Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

This isn't the Jack Nicholson - Tom Cruise showdown in A Few Good Men, but still, it's pretty good, from Corby Baumann deposition, being triggered by my attorney -

‍

Q.· · This indicates to you that he is not terminating the correct; correct?

A.· · No, it does not.

A.· · It does not at all.· You know what it means?· It means that he again has to tell us how stupid we are and how smart he is because he needs to give us perspective on construction.· And, again, he can't say "I was wrong, I didn't mean what I said in my e-mail."· He doubles down again. And, in fact, he breached the contract by stopping work, removing things from the property, saying he cancelled future work.· This does not negate all of the prior days' behavior for multiple days. This is his way of trying to bully us into continuing after he had already bullied us and old us he no longer wanted to work for us.

Q.· · But there is a very clear statement here correcting you saying if you are not agreeing to terminate the contract, then we will just move forward with it.

******

A... He had spent a day and a half, two days, not responding to any e-mails or phone calls.· He knew exactly what he was doing and on that call he tried to bully me into agreeing to something that I didn't agree to.

 Chuck speaking now - the fact that she thought that a day or two went by without any return call or email shows just exactly how good we are to set that type of expectation. My god, I've been working with people for 25 years who don't return my calls for 2 weeks who I send lunches and chocolates to just so they get back to me.

No wonder they were seething about the trash and the 'communications' - completely unfair expectations, I guess we created our own monster by being so good, cooperative, responsive and expert. Goes to show how my suggestion to hire an Owner's rep was exactly what the project needed - so I could build a home, and they could gain valuable insight into the reality of a construction project. She's upset because I'm 'giving her construction perspective' - what in god's name is wrong with that? Isn't that part of my job?

Wowza. And the deposition transcript is 200+ pages long so stay tuned.

‍

As I read through the deposition, which of course i take with a grain of salt because clearly anyone going into a deposition has thought about what they want to say and what they don't want to say so her answers have to be considered under that light, but some of the things that came out of her mouth that speak to her state of mind as to the services we were offering her- calling Amanda, probably the hardest working, most accomplished designer in the Hudson Valley an 'administrative assistant', nitpicking our accuracy on their round after round after round after round after round of powerpoint presentations to us adopt, adapt, change, and alter in the plans, denigrating and diminishing all my personal efforts to help them safely select, vet and purchase a perfect piece of land while on a parallel track walking them through a pre-construction build process so they are literally under construction within 2 months of buying a piece of land in a construction environment where no one is returning anyones calls and I'm leveraging every ounce relationship capital to get this project moving.

I mean, if she felt even 50% of what she relayed in her deposition - felt that our year long efforts to help them launch this building project in one of the toughest construction environments ever - no wonder they felt comfortable calling us unprofessional and feeling put out by our efforts. That was their perspective - and one that became increasingly clear to me. Can you imagine sweating blood and tears on a Saugerties mountaintop for a year for two people who view your efforts in that light, coming out of the pandemic where every single laborer, skilled and unskilled, was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally?

I mean, no one just out of the blue writes an email calling your sole trusted advisor 'unprofessional and purposely sabotaging your dream home construction site'. I'm sure there is a long line of people who have received the exact same sort of email over the years from these folks. Maybe it worked in the past, and perhaps that created the trap that they inadvertently stepped into - that everyone will kneel and kiss the ring when you insult them, out of respect for the lofty heights from with Ben and Corby are perched. According to Baumannn's transcript, she just thought I should get over it, and actually say I'm sorry for being offended.

‍

What remains weird to this day is how she wouldn't let her husband fix the problem - which he had mostly done with a kind and gracious and generous email, exactly the type I would hope to write if I made an error in tone or message to an important, respected and trusted colleague. But instead, she took over, started looking for lawyers, started tape recording conversations while trying to get me say something incriminating, and drafting a 6 point plan of terminating the contract.  All with 24 hours of her husband's unnecessary email, after working together for a year.

So the conclusion couldn't be more straightforward - either they are 1, insane, or 2, they weren't happy and were seething about our efforts and just had had enough and this provided an escape route. I guess in the end, the major miscalculation was 2 fold - 1, that finding another contractor would be easy and painless, and 2, that contractor would meet or exceed our efforts, however imperfect they were perceived to be.

It's clear from the discovery I'm receiving from the process they are now engaged in that a contractor I thought was a peer of mine, actually while quite respected and I'm sure offers quality works, has a communication and administrative process that can't touch ours. I'm sure complaining about a lack of return phone call in 24 hours seems small potatoes to what they are experiencing now, based on the records I'm reviewing. I know we are good, and in this up close and comparative light to a 'peer', I'm starting to really see how good. One thing unexpectedly beneficial about this process was we were able to and continue to request a lot of communications from the current contractor - bids, invoices, contracts, subcontractors - I'm mean we are like one of the team, and I'm able to up close and personal compare my efforts to his, which has been insightful.

‍

‍

The Story of Business is the story of expenses. A story of Cash Flow. And eventually, a story of Profits.

And you are going to have weeks like this when you are building 14 homes across 3 counties, and have a portfolio of 8 single family rental homes in 4 states. But still, Really?

Our forklift lull didn't start - $3000. Tree fell on the roof of a rental - $2000. Someone - not mentioning any names - crashed some piece of equipment into a new AC condenser - $6500. Spec home water well sediment filter - $10,900. Sales tax audit - $35k (because for some god-forsaken reason a little hardware shop out of Tennessee didn't charge us sales tax for internet sales and we buy an impressive amount of hardware I guess). I think there's a few more, but I've put them out of mind for the moment.

Serious money! Out of the blue. Best strategy for those types of expenses is pay them quick and get them behind you since the longer you contemplate them, the longer the pain sticks around. Pay 'em, move on the next problem. Only thing that makes it better is knowing it's actually only 50% of the invoice because of my baller tax rate level.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the literal non-stop rain since September is degrading our driveways, private roads and everything else we do with land, which is all we do, period, so, that sort of sucks ass too.

I just want to say before the Big Read, I think this post really turned out well.

The thing about this Corby Baumann and Ben Forman lawsuit I’m embroiled in, my first after hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts, is that it is just one of hundreds if not thousands of business problems I had over the last 15 months.  To be honest, it was sort of on my radar but not really, since I had day to day operational issues that were always more important pressing - my lawyer would call up and say I need this document or that document and we would send it over.  I'm sure the same can't be said about the defendants- I'm sure it has been a pervasive, distracting, unnecessary waste of time and energy and resources - on a personal level. Who in god's name would do that to themselves?

Luckily - though, c’mon, let’s give me some credit here - because I began to see the writing on the wall - this project ended early, rather than late, so to be honest, the paperwork really was a pretty light lift.  Though, as you will see as I document each and every filing and request from Eric Weissman, attorney at Connell Foley, they seemed to make each request for each item in 5 different ways, so there was this constant stream of requests for what felt to me like the exact same information but in a different format.  And then after I submitted it multiple times, they made a motion trying to get my lawsuit dismissed for not providing the requested information, and then that motion had to be withdrawn - literally Weissman had to write a letter to the court withdrawing his own motion.   I would suppose that behind the scenes, this grand strategy was supposed the be the checkmate, and instead was a sort of embarrassing turnabout of having your queen stolen by a pawn.

OMG, this back and forth between lawyers - this game of footsie they were playing with each other - was pretty lost on me since I was running my business, but now that trial is around the corner, and I’m reading each and every document, I see how avoidable this whole 18 months of litigation was, and what appears to be a legal strategy of trying to overwhelm me with document requests, while bleed me with legal costs.

If that was the strategy, it couldn’t have failed more completely.  The document requests were annoying for sure, but we got it done as far as I know, and the legal costs added up to over $100k (which hopefully I get reimbursed for when we win at trial -  probably closer to $200k by time trial is over) were sort of invisible since they trickled in as $5k here and $5k there, and just added up as time went by.   But, when you are paying $1.5m a month in bills, $5k here and there catches your eye but not for long.  And it’s not $5k, it’s $3k after taxes, and $3k is hardly a blip, especially when you factor in the education I’m getting that will serve me for the rest of my business career.

There’s this crazy thing in the legal world called I think ‘litigation privilege’.  Meaning, anything you say in a court document about anyone is protected from defamation.  You can see how that makes sense because otherwise every lawsuit would produce a defamation lawsuit for all the meany-pants and untrue things that are said in these filings.  So that makes sense, but it doesn’t make it any less fair to have your name or reputation tarred because someone is making stuff up.

However, since most people aren’t in the public eye, most court documents and fiings - while available to the public in entirety (with the exception of family court) - don’t get much wide reading or exposure or press coverage because people don’t know they exist, are hard to search for, and typically don’t show up robustly in search results for whatever reason.

So the idea that I’m going to post each and every sentence, allegation, inference, legal manuever, with commentary will be shocking to those used to hiding behind the protection of litigation privilege.  It’s sort of a badass kamikaze move, since as the supreme court has said, the best defense against freedom of speech is more freedom of speech - then these folks or others can start their own blog and do whatever the hell they want and say whatever the hell they want about me.  That’s America.  Speech V. Speech, and let the best writer win.  I frankly couldn’t give a fuck, look forward to putting my reputation up against this bullshit for a real stress test, and let’s see how it all plays out, in court, and on the internet.

But since there isn’t a person - at least a person I’ve shown the emails too and the court filings to - that haven’t had that ‘ick’ feeling when reading the defendant’s and their attorney’s filings and emails, I just can’t see how they are going to enjoy having their own words and actions published widely and prominently, forever. Since i can post new stuff forever - that's what happens when you drag something simple out for 18 months - there's a lot of words to be published.

And then, speaking of the libel that Eric Weissman threatened in his 77 page submittal to the court where he seems to ask the Judge to suspend the 1st Amendment for him - that would be a stretch and would open him up to penalties and costs if he pursues this blog as libel - you have this nugget from Corby Bauman directly to my business colleagues that she states that she thinks (I paraphrase)  “she thinks the contractor walked off the job because he bid it too low and he had other more profitable jobs he wanted to work on’ - now that meets the exact letter of the libel law - she said something, that was not an opinion, but a fact, that was not only not true, but she knew was not true, meeting the ‘malicious’ standard. So Weissman can do double-back gainer flips trying to show my opinion is libel (good luck) while I have his client's actions seemingly meeting the exact definition of libel. Did Corby Baumann defame Catskill Farms with that statement? And how many blog posts will I spend talking about it? The real question is once we start asking the neighbors, building departments, banking and insurance institutions, how many more examples of this libel will we find? What could be more libelous than falsely stating a builder casually walks off jobs they are contractually obligated to complete, said to the people who finance, approve and insure his projects? Libel per se anyone?

And doing the same trolling on Mr Weissman that he seems to be doing on me, I came across this from his company’s website - 

Construction Claims and Disputes

We handle construction claims and disputes with an eye towards an economical and fair result. We have unsurpassed experience in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), having mediated and arbitrated disputes to successful conclusion across hundreds of cases. We routinely handle motions to compel arbitration and file proceedings to enforce awards. Our team includes designated arbitrators by the American Arbitration Association and New Jersey Construction Advisory Council of the American Arbitration Association. When alternative resolution is not possible, our lawyers have exceptional experience litigating complex, technical construction claims in trial and appellate courts at state and federal levels, as well as administrative tribunals.

As I’ve said multiple times, this whole issue was on the 1 yard line of resolution within days of the dispute, and I had agreed to everything they wanted/needed and only asked for one thing in return - the simplist, most common, most generic, most obvious, most typical request from any legal contract negotiation - a release.  A release provides exactly that , and it works both ways - both sides provide a ‘release from all contractual obligations’ - who can agree to a negotiation when the one side won’t guarantee a day/month/year/decade from now they won’t sue you for something.  It just shows how completely insane this entire project was, and it was just basic commonsense to begin to be concerned about these client’s ultimate ability to get a house built - which to this day has proven to be an exactly correct premonition, since our discovery shows what I would call, as a construction expert, a current construction project and its respective status as pretty much a shit show.

As I read the court documents, I'm astonished at how we got here - said I breached the contract (while not missing one contractual detail or deadline), threatened me with arrest if I continued work, gave me a list of demands, and then reiterated that even if I did everything they said/asked, I was still on the hook for their arbitrary ligation whims for the rest of my life.

I’m looking forward to investigating each and every lawsuit Mr Weissman has ever been part of to see how many hard-working little guys he has picked on with this legal strategy he is using against Catskill Farms.  My guess is I’m not the first, and my guess is that this has worked in the past, and my guess is that’s exactly how/why he and his clients in this case find themselves embroiled in a distracting lawsuit 18 months after it should have been put to rest. Let's put it out there, in his own words, for all to see.  

To be honest, it’s a little unfair.  I’ve been building homes, negotiating deals, resolving complex problems for people like Mr Weissman, Corby Baumann and Ben Forman for 23 years.  I’ve built homes for 600 of them.  I’ve interviewed, vetted and talked to thousands more of this Metro-demographic - high-performing, demanding, educated, worldly, typeA people - they come in all shapes and sizes, and I’ve successful navigated them all..  I’ve done over $200,000,000 of business with people just like these people- you could say I have expert-level intel on what makes these people tick and I’m certainly in no way intimidated by them and in many ways, I’ve spent my career staying ahead of them - their concerns, wishes, goals, aspirations, fears.  

60 hour a week x 4 weeks a month = 240 hours a month

240 hours a month x 12 months = 2880 hours a year

2880 hours a year x 22 years = 63,360 hours.

So I've spent 63,360 hours over the last 2 decades dealing with people programmed like these defendants and their attorney, and the rule of thumb is you become an expert after 10,000 hours of practice, so I'm an expert 6x over.

Me, on the other-hand, I’d bet my left nut they’ve never seen anything like me, which explains exactly how they got themselves in such a sticky no-win situation.

My guess, worst case scenario that my legal team's understanding of breach of contract is incorrect, that a jury of my peers finds my actions unwarranted, that my legitimate and rational lien I placed on their home is calculated incorrectly, that all their legal fees become my cost - that maybe it would cost the profits of this one new home in Ulster County. LOL.

Meanwhile, if they lose, which I'm certain they will since the facts of the situation are clear to a reasonable person and have been from day one, their liability to Catskill Farms is approaching the cost of their new home. Now that's something to be worried about - but hey, to each their own.

Back in August I had rotator cuff surgery, entering a period and journey of pain, rehab, recovery and fear unknown prior to in my 54 years. To fix a range of motion issue and slight tear that was restricting a bit of range of motion, most telling when trying to throw a baseball, and that type of dynamic shoulder movement.

The shoulder - you don't really think about it that much - but it's an amazing piece of machinery. Move in all directions - not sure anything else on the body has that type of dexterity of movement. And then you have these little thin muscles that weave in and around the clavicle that can get damaged over time through use or injury - and while the group of 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff may be small, any attempt to repair them if they tear in a minor or major way - is fraught with a recovery process that ranks in the top 10 of most arduous.

I think my only other surgery before my rotator cuff surgery last August was when I had my nose reconstructed when I was about 12 after foul-tipping a fastball off my bat straight to my nose during the New Era Midget Championship game of 1980+/-, which we won.  Knocked me out cold.  Went to the hospital just for a bit before bee-lining over to Pizza Hut for the after game pizza party.  Seeing me and my nose with gauze stuffed up in it, and my duel black eyes might have diminished an appetite or two.

As I was typing that up, I started thinking about how that was all done without texts or phones with minute to minute updates like ‘we’re here’, or “i’m on my way’.  I don’t know how life was conducted back then.

‍

My point is I had another surgery, one that because the ‘injury’ was sort of innocuous and caused discomfort only when doing specific things, and the surgery itself was only a few hours long, and it was same day type of thing, I really didn’t think much of it.  But I should have, because it lead to maybe the craziest 6 months of my life in terms of injury, surgery and healing.  

Little did I know I was about to enter one of the most intense post-surgical rehab, recovery and physical therapy exercises out there.  I’m 6 months into it, post-surgery, and I’m still not back to full shoulder strength, and if someone was to tell my life was going to be turned upside down in order to regain 10% range of motion and be able to throw a baseball again, I’m not sure I would have went down this path.

And the pain - wow - as my arm hung lifeless beside my body like a stroke victim, wow, I can say I’ve never felt pain like that before - day in, day out, and then the PT where nothing came free and each and every since ½” of range of motion had to be earned through not just pain, but a completely unfamiliar level and feeling - just a different style of pain.  Not cool, not fun, pretty scary, and definitely should have watched youtubes about it before the surgery, not while I’m on the couch 24 hours after.

And I learned some unexpected lessons - which always happens since I'm a sponge for inputs and information regardless of the situation I'm in - I learned the hard way that a highly credentialed NYC best in class doctor on retainer isn't necessarily the end all be all since I really feel I went into this surgery asking the right questions but not getting the right answers. What I needed was a good old fashioned down to earth country family practitioner to give me some real down to earth perspective, not a referral to the best orthopedic surgeon in NYC who works on Olympic athletes. One route is surely impressive, the other one much more valuable. Sure my NYC doc is a lot freer with the prescription pad for my occasional Xanax and more frequent Viagara, and has access to world class doctors and facilities at a snap of his finger, but really, that's so NYC - flash over substance. Access over effectiveness.

Same is true with attorneys. Give me a slow talking common-sense lawyer who mows his own lawn over a paper-pusher 'strategist' any day of the week. I knew this, but everyone can be blinded by the flash at times.

And 6 weeks in a sling like this dude, without the smile.

‍

‍