Bill Marler

the Washington state regulation and stick with the nationwide regulation.

And we got to a point where they had offered $14 million, and that's in 1995, and that's, frankly, real money back then.

And I rejected it.

And I remember the mediator looking at me like, Mr. Marler, Bill, can I talk to you for a moment?

And so he was a 65-year-old former federal judge looking at me like, what are you doing, you idiot?

And, you know, it was pretty frightening.

So I went back to the room where the Kiner's were and, you know, talked to them about that.

And I just told them they needed to trust me, that I was confident that they would come up with more money.

And I went to where they were still in their conference room.

I knocked on the door.

And I just, and like, who is it?

I said, Bill, like, what the hell do you want?

And I said, hey, there's this bar in the hotel called Torchy's.

I said, I'll meet you at Torchy's.

I'll buy cocktails.

so of course you know this was the 90s people still did that more often than they do now and we all met in the the bar and after a few drinks some of the insurance guys were yelling at me like i was like you're a greedy bastard

And I had my, you know, cell phones.

They were much bigger and different than they are today.

And my cell phone rang.

And so I thought it was my wife.