Friday, March 30, 2007
BRUNSWICK - Can someone be sued for being "unconscionable"? Victor Bernier sure hopes so.
Bernier, 46, is disabled by myotonic dystrophy, a neurological disease that attacks everything from how one's muscles work to how one's brain functions. He lives in a small bungalow on Maine Street that used to belong to him -- only now it doesn't.
That's where the lawsuit comes in.
Here, according to a complaint filed in Cumberland County Superior Court by Martica Douglas, Bernier's attorney, is what happened:
Bernier grew up in the house and lived there with his mother until she died in late 2005.
There were two mortgages on the property then, totaling about $15,000. Bernier, who lives on monthly Social Security payments of $663 and has trouble keeping track of things, soon got behind on the payments.
Last summer, the bank foreclosed. Shortly thereafter, Bernier got a letter in the mail offering to make his financial troubles disappear.
Enter Robert F. Hanson Jr. of Windham, who runs RKD Real Estate and Concurrence LLC. Accompanied by a man named Paul Cahalane, Hanson met twice last summer with Bernier -- the second time in a lawyer's office "to take care of the paperwork."
According to the complaint, the deal went like this: Bernier would sign the property over to Hanson, who would then pay off the mortgages and let Bernier live there for free.
Bottom line, Hanson got the house and lot for $15,313 -- the same house and lot that, according to the town assessor, have market value of $124,300.
"I didn't really know what was going on," Bernier said, sitting in his tiny kitchen Wednesday. "I thought these guys were going to help me."
It gets worse. After the real estate changed hands, Bernier alleges, Cahalane told him he'd have to pay $250 per month to stay in the house.
And when Bernier fell behind on the rent, the complaint states, Cahalane threatened to "kick (Bernier) off the property" unless he paid $500 by Feb. 1.
Attorney Douglas, who took the case for free, has since advised Bernier to stop paying Hanson and Cahalane anything.
And in the lawsuit, which is based in part on the claim that the transaction was "so grossly unfair as to be unconscionable and legally unenforceable," Douglas asks the court to throw the whole deal out.
And Hanson? He's letting his attorney do the talking.
Contacted Thursday, defense attorney George Marcus said the complaint is "only a partial telling of the story from our side." He declined to elaborate.
Still, Marcus' motion to dismiss the lawsuit shows where this case is headed.
Accepting for the sake of discussion that Bernier's disease has left him with "modest intelligence," Marcus argues:
"Modesty in intelligence or other mental faculties is not sufficient ground, under Maine law, to avoid a contract. Maine courts are not called upon to consider the intelligence of individuals when they enter into contracts."
Maybe so. But an hour with Victor Bernier is long enough to know he never saw this coming.
"I'm kicking myself that I did this," Bernier said. "I don't want to have to move to a shelter."
That, in a word, would be unconscionable.
Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:
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Hopefully the courts will take care of these locals and hang them from the highest tree.report abuse
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