The final time Edward Badiu despatched me an out-of-the-blue textual content message, it was about two hours after the Champlain Towers collapsed. This time, it was in regards to the passing of John Pepper.
I’ve many recollections of John Pepper. One of many longest-lasting was on April 19, 1995. I used to be taking one other Hurricane Andrew deposition of John. Invoice Berk and Berk’s shoppers appeared to be retaining John Pepper on all of their instances. The Oklahoma Metropolis Bombing occurred that morning in the course of the deposition. After a break, Pepper introduced that the deposition was over as a result of he had been summoned to an emergency process drive concerning the bombing. He needed to get to Oklahoma Metropolis instantly.
My thought was, “Nice, now the federal authorities has my arch-enemy knowledgeable pegged as an knowledgeable amongst consultants going to research structural facets of the highest-profile loss since Andrew. The place did Invoice Berk discover this man?”
Over the subsequent decade till early 2005, John Pepper and I had quite a few depositions and debates. He was robust. I attempted all types of various deposition methods to entice, catch or in any other case destroy no matter John’s opinion was a couple of loss.
Following Hurricane Ivan, which struck Pensacola, John gave me a telephone name. He defined {that a} girl who lived near downtown Pensacola had her dwelling destroyed. She confronted enormous protection denial points and was in any other case not being paid correctly. He requested if I’d be keen to assist her.
After all of the battles and debates, I used to be stunned by this invitation. I accepted this complicated flood injury versus wind injury case.
The robust John Pepper modified throughout this engagement. The reality is that I did as nicely. We hung out collectively on the loss and mentioned different consultants that had been wanted. He prompt how we may start to place collectively a cohesive case for the flood and wind carriers. I nonetheless bear in mind saying one thing to the impact of, ‘John, let’s simply rent whomever we have to show a legitimate level. I’ll work out the protection later. It should be one protection or one other. If it’s neither, that’s simply the best way it’s.’
The nice perspective and tone we shared in direction of one another throughout that case by no means modified anytime thereafter. Our consumer’s case was resolved efficiently. She would often attain out to at least one or the opposite of us over time. I all the time had a smile once I would see him on the Windstorm Convention. We all the time talked cheerfully about that one time when cats and canines obtained alongside.
In preparation for this weblog, I requested our regulation librarians, Jennifer Dabbs and Ruck DeMinico, to search out an knowledgeable CV that John had filed. Once I opened it and began going by means of it, my higher half, Donice Krueger, stated, “Wow, now that’s an knowledgeable resumé!” Please take a second simply to have a look at what John achieved in his profession.
John Pepper cherished being a consulting architectural engineer. I do know he cherished the architectural half as a result of he was truthfully susceptible throughout my questioning, and John was inherently a artistic individual with ardour about design, magnificence, construction, operate, and security. He appeared to like what he did for a residing.
An legal professional in our agency, Etienne Font, as soon as managed a serious unbiased claims workplace and knew John Pepper from that perspective. Etienne wrote this about John on LinkedIn:
I met John 34 years in the past at a home in Coconut Grove, inspecting the ground framing from the crawlspace. We discovered that we had each been members of a navy fraternity Pershing Rifles once we attended faculty and been a part of ROTC. We turned excellent associates. I’ll miss him. To paraphrase a Pershing Rifles dedication to Normal Pershing: John Pepper wants no eulogy; his achievements are his eulogy. Relaxation in Peace, outdated buddy.
John Pepper was really a drive within the engineering area and the insurance coverage protection litigation enviornment. Folks will discover his absence. I’ll miss seeing him and his pleasant smile, figuring out how we shared one thing very particular after being adversaries for thus lengthy.
Thought For The Day
“Though we fought like enemies within the ring, we turned associates outdoors it. I’ll all the time respect Joe Frazier.”
—Mohammad Ali
