The 25-Year 'Foreclosure From Hell'

With foreclosure-gate, I wonder how many people will pull off these tricks.  Again this problem is going to take years to solve, she doesn't help the situation.

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.

Mr. Summers, the lawyer for the lender, calls the case "the foreclosure from hell." He says Ms. Campbell has appealed the case seven times since he took it on in 2000, and all of her arguments are just stalling tactics.

"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," Mr. Summers says. "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."

For example, according to Mr. Summers and to court filings, in 2007, when a judge remanded the case to the trial court, a court clerk failed to issue a mandate establishing the lower court's jurisdiction. Ms. Campbell appealed the case on those grounds.

The bankruptcy should take about four months to adjudicate, Mr. Summers says, at which point he intends to take the foreclosure to trial. According to Commercial Services of Perry's latest filings, Ms. Campbell owes the $63,801 in principal plus $148,000 in interest.

"All she's got to do is pay what she owes: the principal, the interest, plus court costs and attorneys' fees," Mr. Summers says. "But she doesn't get a free ride."

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