Navy Federal Credit Union Violates Automatic Stay, Must Pay Over $13,000
January 14, 2008
Tonya Denise Price owed money to Navy Federal Credit Union before she filed for bankruptcy. She hired a lawyer, who contacted the credit union before as well as after the case was filed. His message was clear: do not contact my client about her debt because it is in violation of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
The message could not have been clearer, but apparently it was not heard. In fact, Navy Federal Credit Union contacted Ms. Price 10 times by phone, twice by mail, and once by coming to her home.
What happened next is a study in good lawyering. Ms. Price’s lawyer, Robert Grossbart of Baltimore, MD, filed the case of Price v. Navy Federal Credit Union, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. The case asserted that Navy Federal Credit Union violated Ms. Price’s rights under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which prohibits contact by creditors after the filing of a bankruptcy case.
On January 9, 2008, Bankruptcy Judge Wendelin Lipp order Navy Federal Credit Union to not only pay Ms. Price’s legal fees of $3,464.50 but also ordered this creditor to pay punitive damages in the amount of $10,000 for the blatant disregard of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
A copy of the Order can be found here.
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