Fla. Woman's 25-Year Mortgage Foreclosure Battle a Cautionary Tale for Lenders
During the 25 years that Patsy Campbell has been fighting a mortgage foreclosure case on her Florida home she has outlasted six lenders and seen seven great-grandchildren born.
She last made a mortgage payment on her Okeechobee County home in 1985, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
Attorney Robert Summers, who represents the current owner of her mortgage, calls the foreclosure case “every lender’s nightmare.”
Unlike many homeowners facing foreclosure, who reportedly don’t attempt to defend, Campbell doesn’t hesitate to fight back with a slew of defenses and appeals, the newspaper recounts in a lengthy article about the long-running litigation. Helped by the convoluted, decades-long procedural posture of her case, the savvy pro se defendant is arguing, among other claims, that Summers’ client can’t prove it owns the debt.
“It’s almost like clockwork. You know you’re going to get another three-inch stack of documents every month or so, and you have to take the time to read through it,” says Summers. “That is a burden on the courts, a burden on lawyers to decipher it, and it has enough meat in it that it’s not all void.”
