Real Lawsuits

Most of my time the last two months has been taken up in litigation. I'm pleased to announce that our Church has successfully sued the contractor hired to repair our hot water heater and won a settlement that will allow us to repair the damage done by his shoddy work.

I saw no real reason for a church to even have a hot water heater. We're a church, not a hotel. I saw no reason to pay to maintain an aging appliance so people can have warm water when washing their hands in the restroom. I wish my fellow deacons had agreed.

The hot water heater had been leaking, and a contractor was hired to repair it. What we didn't know at the time and have learned since was that the "leaks" that had flooded the basement on two separate occasions were in fact the emergency release valve on the hot water heater.

The contractor has seen this "unnecessary" pipe and capped it. He told us the leak had been "overflow" from an "improperly terminated pipe" and that he'd taken care of it.

Less than two weeks after his shoddy and lazy repair the hot water heater ruptured, damaging the foundation, blowing out some windows on the first floor and the basement level and rupturing the Church floor, just under the youth group meeting rooms. The damage was extensive and the church we had only recently occupied was rendered unsafe.

We have a preliminary injunction banning this contractor from working in the state and his insurance company recently agreed to pay for the damages to the limit of his policy. Between this and the insurance the Church has on the building itself we were a mere $25,000 shy of the full cost of repairs. Now, thanks to dedicated legal aid from church members and the tireless efforts of the church deacons, of whom I am a member, we've received a judgment ordering the contractor to pay for all repairs above the insurance policies plus a sum for "unexpected cost overruns natural to extensive repairs." He's also to pay punitive damages.

This brings the grand total of the judgment to $328,000.

Shortly after we received this judgment we received a letter from our insurance company informing us that, as per our policy, they are entitled to a portion of any settlement for damages they've already paid for. We've made arrangements with them to split the settlement when we receive it so they receive a full refund for the moneys they've paid us.

The contractor is appealing the settlement, which I'm told will merely delay the inevitable. Because he's appealing the settlement, we're currently operating at a budget deficit for the remaining repairs. I've shifted the focus of my time to fund raising efforts. A recent bake sale earned close to $1,200 for the Church, and while this may seem like small potatoes compared to $25,000, it's a start.

Anyone interested in providing financial assistance to the church's repairs can contact me at alexander.cornswalled@gmail.com. We are a charity so any donations you make are tax deductible.

Threats of Lawsuits

I've received posts and e-mails threatening me with libel lawsuits for claiming Tim Henson was on food stamps. Tim Henson had claimed to be on food stamps on an episode of his program. I heard the clip and did not hear any indication of it being an attempt at humor. To tell the truth it sounded heartfelt and pained. Simply playing a clip of his statement would suffice to win any actual lawsuit.

I've been sent another clip where Tim Henson claims he is not on food stamps. Given the lack of actual humor in what he claims is satire, it's difficult to tell when he's trying to be honest. I think anyone hearing the original clip in isolation, as I have, would be inclined to believe he was bemoaning the lack of subscriptions and admitting to finical hardship.

He has also denied engaging in credit card fraud. He seems to have a different definition of "Fraud" than I do. He opened a Discover card, bought a computer and never paid off the card. He let it lapse until a collections agency came after him! He went so far as to have an entire fund raiser among his fans to raise the money to pay off the debt when collections came after him a second time. I'm sorry, but where I come from buying something with a credit card and then deciding not to pay the card is stealing. We can debate if the act met the legal definition of fraud but it was an attempt to steal, no matter how you mince it.

I do not listen to entire episodes of Distorted View. I hear clips and fragments that are sent to me. While I have heard entire episodes in the past, I do not seek it out. Fans and members of his "sideshow" send me what they consider to be choice clips. I've even been sent a URL containing a user name and password that claims to be the "subscription feed" for the "Distorted View Sideshow." I lack the time and interest to keep up with the antics of a man who will find his program banned within a few years. I'm more interested in the big fish, the FCC and regulatory bodies that can ban Tim Henson and his ilk as an entire category and not just individually.

My time chasing him down was wasted. Even if I had gotten him off the air it would have been a waste because it was just ONE pornographer, just ONE pervert on the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic and immoral web sites that need to be shut down. Enabling the government to do this is a far better use of a Christian's time than chasing down a pervert here or a fornicating moron there.