Florida woman fights foreclosure for 25 years ... Wall St. Journal

[maryjk_99]

...Ms. Campbell's foreclosure case has outlasted two marriages, three recessions and four presidents. She has seen seven great-grandchildren born, plum real-estate markets come and go and the ownership of her mortgage change six times. Many Florida real-estate lawyers say it is the longest-lasting foreclosure case they have ever heard of.

...Ms. Campbell has challenged her foreclosure on the grounds that her mortgage was improperly transferred between banks and federal agencies, that lawyers for the bank had waited too long to prosecute the case, that a Florida law shields her from all her creditors, and for dozens of other reasons. Once, she questioned whether there really was a debt at all, saying the lender improperly separated the note from the mortgage contract.

...Court records outline the rocky road Ms. Campbell's loan has taken over the past 32 years. In 1978, Paul Campbell purchased the house on SW 19th Lane, a few minutes' drive from the small pharmacy he owned, using a $68,000 mortgage from First Federal Savings and Loan of Martin County. He married Patsy in 1980, and died later that year from emphysema, leaving the property to his wife.

In 1985, Ms. Campbell stopped making mortgage payments because of an illness that caused her to lose income and get behind on her bills, she says.


...A stern, confident woman who can quote Florida civil-procedure statutes by reference number, and who adores cooking Southern food and listening to classic Grand Ole Opry-era country music, Ms. Campbell steadfastly believes she is right. Her most recent argument in the case is that under Florida homestead law, the bank can't seize her house because it is exempt from liens and forced sales.

..."Commercial Services of Perry is in the business of doing this. They win some, they lose some," she says. "If they had a case, they would have already won it, years ago."

She maintains that at this point, no one owns her mortgage note, and that because of fraud and paperwork mistakes by the banks that transferred it over and over again in the 1990s, the debt has been made void.


_http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/111500/the-25-year-foreclosure-from-hell

Ha! You go girl!!! Her mortgage has been sold and/or transferred numerous times and at one point she argued her husband never signed the mortgage papers and that the seller was never paid the proceeds. She filed Bk in her latest defense, and argues that since the loan is in dispute, she does not owe any interest. She presents lawyers with 3 inch high stacks of documents on a regular basis.

Her property is protected by a 105 lb. pit bull named Dodger. I've owned pit bulls and they are some of the gentlest, trustful and loyal dogs I have ever owned. They'll stand up to a bear for you, and despite 'reports', they love people. Bad breeding, bad owners and bad press have given them an undeserved bad reputation. WE had 2 of them, a mother and son who were much better entertainers than the Big Time wrastlers on TV. With that said, if you're going to own a pit bull, you had better research their breeding and visit with the sire and dam. Pits aren't supposed to weigh 105 lbs. and I hope this woman knows how to handle hers. Of course, she gets extra points for dealing with the pit bosses in the courts!