How Much Shit Has To Hit The Fan....

[Sharkey]

Six months has passed, time for an update.

After the complaint was filed with the court, a process server approached Jerk #1 and served him with a copy of the complaint. At the time, Jerk #2 was in attendance, but when the server asked him for his name, both Jerk 1 and Jerk 2 denied that he was the person named on the complaint. Since that time, Jerk 2 has gone into hiding and Jerk 1 insists that he doesn't know where to find him.

This has made moving my complaint forward in the legal system difficult. I actually shadowed a rental property that the two jerks owned, and even approached the renters attempting to find Jerk 2. We also sent the county Sheriff to the rental to serve the complaint, without success. I eventually had to get a court order allowing me to use "alternative service", a three-week posting in the legal notices section of the newspaper, a service that cost me an additional $400 or so. Jerk 2 has laid low and is keeping out of sight. The goal of the alternative service is to satisfy the court's requirement that I make reasonable attempt to notify the defendant prior to the trial.

In the meantime, Jerk #1 filed for personal bankruptcy. My attorney was able to drill holes in his disclosure under oath and managed to convert his Chapter 7 from a no-assets to a with-assets action. This doesn't help me at all but someone, somewhere will get some small benefit from it. Jerk 1's bankruptcy was eventually approved by the court, so his debt to me is erased.

The expectation is that Jerk 2 will declare bankruptcy now that Jerk 1 has completed it. Jerk 2 is acting as the bag man, holding Jerk 1's assets until he is free and clear. Jerk 2 will transfer the assets back to Jerk 1, and then complete bankruptcy, then the two of them rid off into the sunset together.

My attorney agrees with me that there is probably criminal activity going on, a scam on the court and a scam on the creditors, but unless I want to invest $30-40k in a prosecution with no guarantee of return, that the police, the courts, and the district attorney are all going to turn a blind eye.

The there's the matter of the failed foreclosure by the bank of my old property.

My lawyer contacted the bank's attorney and told them that they now had a big problem, I have 5 years to redeem the property if they sell it to someone else. Being as I don't have $450,000 to buy off their lien, we offered to bow out and sign away any claim to the property for a small $ consideration. We even left it up to them to decide how small the $ would be. They became inflamed and angrily insisted that they would ~never~ pay me ~any~ sum to settle the matter. They then filed suit against me in District Court petitioning the court to remove my lien from the property, and sending my lawyer a copy of the complaint, asking if he would accept service for me. I took a lesson from Jerk #2's playbook and told him "no way" and they have been trying to serve me ever since. I figure I'll make it is difficult as possible, and drag it out as long as I can. In the end, they'll spend more money and certainly more time on this angle than it would have taken to simply buy me off.

As a result, I have taken down my mailbox and street address, locked the gate down at the road and erected two "No Trespassing" signs on the bridge over the creek. In the open spaces on the signs, one says "Unsafe Bridge" and the other says "Rotted Beams - Collapse Hazard". It's a lot like having my own moat, if only I could get some alligators or piranhas. It was scary enough that the electric meter reader turned his truck around and skipped reading my meter the month before last.

Then there is that matter of the Capital Gains Taxes I've already paid on the deferred income that I will never receive from the jerks.

Today marked a turning point in that front. I received amended returns for federal and state taxes for the year of 2006, removing the deferred income from my income statement in that year, and applying for refunds of the over paid taxes. it apparently takes the tax droids a very long time to process the forms and write up a check, but in the end I will recover about 12 cents on the dollar of what the Jerks screwed me for in the form of tax savings. Big whoop. To date, my costs for legal and accounting services, court costs, process server fees, paying the Sheriff to serve, postage for certified mail, newspaper legal notices, etc. totals about $10,000.

Anyway, I'm trying to get this whole horrible mess out of my life by the end of the year, except maybe the merriment with the bank, which doesn't mean anything to me. Five years of suffering is enough.

[AccordGuy]

At least here the tax office is obliged to pay retrospective interest on the overpaid tax they hold. So the longer it takes them to refund it, the more interest they become liable for.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

That almost sounds like "fair" goverment there Accordguy. Thats crazy There's no such thing Anyway Keep goin forward Sharkey old boy. Good or bad you'll get to the end of this thing.

[Sharkey]

That point hadn't escaped my attention. It's also true that the Fed pays better interest than any bank. My accountant says it varies in a complicated manner, but right now it is ~5%. I won't know how much interest I'll be getting until I hear from the government, The accountant says it would take her six hours or so to calculate the amount.

The down side is that I paid late, so I got hit with penalties amounting to about $2,000 which aren't going to be returned. I can't understand why, if I didn't owe the money in the first place, why would I be penalized for paying it late??? I also paid interest on the late payment, it remains to be seen if I will get that back...

[dburt]

Sharkey, don't contemplate and agonize too much over this or it will drive you over the edge. It is just not fair, and there is no way you will ever get fair treatment when you are dealing with courts, the government, etc. When I was a deputy sheriff years ago, we called the so-called "Justice System" the Injustice System. If and when justice happened, it was by accidential chance and not planned at all. I found out by personal observation that there is alot of collusion, deal making, payoffs of cash or favors, and political paybacks going on behind the scenes between judges, attorneys, even planitiffs and defendents and yes, even the law enforcement folks! Talk about a corrupt good ole' boys system. If folks knew the half of what goes on behind the scenes, they would lose all faith in "the system" and probably revolt. In fact, Thomas Jefferson once said that we would probably need a revolt every 20 years or so to throw the corrupt officials out of thier offices and start over with fresh ones. But even the fresh ones go sour after a while, and need to be all thrown out. I think Jefferson was right!!

[earthhorns]

right you are dburt...justice is near impossible to find in the "injustice" court system. I have had to deal with the family court system over custody of my son up here in Wa. state for the past seven years! The level of bias and corruption is beyond words.
Hang in there with your case Sharkey, I wish the best for you.

[Sharkey]

db, I have already been over the edge, it's just that I managed to haul myself back over to this side after a while.

I have no expectation of "justice". The fact of the matter is that I trusted these Jerks, and put faith in a rickety economic structure that I have never believed in in order to make a greater sum of money off the sale of my property. If I had taken the cash offer, I'd be set for life and enjoying retirement. Instead, that will have to wait until I manage to get this property fixed up and wait for the real estate market to recover so I can sell it. This property is now my retirement. What remains to be seen is if I live long enough to enjoy it (retirement, that is).

Right now, I'm just trying to hang on for another 3½ years when I can begin collecting Social Security, as little as that might be. Of course, I've always believed that SS will be bankrupt by the time I reach 62, so that's a bright spot in the picture...

The only reason to file a complaint in the court system was that I had to "go through the motions" in order to file an amended tax return. The debt had to be declared uncollectible before I could go back and scratch off the deferred income from the installment sale from my 2006 income records. That process ended up costing me $4,000 of the total $10k. The only ones making out here are the lawyers, accountants and newspapers.

[AccordGuy]

Right now, I'm just trying to hang on for another 3½ years when I can begin collecting Social Security, as little as that might be. Of course, I've always believed that SS will be bankrupt by the time I reach 62, so that's a bright spot in the picture...

62??? I have to wait until 65 and the government are trying to get that raised to 70 to plug the future gap in public finances from pouring hundreds of billions down the banking drain.

SS paid retirement was a nice idea while it lasted but from here on in we will work until we drop (or get lucky on the lotto). My wife being a foreign national who is allowed to remain in the UK but with "no recourse to public funds" will have to share my non-existent pension... It's best not to think too far ahead these days. I used to have a personal pension fund but the bankers lost it all in a card game

Here's an interesting fact... Before you retire you should live a healthy life as it reduces your insurance premiums and improves your quality of life. Just before you retire you should take up drinking, smoking and dangerous sports because it will improve the annuity rates you get when buying a pension with your fund because a high risk lifestyle shortens your life so the pensions providers pay out more per year on the assumption that you won't be around for so long to collect it.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

"Before you retire you should live a healthy life as it reduces your insurance premiums and improves your quality of life. Just before you retire you should take up drinking, smoking and dangerous sports because it will improve the annuity rates you get when buying a pension with your fund because a high risk lifestyle shortens your life so the pensions providers pay out more per year on the assumption that you won't be around for so long to collect it."

Thats great

[dburt]

Part of the new political agenda is the desire to make everyone equal. Of course it never works out in practice, as there are always wealthy persons of political persuasions who make sure they do not have to be as equal as others. What this leads to is that there will now be just two class groups, the very wealthy and politically connected, and the poor. The so-called middle class will disapear at an increasing rate. So if you were what would have been considered middle class, get used to watching your budget, cutting out all, and I mean all un-needed items from your budget. Get used to "turning the thermostat way down", going without alot of the health care we used to take for granted, and watch your savings and retirement plans evaporate. Plan on working deep into your "golden years", way way deep into your golden years! Grab yourself a WalMart shopping cart while they are still available to use when you are turned out and into a street person.

And as Sharkey has discovered, don't expect any justice. The rich just get richer or better connected to the politically connected power base, and we will get to feel and experience what the disadvantaged in the 3rd world countries have dealt with for many years.

[Sharkey]

The tale goes on and on.

The alternative service on Jerk #2 is complete, and I now have an official Default Order against him, signed by a judge and all that legal hoo-hah.

My lawyer sent along a couple of newspaper clippings from the business section describing how Jerk #2 had just been named the local head of a mortgage company branch which is moving into the state from California. Interesting, he may now have a job with a paycheck. A paycheck that I can garnish if I feel nasty. Oh, and I do feel so nasty. If it turns out that he has any assets, any assets at all, I can send the Sheriff to seize them. Unless this joker goes Banko too, he is my meat puppet to slap around any way I like.

The lawyer and I are going to confer on collection strategies as soon as the final Judgement of Default clears the court.

Hmmm, how does $5,000 a month for the rest of my life sound?

[stuartcnz]

I hope this means that you can finally start to exact some justice for yourself.

[dburt]

Go Sharkey!!

[Sharkey]

You'd think that Sunday would be a slow news day, but these exciting stories just in:

1) My spies in Waldport have located a photo of Jerk #2, a nice big one that could be used by a Sheriff or collections officer to identify him.

2) The press release states that "Jerk #2 is "Active in the local community and in his sons’ school". As far as I know the "sons" are Jerk #1's adopted sons, so it's highly probable that the two of them still live together at the same address.

3) The neighbors here say that there is a Legal Notice running in the local newspaper announcing the complaint regarding the bank and my old property. Apparently they tired of trying to serve me the court complaint in person and have had to resort to a published alternative service. That would have cost them about $400 or so, so I have been instrumental in bringing some out-of-area cash to local merchants (the newspaper). The end is near for this issue, as I have no doubt that the court will reward the bank's impetuous lending practices by awarding them a judgement removing my lein from the property, meaning that the bank loses nothing on the failed purchase, I'm the one who takes it in the shorts. Figures.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Well Sharkey old boy, Maybe it's your turn. It’s about dam time