Depending on your point of view, the story of Patsy Campbell is hilarious or frightening. This 71-year-old Florida retiree has kept lenders and lawyers at bay for 25 years while she got her case thrown out of court time and again for the smallest legal missteps. Is she a little David throwing pebbles at Goliath or is she exploiting the legal system to avoid paying what she legitimately owes?
By all appearances, Patsy Campbell seems like something out of a folk tale. Her home is shaded by large trees and protected by a locked gate and her pit bull Dodger. Her boarded-up windows, run-down pool, and rusty sedan remind a person of a modern-day Southern Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, and like Norma Desmond, Patsy Campbell has proved that she is not a person to be trifled with.
The story of the mortgage from hell begins in 1978 when Paul Campbell used a $68,000 mortgage from First Federal Savings and Loan of Martin County to buy a house, and two years later, he married Patsy. Their wedded bliss was sadly short as Paul died later that same year from emphysema. For four years, Patsy made mortgage payments, but in 1985, she got sick and fell behind on her bills.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, things got a little more complicated. Patsy’s mortgage was sold several times over to various failing lenders from First Federal to First Fidelity Savings and Loan to American Pioneer Savings Bank. The mortgage changed ownership seven more times before getting to Commercial Services of Perry who is currently trying to collect from Campbell. Considering other lenders’ track records, however, Commercial Services of Perry should not underestimate Campbell.
On paper, Patsy Campbell is an easy win in court. She is an elderly former insurance saleswoman with no legal training or background who has chosen to represent herself in court. Despite it all, she has found every loophole, missed technicality, and overdue deadline. If they forgot to dot their i’s or cross their t’s, she caught it. She claims that so many mistakes were made in transferring her mortgage from one lender to another that her debt is void and she doesn’t owe the lenders anything. She told Wall Street Journal’s Robbie Whelan that, “If they had a case, they would have already won it, years ago.”
Readers, we want to know what you think. Is Patsy Campbell a nuisance and a “burden on the courts” as the lender’s lawyer has claimed, or is she just using every legal loophole (as the banks and lenders have done in the past) to get what she wants? Comment below and tell us what you think!
