Did Debt Collection Calls Kill This Man?

[Kadie]

Did Debt Collection Calls Kill This Man?
Florida Woman Sues Mortgage Company, Says Harassing Phone Calls Killed Husband
By ALICE GOMSTYN
ABC NEWS Business Unit
Sept. 22, 2009

Elizabeth Dianne McLeod says her husband Stanley pleaded with mortgage debt collectors, explaining that his heart problems were so serious that a helicopter once had to be called in to airlift him to a hospital.

In response, one collector allegedly mocked him, leaving a message on his answering machine, suggesting: "Why don't you have that helicopter pick you up and bring that payment to the office."

Months later, McLeod, 57, was dead and the mortgage servicing company, his widow alleges, is to blame.

snip...
The McLeods fell on hard times in 2002, when a heart attack forced Stanley McLeod to leave his job as an alarm technician at a Sears store and instead rely on government disability benefits.

By 2003, the Keystone, Fla., couple, contending with Stanley McLeod's medical bills and a lower income, began sending some of their mortgage payments in late. Each time they did, Green Tree, their mortgage servicing company, would call to demand payment, said McLeod's lawyer, Billy Howard, of the Florida personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan.

snip...
By 2005, Howard said, the situation had grown considerably worse: According to the law suit, Green Tree was calling on back-to-back days; placed calls to Stanley's McLeod's neighbor, brother and grandson; and once called at least nine times in one day.

McLeod's outstanding debt, Howard said, was just under $700.

more... (audio of calls at link)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/mortgage-company-sued-death-florida-man/story?id=8633822

[Echo In Light]

1. Profits over people

[sakabatou]

2. This is why we need the public option

[Lance_Boyle]

3. There are laws on the books to prevent debt collectors harrassing people.

This lawsuit merely seeks to capitalize on the fact that the dead man didn't take advantage of those laws while he was being hounded. I wonder if the widow will pay off the mortgage if she collects on this frivolous suit?

[aquart]

5. Frivolous, my ass.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. And the laws usually don't extend to in-house collections departments

FDCPA mostly covers third-party collections.

The article points this out on the second page:

Generally, debt collectors are subject to federal rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, enforced by the FTC, which prohibits harassment by debt collectors.

But many mortgage servicing companies -- unlike traditional debt collection agencies -- don't fall under the federal rules, according to Geoff Walsh, a staff attorney with National Consumer Law Center. Some, he said, may be subject to state rules instead. To determine whether a mortgage servicer may have violated a state or federal law, Walsh recommends individuals contact their state attorney general.

eta tag

[Demit]

15. LOL! Thanks, Gormy C. I love it when somebody's so intent on posting so quickly

that they don't bother to read the article that would have prevented them from posting in ignorance.

[Kadie]

19. Thank you for posting that.

:hi:

[Hepburn]

11. Ummmmmmm....

...no. This was NOT a third party debt collector doing the harassment.

[xocet]

13. So....

You are a compassionate one, aren't you? What do you think the answer to your question will be if she wins the lawsuit? Also, how would you have dealt with the situation?

[Greyhound]

17. The laws to which you refer are completely unenforced in FL and rarely

enforced anywhere in America. Laws with no enforcement are worse than useless. Profits over people is bringing/has brought this nation down, congratulations.

[WillieW]

18. I would not pay off these creeps. I would take the money and buy a new house in a foreign country

[Ian David]

4. They did this to him over only $700???

[KamaAina]

9. How much did all those phone calls cost?

Even assuming the callers were paid minimum wage, or less if they were offshore. :eyes:

[Echo In Light]

10. What sounds ludicrous and inhumane to us is often just sound, sensible bu$iness decisions...

... to those whose god is $

[TxRider]

16. They did it to me and I didn't even owe anything!

Never even had an account with them, ever...

It was Citi. They fished my name out of the phone book because it was the same last name as some woman who walked away from a credit card debts and not a common name.

They mailed me demands, they called my house over and over...

I stopped answering my phone altogether and told everyone I knew to call and let it ring 3 times, then call right back again or I wouldn't answer it.

I finally put my name on the national do not call list and answered the phone a few weeks later...

I told the guy I have never ever done business with Citi. He starts in trying to get me to tell him did my wife ever? Mother, Father, siblings ever?

I told him it was none my business if they did, I have never been married, and that I have 20-30 calls from them on my answering machine, that I am on the do not call list, and if anyone ever called me about this again I would turn in Citi to the national do not call system and at $10,000 fine per call the 20-30 calls on my answering machine would be turned in as well.

He got really really nice then, and I have never heard a peep from them since.

[Toucano]

6. It's only money people!

This is a sad story.

[timeforpeace]

8. Yes. Yes they did.

[Hepburn]

12. Just think of how that phone call about the helicopter would play to...

...a jury.

OUCH...!!!

[Kadie]

20. Yep.

People can be so cruel. Good thing they kept the recordings.

[endless october]

14. collection agencies are relentless.

i've been enjoying a break from them lately. not for my own debt, though. my ex-fiancee left me and then didn't pay her college loans / credit cards. so guess who gets to talk to those collection agencies?

yours truly.

i have explained that i got dumped by her and given them the date that she moved out thousands of times. they tell me my number's off the list, and then they start back up a month later.

however, a long conversation with the latest one has resulted in several months of not receiving collection calls. i'm hoping the trend continues.