Chapter 7

Late in the week, Thad reviewed the appearance and answer that was filed in regard to the lawsuit he had instituted against the insurance company for acting in bad faith. He was not overly surprised to see that his old law firm of Dillard and Connelly was hired to defend this suit. That being the case he probably would be up against Scott Connelly who was said to be the best defense attorney in the county and one of the best in the State. This will be a baptism of paperwork Thad thought.

Thad was right in his thoughts because the motions started coming in immediately on that lawsuit. Most of them Thad thought were frivolous and bordered on harassment. He couldn’t see what purpose they served or how they could help Connelly in defending the lawsuit. He would bet that Scott Connelly had a number of the associates also doing legal research on this matter even though they probably had done that same research before in other lawsuits and were familiar with the case law. Thad thought all those efforts were just being done for Connelly to increase the number of billable hours he could charge the insurance company in defending this lawsuit.

Besides responding to what Connelly was doing, Thad for his part issued subpoenas for a full copy of the insurance claim file and a copy of the attorney’s file. He wanted to make sure there was no selective editing done of these files. When he received the copies he reviewed them both and thought there hadn’t been any games played with the files. He also thought he had all he needed to make his case.

To take a break from work he had signed up for this weekend’s golf tournament which was a two-person net best ball event. The web page indicated his partner in this tournament was an E. Taylor who had a fourteen golf course handicap. Playing with a fellow who had a decent handicap would be a nice change of pace from the partners he previously had in these tournaments.

After parking his car at the club Thad went to the golf carts that had the golf bags loaded on them. They were lined up ready for the shotgun start. He found his golf cart and could see standing next to it and putting on some suntan lotion was E. Taylor. Thad introduced himself and Emma Taylor introduced herself to him.

Emma was about Thad’s age, maybe five foot six or seven, with long auburn hair she had in a ponytail style coming out of the back of the baseball cap she was wearing. She had a pretty face and an appealing figure with nice legs that were visible because of the white skort she was wearing. She also had a firm handshake he noticed in shaking hands with her.

Thad took his putter and some golf balls saying he was going to do a little putting before he needed to be back for the start. While doing the putting he had some thoughts about Emma and they all were good thoughts.

He was back at the cart and they were led out to their assigned golf hole to start the tournament which in this case was the sixteenth hole. Thad teed off after the other two fellows had teed off and hit it right down the middle. Emma teed off from the red tees and also hit it right down the middle maybe twenty-five yards short of Thad’s ball. He was impressed by her golf swing since it was very fluid and she had a nice natural follow thru.

During the round, Emma asked Thad questions about himself and seemed surprised to learn that he was an attorney with his practice at Ron Stallings office located at Lake Lancer. He was surprised to learn that she was also an attorney who was a law professor at the university’s law school. They had much in common and did talk a little shop while they golfed. She expressed interest in the bad faith lawsuit he was pursuing against the insurance company.

Their golfing efforts resulted in them posting a team net score which was good for second place when the winners were announced. That earned them a dinner at Parenti’s which they both knew was a fine restaurant. After the awards presentation, most of the golfers left but Emma and Thad stayed and had another drink.

Emma asked if Thad attended any of the weekly lecture series that is being done here at the club. He said he had never thought of doing that. She told him that she was doing one next Friday on estate planning. She went on to explain that Trisha the assistant club manager solicits the club members who have various skills or education to give talks to fellow club members and share their knowledge. The topics covered during lectures are varied such as travel, investing, health, and golf to name a few. The members who give these lectures are asked to do it once a year. This will be the second time Emma will be doing it and expects around ten to sixteen club members to attend. She mentioned that when a hedge fund manager does his presentation the attendance is much larger as the members are looking for investment tips.

With both of them standing to leave Thad said he would keep attending her lecture in mind and thanked her for being a good golfing partner.

On the drive back to his home he thought about the things she had said when they golfed. She went through college on a volleyball scholarship. Her athletic ability he thought is what transitioned to her being a good golfer. She always wanted to be an attorney and yet at the same time she wanted to teach. After graduating from law school she clerked for a Federal Appeals Court Judge who was a distant relative and then applied to the university to teach at the law school and was accepted. She enjoys doing the teaching and maybe in the future she would like to be a judge but it would be some time before that could happen.

He definitely wanted to get to know Emma better because she seemed to be a very nice person as well as being attractive. His vote was out on what kind of a lover she would be but indications were that she would be pretty good.

At a real estate closing, Thad received what he considered was good news for him but bad news for Kelly Dodge. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring and when asked about it she confirmed that the engagement was called off. She didn’t volunteer any specifics and just said it became obvious they were operating on two different wavelengths. It was too soon in hearing this news to ask her out but he made a mental note to ask her out sometime in the not-so-distant future.

On Friday Thad was having lunch with Ron. There was some discussion that the business was increasing and maybe they should think about either hiring another associate or at least a paralegal assistant to do some of this work. Thad mentioned that he was taking off a little early and was going to the club to catch Emma’s presentation.