problem is who do we pay?”
Margaret is still looking at Dana, contempt welded in her pupils, so I suspect my client would like to slide under the table. It’s not so much the money as the fact that Dana would get some of it that prevents Margaret from negotiating. She slides her chair back over on its wheels toward her lawyer and cups a hand to Susan’s ear, whispering into the funnel. Once having stated her bottom line to me, she is not likely to give ground. Having lost her marriage to Dana, she’s not now going to give up the policy with her name on it. This is written in her eyes as she whispers, so it doesn’t take a soothsayer to read this message: “Not a dime less than two million.” She glances at the door as I watch her. It wouldn’t take much to cause her to bolt. She knows we won’t get a second chance for a meeting with the carrier, short of litigation.
“Perhaps if we could get some movement, some direction,” says Conover. He looks over at Margaret still whispering to her lawyer. “Maybe if we could get one of the ladies to break the ice. Talk to her lawyer with an offer.”
Conover sits there staring directly at Margaret as he says this. She stops whispering in mid-syllable. His tactic is clear; drive a wedge between the women and sit on the two million while it earns interest at seven percent and they grind each other into dust in some courtroom.
He’s about to pop the question of compromise to Margaret, the grenade in the corner. Conover wants to pull the pin and get the hell out of here. I suspect the only reason he has come to this meeting is to humor Adam Tolt. No doubt Adam, in some other life, sits on corporate boards and otherwise rubs shoulders with Conover’s superiors back at the home office. Tolt is a man with an iron in everybody’s fire.
“That is precisely what I was hoping for.” The first words I have spoken in earnest. “Some movement,” I say.
“Is your client prepared to compromise her claim?” It comes from the lawyer, Melcher, who pounces like a panther.
“She is. She’s willing to give up half of it.”
“There we go,” says Conover. “Mrs. Rush,” he gestures toward Dana using the designation he knows will infuriate Margaret Rush, “is willing to give up a million dollars to settle this matter.” He makes it sound as if he’s soliciting applause at a charity bazaar.
“I didn’t say that. I said she’s willing to give up half.”
Over steepled fingers and with his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, Adam has now settled back to watch this cat fight.
“In fact she’s willing to give up two million dollars,” I add.
“You mean she’s willing to step away from everything?” Conover gives me an incredulous look, as if to say, “then what are we doing here?”
“No. Just half,” I tell him.
He shakes his head, looks at his lawyer, who shrugs his shoulders, each trying to figure what they’ve missed.
“Explain,” he says.
“The total claim isn’t two million dollars,” I tell him. “It’s four million.”
“What are you talking about?” says Melcher.
“I’m talking about the double-indemnity clause.”
“What?” Melcher looks at his boss, shaking his head, shrugging his shoulders, turning up the palms of his hands as if to say, “Who let the crazy guy in?” “Where have you been practicing?” says Melcher. “Not insurance law.”
“Mostly criminal,” I tell him.
“Ahh.” A look like “well that explains it.” “Double indemnity is only for accidental death.” He says this in a kind of gentle tone as if a mild education is all that is needed here. “This was a homicide,” he says. “A double homicide maybe, but not double indemnity.” He smiles a little at the pun he has made. “Mr. Rush was murdered, unless there’s something we haven’t been told.”
“That may be,” I tell. “Have you read the police report?”
“Somewhere,” says Melcher. He opens his briefcase and starts fishing.
“Let me save you the trouble, and so that you understand what I’m saying. Nick Rush may have been the victim of an intentional act. That we concede. But the question remains-was he the intended victim in that shooting or merely an innocent bystander- shot by accident? ” I emphasize the last three words.
“Oh, come on,” says Melcher. “You can’t be serious?”
Conover’s looking at his lawyer, wondering what the hell’s going on. This is not what he’d planned. A quick meeting and out the door, followed by several man-years of litigation while they turned the screws on the two women.
“I couldn’t be more serious. More to the point, there’s case law on the subject.”
Sheaves of paper, each neatly stapled, come sliding down the table from another direction. Harry is handing them out of a manila folder lying on the table in front of him like he’s dealing faro from a boxed deck. Copies of these slide in front of the lawyers and Conover.
“There is also a copy of the homicide investigation report. This concludes that the deceased Nicholas Rush was not the intended victim in this case, but that his client Gerald Metz was in all likelihood the target of the attack. This is based on the physical evidence at the scene, witness statements, and other evidence in the possession of the authorities, both state and federal. I commend it to your reading,” I tell them.
Harry sends copies of the police report down next so that Conover and his lawyer are still reading the first page of our legal points and authorities when the investigation report comes sliding in on top of it like a runner safe at home plate.
Now the lawyers are all flipping pages. Glendenin and Tolt are sitting back amused, as if they have no dog in this fight, while Conover looks at his lawyer, waiting for Melcher to pull a rabbit out of the fly to his pants.
“This is nothing. This means nothing,” says Melcher. He hasn’t had time to read past the first page but feels compelled by his boss’s presence to get his sword out of its sheath. “Your man was standing next to his client. Sure he was shot.”
“And your argument is?” I ask.
“His client was the intended victim. Says so right here.”
“I agree. That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
“No. No. No. No.” Melcher says it as if each time it adds to the weight of his argument. “You don’t understand,” he says. “The fact that your client was standing next to the intended victim doesn’t mean he was shot accidentally. I mean, he was representing the man. He was his lawyer.”
“What’s that mean?” says Harry. “Are you saying he assumed the risk?”
“Not exactly. Well, in a way,” says Melcher. “I mean this man. And no offense, ladies,” he looks at Dana, then shoots a quick glance down the table toward Margaret. “No offense, but Mr. Rush represented some questionable clients.”
“You’re telling me?” says Margaret.
“What does that have to do with anything?” I ask.
“You figure it out.” Melcher is starting to lose his cool. “You got a dirtbag drug lawyer hanging out with his client in front of a federal courthouse when the two of them get shot. Now if you want sympathy, I’ll give it to you by the truckload,” he says. “But not this. What do you think a jury is going to say when they find out your man’s representing some drug dealer when he gets shot?” He looks a
t me arching his eyebrows as if he’s just dropped a bomb on our case. He doesn’t wait for me to answer. “I’ll tell you what they’re gonna say. They’re gonna say he got what he had coming. Especially when your claim is… is… is…” his anger takes hold and he starts sputtering. “Is this,” he flips the papers in front of him. “That it’s an accidental death?”
“First of all, that information is never going to get before a jury,” I tell him.
“What?” he says.
“In fact, I can almost guarantee you that a trial judge isn’t even going to allow you to inform the jury that Mr. Rush was a lawyer, much less that he was in any way associated with Mr. Metz. It’s irrelevant, and I would argue it’s highly prejudicial.”
Harry pipes in. “Read the points and authorities,” he says. “Very illuminating.”
“The only real issue here,” I say. Melcher is looking back at me, knowing he is getting double-teamed. “The only issue is whether Mr. Rush was the intended victim of this act or whether he was killed by accident. Let me ask you a question.”
Conover is looking down, holding his head in hands, elbows propped on the table as if he doesn’t need any more questions.
“Assuming Mr. Rush was standing out in front of that courthouse alone, without Mr. Metz, would this shooting have even occurred?”
Melcher looks at me, down at the police report in front of him, back to the points and authorities. He’d rather not answer. He knows it’s a question I can ultimately raise before a jury. The ultimate and unavoidable issue, but for Mr. Metz…
“It’s a simple question. Based on the evidence in front of you, do you think the shooting would have occurred?”
“We don’t know.” Conover demonstrates why he is Melcher’s superior. His head comes up, and he cuts off his lawyer before the man can answer.
“We don’t know. We haven’t had time to read through all of this.” Better that than an open admission in front of witnesses, even if these are arguably settlement negotiations. Conover’s had enough surprises for one day.
“If our clients have to get you in court, I suppose you can argue with the cops,” I tell them.
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