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 concerning the passing of John Pepper.
I’ve many reminiscences 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 purchasers gave the impression to be retaining John Pepper on all of their instances. The Oklahoma Metropolis Bombing occurred that morning throughout the deposition. After a break, Pepper introduced that the deposition was over as a result of he had been summoned to an emergency activity power relating to 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 analyze structural features 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 powerful. I attempted every kind 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} lady who lived near downtown Pensacola had her residence destroyed. She confronted large protection denial points and was in any other case not being paid correctly. He requested if I might be prepared to assist her.
After all of the battles and debates, I used to be stunned by this invitation. I accepted this advanced flood harm versus wind harm case.
The powerful John Pepper modified throughout this engagement. The reality is that I did as effectively. We hung out collectively on the loss and mentioned different consultants that had been wanted. He advised 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 sound 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 the 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 1 or the opposite of us over time. I at all times had a smile once I would see him on the Windstorm Convention. We at all times talked cheerfully about that one time when cats and canines acquired alongside.
In preparation for this weblog, I requested our regulation librarians, Jennifer Dabbs and Ruck DeMinico, to seek out an knowledgeable CV that John had filed. Once I opened it and began going via it, my higher half, Donice Krueger, mentioned, “Wow, now that’s an knowledgeable resumé!” Please take a second simply to have a look at what John completed in his profession.
John Pepper beloved being a consulting architectural engineer. I do know he beloved the architectural half as a result of he was truthfully weak throughout my questioning, and John was inherently a artistic individual with ardour about design, magnificence, construction, perform, 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 significant 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 grew to become excellent associates. I’ll miss him. To paraphrase a Pershing Rifles dedication to Basic Pershing: John Pepper wants no eulogy; his achievements are his eulogy. Relaxation in Peace, previous buddy.
John Pepper was really a power within the engineering area and the insurance coverage protection litigation area. Individuals will discover his absence. I’ll miss seeing him and his pleasant smile, realizing how we shared one thing very particular after being adversaries for thus lengthy.
Thought For The Day
“Although we fought like enemies within the ring, we grew to become associates exterior it. I’ll at all times respect Joe Frazier.”
—Mohammad Ali
