Louisiana Couple To Chuck Payment Book, Scores $10K For Sloppy Citi's Harrassment In Attempting To Collect Lost Promissory Note

In Chalmette, Louisiana, The Associated Press reports:

• CitiMortgage Inc. lost its right to collect from a Chalmette couple who defaulted after Hurricane Katrina because it lost their mortgage - and must pay them $10,000 for years of harassing phone calls, a state district judge has ruled. Company phone logs and the testimony of David Michael Cefalu and Rebekah Anna Cantrell Cefalu "clearly establish a pattern of continued, persistent and excessive phone calls" even after they told CitiMortgage to call their lawyer, Judge Robert Buckley wrote.

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• The Cefalus got the $66,462 mortgage in August 2000 from Hibernia National Bank, which transferred servicing rights on the loan to CitiMortgage on March 1, 2005, according to a post-trial memorandum filed by CitiMortgage.

• Even though the Cefalus acknowledged their debt, CitiMortgage still had to prove its case and didn't have the records needed to do that, Buckley wrote.

• Its "sloppy record keeping ... seemed to eerily presage" recent allegations about sloppy paperwork and legal procedures nationwide as mortgage lenders foreclosed on millions of homes, the Cefalus' attorney, John Redmann, wrote in an e-mail.

For more, see Judge: $10K for post-Katrina debt harassment.