The rays of sunshine are unexpected but extremely welcome. The hearing is not being held at the courthouse, but rather at an auxiliary building nearby. Jacob Sommerdahl, my attorney, is there when I arrive, looking calm, collected, and ready for a fight.
He told me to get here early so that he can go over the case with me and his arguments. He's not someone who is used to losing. I listen intently. Whenever my mind drifts off onto something else, I focus my attention again and again. Right before an assistant opens the door to welcome us into the conference room, I check my phone and I see a message from Isabelle: Good luck!
The meeting room itself is on the fifth floor of a large glass building overlooking Puget Sound. There's an enormous conference table and the judge sits at the head. Everything is being video recorded and there's also a stenographer who is transcribing what everyone says.
The three Elliott brothers sit on the opposite side from me with their attorney. Jacob speaks first. He talks in depth about the conversations that took place between myself and Mr. Elliott. This is all hearsay but is part of the argument. I have already been deposed on this and have given a number of statements about exactly what happened that led up to our business deal. The judge, an elderly man with gray hair and a bored expression on his face, has reviewed all of the evidence.
“Mr. Sommerdahl,” the judge says, interrupting him in mid-speech. “I am very well aware of the facts in this case.”
“Well, in that case, you can understand our position and the fact that my client has done nothing wrong,” Jacob says.
“The problem isn’t about what your client did right or wrong, it's about whether Mr. Elliott, the petitioner's father, was in his right mind when he made the business deal.”
“Mr. Elliott got a fair price for his property and the businesses. I have all of these comps from other businesses that sold in the area that should give you an estimate of what the marina, the hotel, and the two restaurants could be valued at.”
“Again, this case has nothing to do with that. It's not about whether he sold it for a fair price. I will grant you,” the judge says.
I know words aren’t going to justify just as much as Jacob does. He's not a fool. The reason why he's making all these arguments is that there are no other arguments to make. This whole case is about my ignorance of Mr. Elliott's mental state.
“Listen, Mr. Sommerdahl,” the judge says when he's about to speak again. “The way that I see it, this case has very little to do with that. He did nothing wrong when engaging in this deal. The problem is that Mr. Elliott was found to be incompetent and therefore incapable of engaging in business dealings, especially to this degree.”
“Excuse me, Judge, I'm sorry to interrupt,” I say, unable to bite my tongue any longer. “Mr. Elliott was completely lucid and clear when I met him. We have had a number of discussions about this business and the reason why he sold it to me is that he did not want to sell the company for parts. He did not want the hotel, the restaurants, and the marina to be separated. He started them all at the same time and he wanted someone to run them as one entity. His sons did not want to do that.”
“It is clear to me that they did not want to do that because it is not in their best financial interest,” the judge says. “It is also clear to me that throughout his life Mr. Elliott was a very keen businessman and made decisions that were almost entirely based on what was best for him financially.”
“In this case, this was more important to him than money,” I insist.
“Do you have any evidence of that?” the judge asks.
“No, of course not. We talked about this over lunches and dinners.”
“Again, do you have any evidence to present?” he presses.
“I didn't record him or anything like that if that's what you're asking.”
“The problem is that even if you did have evidence that's what he had wanted, that would be in opposition to how he was his entire adult life. Another judge has found him incompetent and gave power of attorney to his sons and his wife. I'm sorry, but at this point, my hands are tied.”
I shake my head. I glance over at Jacob who just gives me a slight shrug.
On the other side of the table I see the three sons smiling from ear to ear. Their attorney hasn't even said a word this whole time and we’ve already lost.
“You have my condolences, Mr. Beckett,” the judge says to me. “I'm glad that we can at least take care of this issue straightaway. I'm glad that you did not invest much money or time into this business and the way I'm going to resolve it is to just undo the sale.”
I shake my head and look down at the grain in the dining room table. The table is made from one enormous piece of tree and the grain runs all the way down in a motion as if it were a river.
“You have not started any renovations, is that correct?”
“No, I haven't,” I say. “I guess I'm thankful that my attorney warned me about this, but I also wonder if perhaps the decision would go my way if I had actually invested more in the business. Perhaps, it would have been more difficult to overturn.”
“That's very good news, Mr. Beckett. It would have made my job a lot more complicated if there were renovations that were started and investments that were made.”
I open my mouth to say something, but he anticipates my question.
“No, it would not change my decision. Actually, the decision is not really mine. I'm just here to undo the deal that should not have happened in the first place. The property is going to revert back to the family and they are going to return every cent that you paid for it.”
I nod.
“You have the money, of course?” The judge tilts his head toward the sons.
Webster Elliot, the oldest, nods his head.
“Yes, of course. We haven't touched a cent since we knew that we were going to be making this claim.”
The judge seems satisfied with that answer even though I wonder how truthful that is.
I glance over to my attorney, pleading for some help, but by his facial expression, I know that there is no point. We had already lost before we ever came here. Whatever the case that he was going to plead on my behalf, he never even had a chance.
The judge collects the paperwork in front of him and looks over at me and then at the Elliott brothers and back to me.
“The property is going to go back to the Elliott family and they're going to return the full purchase price back to Mr. Oliver Beckett. Since you have attested that the money is already in the account, this exchange is going to take place within the next 72 hours. I expect to see all of the completed paperwork signed and delivered to my desk by then. The whole deal will be undone and everyone will go back to the way that things were before.”
As soon as he says those words, my body goes rigid and I sit completely stunned. I saw this happening before we got here and yet it still catches me by surprise.
Just like that, with a few signatures on a few pieces of paper, the marina and the hotel are no longer mine.
After the judge and the clerk leave, I get up. I look up at the Elliott brothers who have a self-satisfied smirk on their faces.
“You know that your father wanted it this way,” I say. “He wanted to keep all parts of his business together. He wanted to have someone to run it just like he did.”