I'm no stranger to litigation. On two occasions, I've had to haul someone into court. One was a slander and libel case, in which I moved my guitar teaching operation from one music store to another and the owner of the first store started bad-mouthing me, claiming that I was such a lousy teacher he'd had to fire me/ Which he couldn't have done, because I wasn't working for him, I was renting studio space. But he wanted to cut me down and promote the new teacher he'd got in.

The SOB kept at it for over a year, so on the advice of the manager of the music store where I was now teaching, I retained an attorney and filed suit for slander and libel. The guy folded like a cheap lawn chair. It got him off my back, he had to pay me some compensation, and the attorney didn't cost me that much (among other things, the attorney hired me to sing for a house party he was throwing, and paid me rather lavishly!).

The second time was when my wife and I signed a contract to buy the larger apartment across the hall from where we were living. We had agreed on a price, but the guy's wife got hinky and wanted more money. So he tore up his copy of the contract and insisted on jacking the price an additional $50,000!

Barbara and I talked to an attorney and all hell broke loose. The tangle was that it was a co-op apartment and there was a major question about what kind of real estate a co-op apartment really is. Regular real estate laws don't apply. We won in state superior court, the guy appealed, and he won in appellate court, so we took it a step further—Washington State Supreme Court.

We won there. AND—we wound up making some case law that applies to all co-operative apartments in the state!

We're on the law books! Case law. We established a new legal precedent! There, too, it didn't cost us all that much in legal fees, they had to pay court costs, and we got the apartment on the agreed upon initial price, saving an additional $50,000!

You've got to pick your fights. To be avoided if at all possible, but if push comes to shove. . . .

Don Firth

P. S. Hadn't oughtta get me riled up!!