YEAR FIVE
House
Account: $1,970.95
#Mortgage:
$565.26
Why
was I not surprised when Diane ignored my #eviction notice? At the beginning of
April, I drew up a #petition, got a court date assigned for April 22nd, and had
a process server serve the petition upon Diane.
To Diane's surprise, the process server went to her place of employment,
talked his way into the inner sanctum of the office, and duly served the petition on her.
Over
the next two weeks, I continued to stew over what to do about my previous non-paying tenant, Charmayne. Should I just give up and forget about getting
any money out of her? Before I even
finished that thought, however, I sternly told myself, “No! Stick to your guns. Charmayne
should be made to face the consequences of her actions . . . or lack thereof.” I
filled in the restraining notices to garnishee.
During
lunch, I drove to the Clerk’s Office in Schemmerhorn to look in Charmayne's personal injury court case file. To my
dismay, the folder now contained a Release and Stipulation of Discontinuance. Charmayne and her pal had settled their case
for $25,000.00 each! I was too late.
In
disgust, I tore up the restraining notices. Because of my hesitation to serve
my own law firm employer with a restraining notice, I'd lost out. Now I couldn’t serve the defendant,
either. What a bummer!
Time for Plan B?
If
I had $25,000.00, what would I do with it?
Maybe I could send information #subpoenas and restraining notices to all
the banks in Schemmerhorn in the hope that Charmayne had deposited her
settlement money in one of them. She may
not have had a bank account in the past but now with $25,000.00 burning a hole
in her pocket, she had to put it somewhere.
I didn’t know then that the Department of Social Services would likely take
a large chunk of it. Public assistance
is actually considered a loan, and #D.S.S. is always the first to be
reimbursed, should one of their recipients receive a large settlement. Come to think of it, that was probably what had
happened to the $14,000.00 paid to my previous #tenant, Mamie.
I
still had some restraining notices left over that I could use, and I bought
some information subpoenas from the legal supply store. They only sold triplicates, and I made more copies at the office.
After dinner, I paged through the Yellow
Pages and found twelve banks that had branches in Schemmerhorn. I set to
at once, filling out the information subpoenas and restraining notices in my
best handwriting. My typewriter was still broken, and Rita's old typewriter, which I'd kept from my previous job, wasn't
the most reliable of machines.
At
the office the next day, I told another friendly lawyer about Plan B. She agreed it was a good idea to explore the
banks but suggested I call the Clerk’s office to check whether or not the
information subpoenas had to be stamped by the Clerk before mailing them out. I was glad for this advice because when I
called the Clerk’s Office, they advised me that the Small Claims Department had
its own information subpoenas, and some banks did require the Clerk's
stamp. As it happened, my eviction proceeding with Diane was the next day. I could
kill two birds with one stone.
I
arrived at City Hall a little early and sat down in the court room to await the morning's
proceedings. To my amazement,
Diane actually showed up a few minutes later.
I don’t think she recognized me because she herded two young children over to
where I was sitting and sat down right next to me.
"Diane,"
I said. She jumped and turned to look at
me, surprised.
"Do
you have any #rent for me?" I asked bluntly.
She looked a little sheepish and began rummaging in the depths of her capacious purse. "I sent you a money order a few weeks
ago,” she said. “Three hunnerd dollars.
Din't you get it?"
“No.
I only got the one for February."
"Oh,
gawd. I got the receipt here somewhere." She rummaged some more and finally produced a grubby yellow carbon copy
of a money order.
She peered at it shortsightedly. "If
this bin lost, what can ah do?"
"Aren't there instructions in the small print?"
I joined her in peering at the smudged form. "Yes, there." I pointed at the appropriate phrase.
"Oh,
yeah," Diane said. "Okay, I'm
gonna git down theah fust thing in the mornin' and complain.”
"Okay."
Diane's
dark face took on an earnest expression.
"I can give you another four hunnerd on May first. I'm workin' extra hours, an' I'm going
on a interview next week. Gawd, ah hope
ah git da job. Then I'll be able to pay
you some more."
"You
have to do something, Diane," I said. “I can't wait forever, and you never answer my letters or phone calls.
What am I supposed to think? It seems
the only way I can communicate with you is by taking you to
Court. It’s a waste of my time and
yours, but it's the only way I can actually talk to you."
"Yeah,
yeah. I know," My errant tenant flashed a sheepish
grin. "I had to take time off work
to come ‘ere today too. Is hard, you know?
"Tell
me about it!"
She
patted my knee, conspiratorially.
"I sure hope I get dat job.
I really wanna pay you what I owe you."
I stifled a dubious grunt. "Hm, well, our case is the
first on the list this morning, so as soon as the judge shows up, we can get started."
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