Family Duped Into Buying Home With Title Defect, Says Suit

In Port Arthur, Texas, The Southeast Texas Record reports:

• Not fluent in English, three immigrants are alleging a Nederland couple took advantage of their inability to communicate and duped them into buying a Port Arthur home that had a lien against it. Lorenzo, Rosa and Henry Watler filed suit against Mark and Carolyn Link on April 24 in the Jefferson County District Court.

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• On April 26, 2006, the Watlers and Links entered into a contract to sell the Watlers a Port Arthur home. The Watlers were to pay the Links $30,000, with $10,000 as a down payment and the remaining $20,000 being financed by the Links in an owner-finance arrangement, the suit states.

According to the story, which is based on the lawsuit filed in court, the Watlers paid the Links a $10,000.00 cashier's check and $272.67 per month subsequently thereafter as payments on the $20,000.00 note covering the remaining balance of the sales price, but the Links allegedly failed to clear the existing lien from the title to the home. The Watlers are suing for punitive, actual and consequential damages, plus attorneys' fees.

For more, see Immigrants claim couple defrauded them into home purchase.