‘So: we are going to have to decide what our immediate priorities are,’ I said.
I was sitting at the conference table with Sam and Arlene. Arlene was with us because she needed to know everything I knew, and everything I was planning. This was going to be a team effort or nothing, and there could be no secrets. Sam had been delighted, jumping up and down, when I told her I was going to take the case. That was understandable, and I didn’t want to cut her off. It was going to be important for her to maintain her enthusiasm over the long haul, because this was going to be a long haul. But we also needed to have a serious conversation now, in which I explained to her the realities of conducting a case on this scale when we still didn’t have any actual evidence. Painstakingly, I took her through the mechanics of litigation in the Claims Court, and the basics of class actions. I probably took far too long about it, but Sam needed to know what she was about to embark on.
‘First, we need to find out what evidence there is out there. We need to find out what the family knows. The impression I get from reading the documents you left with me is that there are different family members, all with different information, who are not talking to each other. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle and no one has all the pieces. We need to find those pieces and put them together.’
‘I figured as much,’ Sam said. ‘That’s why I came to see you now. The family has get-togethers from time to time in different areas, but every four years there is a major national reunion, and we are due for one six weeks from now in New Orleans. You can expect people from all over the country. It would be a great opportunity.’
‘What goes on at these reunions?’ I asked.
‘It’s mainly a social gathering. One evening they have a sit-down dinner; another night they may have a cocktail party with finger food. But sometimes they will have a business meeting to discuss something of interest, and my dad always said that was when the subject of the loans would come up, if it ever did. But they could never agree to do anything. The rest of the time, they break up into small groups and catch up with family news, go sight-seeing, generally have a good time.’
‘If they’re doing stuff like having a major reunion,’ Arlene suggested, ‘they must have a membership list of some kind.’
‘There’s a small, hard-core group of family members who are the real cheerleaders and they are the ones who always seem to take the lead organising these things.’
‘Can I get names and email addresses?’
Sam nodded and made a note for herself. ‘Sure. I think I know where to go for that.’
‘We need to be there in New Orleans,’ I said. ‘We need to be on the agenda. We need to contact the cheerleaders and make sure they call a general meeting, so we can let them know what we are doing, and start building our database of potential plaintiffs.’
‘Not to mention letting them know we’ll be expecting a contribution towards expenses from every last one of them,’ Arlene said.
‘Not to mention that.’
‘We’ll need a website,’ Arlene continued, ‘a website where they can download a form to register as a plaintiff, and pay their contributions. I can fix that for y’all if I can get Bert, down the hall, to help me some.’
Sam and I looked at her questioningly.
‘He works for the CPA two doors down, and he seems to know all about that kind of shit, and I think he has the hots for me. If I smile the right way at him, he’ll come running. Leave it with me.’
‘Go for it,’ I said. ‘OK. The next priority is the search for the Holy Grail. If we don’t get our hands on at least one loan certificate with the name of Jacob van Eyck on it, the case is going nowhere.’
‘How do we do that?’ Sam asked.
‘I’m not sure yet. I need to research it. I need to know a lot more about loan certificates and loan offices than I do now. But even that’s not going to be enough. There will be some places we can’t go. I’m pretty sure that at some point, we are going to need the government’s help in tracking them down.’
Arlene laughed. ‘Hun, I don’t think the government is going to be exactly falling all over themselves to help us with that. I reckon they’ll be running the other way faster than a turkey on Thanksgiving.’
I smiled. ‘They won’t want to. But the government is going to be a party to this lawsuit, and we are entitled to ask the court to make the government look for evidence and tell us what they have. The only problem is that we have to give the court some idea of what we are looking for, and some idea of where we expect the government to look.’
‘I can help with that,’ Sam volunteered. ‘I’ve already done quite a bit of reading about the Continental Congress and the loans, and I’m happy to hit the library again if you can give me some direction.’
‘Good,’ I replied. I paused. ‘I think this means we are going to have to file suit quickly, within the next week or two. We definitely need to have it done before the reunion.’
‘Whoa, hold your horses there, Tex,’ Arlene said. ‘Ain’t that a bit like letting the bull out of the gate before the bell rings? I mean, shouldn’t we have just a teeny-weeny bit of evidence before we ask the government to hand over 672 billion dollars and change?’
‘It’s not ideal,’ I agreed. ‘I would prefer to wait until we have done as much evidence-gathering as we can. That’s the general rule. But that’s not going to work in this case. We need to put in a discovery request as soon as possible, and we can’t do that until we file suit. Plus, we need to let the family cheerleaders see that we are serious about this, and give them something to sign up to. Just talking about filing a lawsuit isn’t going to make them sit in the hotel for a business meeting instead of exploring New Orleans and getting started on the mint juleps. We need to show them we already have the show on the road.’
On the way home I called in to Georgetown Law on the off-chance, and found Kate Banahan, my wills and trusts professor, in her office. My timing was good. She had just got out of class, and she was happy to see me. It was a few years since I had been in her class, but we had got on well then; she had given me an A, and we had run into each other at receptions at the law school since. We drank coffee from the machine in the faculty common room. I told her all about the forthcoming lawsuit to be entitled Samantha van Eyck (individually and on behalf of all those similarly situated) v United States.’ Her eyes lit up as she listened. Kate is of Irish extraction, and she has that Irish combination of jet black hair and bright blue eyes. There is the odd fleck of grey in the hair now that she is in her early fifties, but the eyes still sparkle. She was a trial lawyer before she settled on academia for the long term, and she still remembers the thrill of the chase.
‘Kiah, this is amazing,’ she said excitedly. ‘This would make legal history. Does anyone know yet?’
‘No. I’d like to keep it under wraps until we file.’
‘My lips are sealed.’
She demonstrated with her finger. I hesitated.
‘Kate, the reason I came to see you is that I am going to need some help in the office, and I wondered whether…’
She laughed. ‘You wondered whether I could steer the odd student your way?’
‘We can pay them for some time if they can fit it in between classes, and I think it would be interesting for them.’
‘I can do better than that,’ she said.
‘Oh?’
‘I will offer my wills and trusts class some course credit if they do four half-days during the semester and write me a report about it. Any further time is up to you to arrange with the student.’
I took her hand.
‘Kate, that is fantastic,’ I said. ‘Thank you. Can you do that, really?’
‘Sure. Why not? Professors often give partial credit for outside work if it’s relevant to the class. It’s something they can take to the bank before they take my exam. Most of them will jump at the chance. Besides, when would they ever get the chance to work on something like this? This is a one-off.’
‘How many do you have in your class?’
‘Thirty-five. About the same as in your day. It doesn’t change much. It’s pretty much the same every semester.’
She walked me to the elevator.
‘You know, Kiah, I am as sure as I can be that you’re right about the intestacy law in Pennsylvania back then. But I’d be glad to look at it for you and give you a call if you like.’
‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘That would be great.’
She grinned. ‘No problem. OK, I have a hidden agenda. Don’t you think you may need an expert witness on the law of intestacy somewhere down the road?’
‘I’m sure we will,’ I replied, shaking her hand, ‘and you are hereby retained.’