Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION of WEST VIRGINIA CHARLESTON * * * * * * * *
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PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF WEST VIRGINIA CHARLESTON * * * * * * * * * Joan E. Sexton and Bervella * K. Mayhew * v. * 12-0926-W-C Pines Mobile Home Court * * * * * * * * * * HEARING TRANSCRIPT * * * * * * * * * BEFORE: KEITH A. GEORGE, Administrative Law Judge HEARING: Thursday, December 13, 2012 2:00 p.m. LOCATION: Hampshire Co. Courthouse Courtroom, 2nd Floor 66 N. High St, Romney WV Reporter: Barbara J. Jones Any reproduction of this transcript is prohibited without authorization by the certifying agency. Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 2 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 JOAN SEXTON, PRO SE 4 5 LEONA COLEMAN, PRO SE 6 7 DAWN ANDERSON, PRO SE 8 9 JOHN D. LITTLE, ESQUIRE 10 State of West Virginia 11 Public Service Commission 12 201 Brooks Street 13 P.O. Box 812 14 Charleston, WV 25323 15 Counsel for Staff 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 3 1 INDEX TO WITNESSES 2 3 DISCUSSION AMONG PARTIES 8 - 12 4 WITNESS : JOAN SEXTON 5 TESTIMONY 6 By Ms. Sexton 12 - 20 7 DIRECT EXAMINATION 8 By Ms. Coleman 20 - 22 9 CROSS EXAMINATION 10 By Ms. Anderson 22 - 31 11 DISCUSSION AMONG PARTIES 31 - 33 12 WITNESS : STACY THOMPSON 13 DIRECT EXAMINATION 14 By Ms. Sexton 33 15 EXAMINATION 16 By Judge George 33 - 34 17 CROSS EXAMINATION 18 By Ms. Anderson 35 19 WITNESS : LEONA COLEMAN 20 TESTIMONY 21 By Ms. Coleman 36 - 55 22 CROSS EXAMINATION 23 By Ms. Anderson 55 - 69 24 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 4 1 INDEX TO WITNESSES (cont'd) 2 3 WITNESS : EDWARD HAMILTON 4 DIRECT EXAMINATION 5 By Ms. Coleman 70 - 75 6 CROSS EXAMINATION 7 By Ms. Anderson 75 - 79 8 CROSS EXAMINATION 9 By Attorney Little 79 10 WITNESS : DAWN ANDERSON 11 DIRECT EXAMINATION 12 By Attorney Little 80 - 99 13 CROSS EXAMINATION 14 By Ms. Sexton 99 - 100 15 CROSS EXAMINATION 16 By Ms. Coleman 101 - 102 17 EXAMINATION 18 By Judge George 102 - 104 19 DISCUSSION AMONG PARTIES 104 - 105 20 WITNESS : DAVE HOLLEY 21 DIRECT EXAMINATION 22 By Attorney Little 105 - 114 23 CROSS EXAMINATION 24 By Ms. Coleman 115 - 118 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 5 1 INDEX TO WITNESSES (cont'd) 2 3 CROSS EXAMINATION 4 By Ms. Anderson 118 - 119 5 WITNESS : DWAYNE BEVINS 6 DIRECT EXAMINATION 7 By Attorney Little 120 - 124 8 EXAMINATION 9 By Judge George 125 - 127 10 CROSS EXAMINATION 11 By Ms. Sexton 128 - 130 12 CROSS EXAMINATION 13 By Ms. Coleman 130 - 132 14 CROSS EXAMINATION 15 By Ms. Anderson 132 - 133 16 REDIRECT EXAMINATION 17 By Attorney Little 133 - 135 18 DISCUSSION AMONG PARTIES 135 - 137 19 CERTIFICATE 138 20 21 22 23 24 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 6 1 E X H I B I T S 2 3 Page 4 Number Description Offered 5 Sexton: 6 One Statement of Rent 10/1/12 14 7 Two Statement of Rent w/Note 11/1/12 14 8 9 Coleman: 10 One Statement of Rent 10/1/12 46 11 Two Statement of Rent 11/1/12 46 12 Three Statement of Rent 9/1/12 46 13 Four Statement of Rent 12/1/12 46 14 Five Statement of Rent 10/1/12 50 15 Six Statement of Rent 11/1/12 50 16 Seven Statement of Rent 9/1/12 50 17 Eight Letter of November 3, 2012 50 18 19 Pines: 20 One Letter of March 21, 2012 24 21 Two Magistrate Documents 29 22 Three Water bills 68 23 Four Accounting Document 85 24 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 7 1 E X H I B I T S (cont'd) 2 3 Page 4 Number Description Offered 5 Staff: 6 One Staff Final Memorandum 60 7 Two Partial Response to Staff's Data 8 Request 84 9 Three Packet of Documents 85 10 Four Photo 107 11 Five Photo 108 12 Six Photo 108 13 Seven Photo 108 14 Eight Photo 108 15 Nine Photo 109 16 Ten Photo 109 17 Eleven Final Internal Memorandum 113 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 8 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 --------------------------------------------------------- 3 JUDGE: 4 Good afternoon. My name is Keith A. 5 George. I'm an Administrative Law Judge with the Public 6 Service Commission of West Virginia. We're here for a 7 hearing in case number 12-0926, Sexton and Mayhew versus 8 Pine Mobile Home Court. Leona Coleman was also added as 9 a party. Ms. Sexton, you're here today? 10 MS. SEXTON: 11 Uh-huh (yes). 12 JUDGE: 13 And you're representing yourself; is 14 that right? 15 MS. SEXTON: 16 Yes. Well, I have Ms. Leona with me 17 because I can't read and write that good so she helps me 18 on what I have to understand. 19 JUDGE: 20 Okay. And Ms. Mayhew? 21 MS. SEXTON: 22 She’s not here. She moved out. 23 JUDGE: 24 Okay. And Ms. Coleman? 25 MS. COLEMAN: Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 9 1 Yes. 2 JUDGE: 3 And you're representing yourself? 4 MS. COLEMAN: 5 Yes. 6 JUDGE: 7 Okay. 8 MS. COLEMAN: 9 I also have someone else representing 10 the Hamiltons in Lot 5 in the trailer court, their son. 11 JUDGE: 12 Okay, at this point the only parties to 13 the case are Ms. Sexton and Ms. Coleman --- 14 MS. COLEMAN: 15 Okay. 16 JUDGE: 17 --- but you're free to call anyone you 18 want as a witness. 19 MS. COLEMAN: 20 Okay. 21 JUDGE: 22 Including the neighbor that's here at 23 the table with us, what was her name? 24 MS. COLEMAN: 25 Thompson. Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 10 1 JUDGE: 2 Thompson, okay. And the Pines Mobile 3 Home Court is here? Okay. And your name is? 4 MS. ANDERSON: 5 Dawn Anderson. 6 JUDGE: 7 Okay. And do you own the mobile home 8 court? 9 MS. ANDERSON: 10 No, sir. 11 JUDGE: 12 What's your relationship to them? 13 MS. ANDERSON: 14 I'm the Superintendant. 15 JUDGE: 16 Superintendant, okay. And who owns the 17 mobile home court? 18 MS. ANDERSON: 19 Patty and Sidney Jenkins. 20 JUDGE: 21 Okay. 22 ATTORNEY LITTLE: 23 Staff, John Little, Public Service 24 Commission. 25 JUDGE: Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 11 1 Okay, very well. I'm going to place 2 the witnesses in this chair. When you're acting as a 3 witness, whoever you are, I'm going to put you over in 4 this chair. Ms. Sexton and Ms. Coleman are the 5 Complainants in this case, you have the privilege of 6 going first; you also have the burden of proof. You need 7 to prove to me, I guess first of all, that the Pines 8 Mobile Home Court is acting as a public utility in West 9 Virginia or is acting such that the Commission should be 10 regulating them and then, beyond that, that they're 11 acting in some manner in an unreasonable fashion. So 12 I'll let Ms. Sexton go first. You can call witnesses 13 or ---. 14 MS. SEXTON: 15 Well, I need her to help because I 16 can't read and write so she's helping me with this. 17 JUDGE: 18 Okay. Do you want to testify, Ms. 19 Sexton? 20 MS. SEXTON: 21 Well, what it is is I was paying 22 one ---. 23 JUDGE: 24 If you want to tell me something, that 25 means you want to testify. Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 12 1 MS. SEXTON: 2 Yes. 3 JUDGE: 4 Okay, so if you don't mind going to the 5 chair and the court reporter can place you under oath. 6 --------------------------------------------------------- 7 JOAN SEXTON, HAVING FIRST BEEN DULY SWORN, TESTIFIED AS 8 FOLLOWS: 9 --------------------------------------------------------- 10 JUDGE: 11 Okay, Ms. Sexton, what do you want to 12 tell me? 13 A. Okay, I moved to the Pines Trailer Court two 14 years ago. My lot rent was only $170. The understanding 15 was, verbally, that the water and septic was included. 16 Okay, as of the first of the year it went up to $200. 17 Ms. Anderson said due to the water usage, we have to 18 raise your lot rent from $170 to $200 and that was okay, 19 I can understand that. I only get $698 for SSI. Now all 20 of a sudden they put these water meters on and I'm paying 21 13 percent of the water usage, which I'm paying $300 and 22 some now just for lot rent and water alone. And my rent 23 is $450, that's including the lot rent and then I have to 24 pay the water bill over that. 25 JUDGE: Sargent's Court Reporting Service, Inc. (814) 536-8908 13 1 What did you say your rent was? 2 A. My rent is --- well, my landlord's only charging 3 me $250 for rent and I pay the lot rent, which is $200 4 now, so that's $450. 5 JUDGE: 6 So you rent the mobile home and then 7 you rent the lot? 8 A.