New ME Scam out of Texas????

[Prof]

Also, I attempted to identify the judge. While the signature is hard (at least for me) to decipher, I can find no District (Texas State) Judge in Austin with the initials B and H. Texas does use "visiting" judges -- retired judges or judges who were elected several times and then did not run or were beaten at the polls. Visiting judges sit at the need of the administrative judge for a region.

Perhaps this judge was a "visiting" judge, but I can't find a member of the bar with a last name that looks like one of the variants of the spelling of the last name.

I am beginning to wonder if this document is a fraudulent one and got filed by the Clerk in error.

Of course, the document means nothing and is not a binding order/finding/etc. for the reasons that James and Wes stated.

[notorial dissent]

Might not a call to the presiding judge for Austin be in order regarding this matter?

[wserra]

I can find no District (Texas State) Judge in Austin with the initials B and H.

Or C and H, or G and H.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[notorial dissent]

I have my own suspicions, but all that aside, anyone call the court clerk and ask who the judge was that signed the order?

[wserra]

OK, I just did that. The District Court clerk in Austin said that the judge who signed that order is one "Gary Hanger". Judge Hanger is not listed in the Texas master list of trial judges. That list is "current as of 2/25/2011", so maybe he's new on the bench since then. He's also not on the list of District Judges. He doesn't turn up in a search of the State Bar. But the clerk said he was a judge there.

I give up - especially since it doesn't matter. Since this was ex parte, I don't care if John Roberts signed it.

[wserra]

Found something interesting. While there is no "Gary Hanger" who is a Texas judge - although, given the name, at first I though it might be the real-life JRB - there is a "Gary Harger" who used to be a Texas judge (he lost re-election bid in November 2010). Especially since his bio says "Sitting as an Assigned Judge for 3rd Administrative Region, including Travis, Hays and Williamson Counties. Family Law Mediation." I would guess that this is what Prof referred to as a visiting judge.

So these guys plunk 565 pages of land documents before a retired judge, and this is what you get without opposition. It is still mind-boggling, though, that a court would undertake any determination of property rights of this type ex parte.

Texas lawyers: anybody know Judge Harger? What is going to happen with this due process violation should anyone try to do anything with it?

[notorial dissent]

My, my, and my!!!

[wserra]

A little Texas research has put the legal aspect of this stuff in better focus.

Texas courts have (quite understandably, given the requirements of due process) sharply limited the potential sweep of the statute we've been discussing, TX Govt. Code § 51.903. The only power a court has under that statute - at least when sitting ex parte - "is expressly limited to determining whether the document or instrument is fraudulent; it may not rule on the validity of the underlying lien or other claims". Becker v. Tropic Isles Ass'n, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 1770 (Tx. App. 2010). And that means a specific document or specific documents, not 565 pages of crap. Moreover, the same case held that, if a judge acting ex parte does in fact make a determination of the validity of the lien, the lienholder can vacate that determination upon review by a simple showing that it did not receive notice (which due process requires). Finally, the cases which have upheld ex parte use of the statute indeed involve Freeman-style "fraudulent" liens. See, for example, In re A Purported Lien Or Claim Against Collin County Clerk Taylor, 219 S.W.3d 620 (Tx. App. 2007), in which some idiot filed a lien (as the title says) against the county clerk.

So "Endless Fraud Detection Services" appears to have done exactly what we said: procured an "order" from a retired judge which its "client" can now use to line her bird cage. How much did that cost again?

[notorial dissent]

So, in other words, just one more round in the endless fraud of the company. Well, if nothing else, the client is out at least $60 buck minimum for copying charges plus whatever, ridiculous fee they were charged for that wastage of time and paper to begin with. Sounds like the only fraud going is is coming from EFDS when it comes right down to it.

[wserra]

We have word (today) from the TXPSB that we should have our permanent number within the next 2 weeks.

"Permanent" seems to have been somewhat wishful. From the TX Dept. of Public Safety:

Name: ENDLESS FRAUD DETECTION SERVICES, CORP
License Number: A17660
Company Code: A
Category:
Investigation Company
Mailing Address
7901 CAMERON RD #2-325
AUSTIN, TX 78754
Insurance & Company Status
Company Status: Insurance Suspension
Company Expiration Date: 11/30/2012
Insurance Expiration Date: 9/26/2012

So your license expired last November, and was suspended before that for failure to pay your insurance.

The company itself isn't in great shape either. From the TX Secretary of State:

Filing Number: 801027528 Entity Type: Domestic For-Profit Corporation
Original Date of Filing: September 10, 2008 Entity Status: Forfeited existence
Formation Date: N/A
Tax ID: 32037914663 FEIN:
Duration: Perpetual
Name: Endless Fraud Detection Services, Corp
Address: 3300 KILLINGSWORTH LN LOT 286
PFLUGERVILLE, TX 78660-8436 USA

Another one bites the dust.

[notorial dissent]

Oddly enough this bunch came to mind the other evening, and I was wondering if they had ever tried to use that ex-parte piece of nonsense or if the court down there killed it to prevent any further embarrassment?

[notorial dissent]

FWIW, it would appear that Endless Fraud Detection Services really has imploded up its own orifice, as their web site is gone, and they are listed as closed on some of the business listing sites, along with the state listing of defunct.

[rogfulton]

Filing Number: 801027528 Entity Type: Domestic For-Profit Corporation
Original Date of Filing: September 10, 2008 Entity Status: Forfeited existence
Formation Date: N/A
Tax ID: 32037914663 FEIN:
Duration: Perpetual
Name: Endless Fraud Detection Services, Corp
Address: 3300 KILLINGSWORTH LN LOT 286
PFLUGERVILLE, TX 78660-8436 USA

That address is a mobile home lot. They must have had storage problems, with all the 'documentation' they kept on hand.

[Arthur Rubin]

That address is a mobile home lot. They must have had storage problems, with all the 'documentation' they kept on hand.

They need a "document repository". Where's DMvP when you need him?

[notorial dissent]

Somehow, I don't think they want some of the documents they have generated around where the TX authorities can get to them. They do have some pretty stiff document and lien fraud statutes as I recall.

[wserra]

And now what is likely to be the final chapter: Once the bank had an opportunity to be heard - as opposed to that very strange ex parte proceeding we discussed earlier in the thread - a Texas court has granted the bank summary judgment against EFDS' "client", one Gayle Thomas Bigger. The order not only dismisses Bigger's case against the bank, but also affirms the validity of the foreclosure sale, and grants legal title to the bank's transferee. I would still like to know how some brain-dead judge ever signed that ex parte order.

So Bigger is not only out a home, and whatever it cost to sue the bank, but also EFDS' fee. Think they offered a refund?

[notorial dissent]

I'm betting that since they have folded tent and disappeared, NOT!!!!

[Pottapaug1938]

"Honey, I just can't get through to EFDS. Their office is empty, their phones are disconnected, and their website is down."

"Well, keep trying! They promised that they would stand behind us, 100%, on this foreclosure mess; and they guaranteed that we would be able to stop that bank and make them give us clean title to the house!"