So, we let the court process take its course. Once again we were defaulted on our case for lack of an answer to the complaint. The plaintiff was the biggest bank in the world by assets. Their attorneys were the biggest foreclosure shop in Connecticut. In fact they represented all the banks. I will never forget their attorneys and staff use a roller case with all of the client files. As each case was called, they were already sitting behind the “bar” staying there for the next case. Yes, they literally had the same attorney for more than half the foreclosure cases on the banks side. So this is how they make the sausage.
You’ve got to envision the disparity i later witnessed every week I went to court. Here were people who couldn’t speak english, didn’t have attorneys, didn’t understand the system, the rules, the law. It was a total stacked deck. The bank’s attorneys were experts in the law. They had done thousands of foreclosures. They new all the rules. All the tricks. All the methods. Many defendants were defenseless, scared, crying, it was crazy.
I was seeing the case progress through the various notices we received in the mail. Trusting God. Since they weren’t taking any action in court yet and we were waiting on the Lord for a miracle we simply waited and prayed. Soon, the plaintiff was working away toward their default judgment. The plaintiff had to notify us by mail all of their filings.
One big blessing was that there was no foreclosure activity on our cape house yet. The mortgage was with the same bank, but Massachusetts has different laws. Turns out you have even less rights in Mass as it is a “non-judicial” state for foreclosures. Basically, once a bank wants to take title to a house having “cause” of non-payment of the mortgage, they just have to put an ad in the local paper and conduct a sale by auction.
The other crazy thing about our bank, was that we were loyal customers for over 20 years for their other products (checking, savings, credit cards, money market, auto loans). But they literally treated our failing to pay the mortgage as a totally separate matter. There was no “relationship” discussion, no accounting for the money they had made in the past from us, or grace or negotiation or forgiveness or forbearance whatsoever. It was just full steam ahead toward foreclosure.
It was mid-June 2012 and we were preparing for our annual pilgrimage to Cape Cod with the family. School was out. Money was so tight the previous summer in 2011, that we only drove up one vehicle (my pickup truck) in order to save on gas. Things were a bit better cash wise this summer and so we had two vehicles, as I was planning to travel back and forth for business, ministry and court as needed.
Every year, we forwarded our mail from Wilton, CT to our North Eastham Post Office Box. You fill out a mail forwarding card and submit it to your home post office. Years later it became an online process. You essentially are filing for a temporary change of address. Once the Post Office received this forwarding request, it usually took a week or two to start receiving mail on the other end up at the North Eastham Post Office.
Well, this year 2012, things were different.
Many times in my life, the Lord had given me a heads up for something that needed to be done or addressed when it was required. Like a warning system. I seem to recall that God showed me it was time to clean the septic system when it was about to overflow once. One time, I even asked the Holy Spirit to wake me up if it was a good day to go fishing. That morning I had an amazing wake up call. Ever heard of a visual alarm clock? That morning the Lord woke me up before dawn by like throwing paint across my viewing screen in a dream or night vision. Was wild! Super bright colors. So amazing and surprising it woke me up!
But other times in my life, things happen without warning. And when that happens, God always makes a way one way or another
God will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it
1 Corinthians 10:13
That year I was flying blind because we weren’t receiving any of our mail. No mail for a week. Then no mail for 2 weeks. For 3 weeks. I was on the phone to the Wilton post office. In to visit the Eastham post office. They didn’t know what happened. They kept assuring me, just wait a few more days. But I needed this mail, because it was my way of knowing what was going on with our house and the court. I had never been here in this place before. And not having the mail was a real bother. But I kept praying.
The week before my birthday, I decided to check our case another way. They had a PDF docket of all the cases being heard on a given court date. I had to manually search each one for each day. To my dismay, I found our case listed to be heard on July 9th – my birthday! Uggh. That was next week and we had scheduled our annual extended family vacation week for that week – the week of my birthday.
I decided to call the Stamford clerk’s office to find out what the situation was and whether I had to be there. Really to figure out if there was any risk of of foreclosure being entered against us. I got someone on the line. They asked me for the case number and looked it up. I explained the situation that I was out of state with my family. She told me, Okay the case has not yet been market “ready.” Call back Thursday after 5pm. If they haven’t marked it ready by then, it will be “marked off” and it won’t be heard Monday (July 9th).
So I was praying to preserve our week of family time and that I wouldn’t have to travel back to Connecticut. Some way. Some how.
Thursday came around and i called back. Got the same person on the line. I reminded her of the situation. She said, hold the line. Waited for few minutes. She came back on and said, no, your case was not marked ready. So, I don’t have to be in court? No. Praise God! My prayers were answered. I got to stay with family on the Cape for my birthday.
I had a nice birthday. Weather was great. It usually is that time of year on Cape Cod. You get the hot weather tempered by a strong sea breeze. As a kitesurfer, it was always a great combination.
Later that week I decided to check back with the court. The first thing I checked was the website. To my shock and utter horror, I saw our case had indeed been heard on my birthday, and the judge issued a judgement of foreclosure against us! What?? How could this happen? I was like, Lord, no. This can’t happen. This is not the end of the story. You told me we were going to be protected! I called my clerk friend back and left what must have been a pretty desperate voicemail. I looked up her name on the website. Turns out she was the chief clerk of the court. Well at least that’s a good thing.
But the clerk never returned my call that day. I was pretty bummed. I was in a state of shock and unbelief. I called her the next day. She was like, wow, you must have really been upset when you found out the foreclosure went through. I was like – umm yeah (ya think!?). She said, look it was my fault. I looked up the wrong case which is why i told you it wasn’t marked ready. I’ll talk to the judge and see what we can do about it. She called me back the next day – Good news, the judge agreed to vacate the judgment, but you have to been here in court Monday. What a relief. I still have a copy of that vacated judgment – on my birthday!
Our family all said their goodbyes Saturday morning at the change over time for the rental house down the road. That night into Sunday I had a rough sleep. Then for the first time ever, at like 3am I hear this racket coming from the back deck. I get up and go out the slider and this black mass runs across the deck on to the roof. He looks back with those reflective eyes and robber’s mask – a fat raccoon!
Later that evening, I set off to get back home to Wilton. I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been this way before. My parents and others were praying for us. Being Sunday night, there was traffic. My usual way home was over the bridge to I195 turning into I95 through Providence RI. But my GPS was showing a long ETA the usual way. So, I took the alternative route, up I495 to the Mass Pike then back down into CT on I84. As I entered CT, there was a wall of severe thunderstorms coming straight at me as I travelled south. Up ahead traffic started backing up because of the storms. It had come to a stand-still. I quickly checked to see if I could get off the highway and go back roads. I didn’t want to get stuck in the middle of the night in bumper to bumper traffic instead of getting a good night sleep. So I reroute near Tolland. I start down the back roads and its pitch black out. Windy roads. No street lights.
Then all of the sudden, I come into this downtown area with a big green. It was like throw back in time to old New England. Here was a white old colonial church with a big steeple. All lit up. And next to it, another all white old stately structure, also looking like a church. It was a very serene scene. It was almost like a mystical experience. Just me and this old town center with a triangle green and two white steepled structures. Later, I came to find out that this was the old Tolland town center. That was the first congregational church of Tolland and the second structure was the old county courthouse! God was showing me the connection in the old days between the church and the court. In the old days, you had to petition the state court to incorporate a town. They would only approve a new town if it also had a congregational church at the center of the community. Somehow, I was being taken back in time and shown by God the righteous root of the State of Connecticut, a model for all of the United States as the “constitution state”.
The next morning I show up to court early and find out that my case was going to be heard by another judge – let’s call him Judge Dem.
I enter the Stamford foreclosure court room for the first time. Here every Monday morning starting at 9:30, you hear the “All Rise!” by the court marshall “for the honorable Judge Dem.”
I’ve never been here before. The courtroom is packed. People of all stations of life. White collar professionals, working folk, teachers, drivers, lawyers, doctors, black, white, hispanic, asian, foreigners who don’t speak english. Behind the “bar” were several lawyers who all worked for one law firm – the one that does all most all of the foreclosures in Connecticut. All the banks hire the same firm. Because they get results. They are also ruthless.
On that day, I came to later meet who i was up against representing the plaintiff. I nicknamed him “the racoon” after the encounter I had with my roof bandit the night before. He was bald as a cue ball and menacing in his approach. He would charm the judge and then ruthlessly go after his opponents with an air of sanctimony. He was a court brawler. He loved a fight and looked like he could mix it up in real life too. Turns out I met him later and he’s not a bad guy. He rides motorcycles and probably dresses like a Hells Angel riding a Harley. But he sees his job as bringing “justice” for his clients – the banks. Justice over these deadbeats who can’t pay their mortgage.
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