Korean Vet Under Attack – Part II

Some of you may remember my earlier post about a Korean Era Veteran that was under attack. Well, now he has been served with a civil notice of intent to foreclose on his property.   His son Henry has sent letters (certified letters via the USPS) that have gone unanswered — just no response whatsoever. This new notice of foreclosure is prepared by some local lawyer. Why does Durham City have an attorney? Why does the County have another attorney on staff? Wouldn’t these 2 attorneys be the ones to file these proceedings? Why pay some local for that when  the ‘Government Attorneys’ are already making $130K plus per year? The Summons wasn’t even ‘SIGNED’ by a clerk. Her name was STAMPED onto the document. I’m not even sure that is legal.

 

Note: Names have been changed for privacy concerns

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Backstory: When Charlie & Leslie decided to build a new residence in late 1968 – early 1969, they looked at many areas in Durham. Both of them were raised in the city when they were growing up and still had family in the area. They currently owned property on Guess Rd. between Fawn St. & Carver St. This area was becoming ‘Commercial’ and they knew at that time, it was time to relocate.

They decided to move out of the city & into the county. They thought long & hard on this because of the inconvenience of not being near shops, and Mildred (Charlie’ mother who was going with them) being further from hospitals & her friends, & also being further from Charlie’s workplace in RTP. The county offered some perks – Lower crime rates, property taxed by only the county, noise, & other freedoms not allowed inside of the city limits. The drawback to this choice was where they picked, the development already had city water & sewer, and for years they had to pay DOUBLE the rate for these utilities (because they were outside of the city limits).

The property they picked to build on was very close to the 2 County lines. The developer, most real estate agents at the time, and even some of their lawyer buddies assured them — “Being that close to the county lines, you’ll never have to worry about being taken into the city limits” (paraphrased)

All of this was crucial to their decision of where to move to and build their new freehold.

Summer of 1970 the home was completed and the family moved in. Charlie, Leslie, their son Henry, & Charlie’s mother Mildred. The home plans had been tweaked somewhat to accommodate this unique living arrangment. Where the original house plans had called for an attached carport or garage, they decided to create a living space for the aging Mildred. Where she could have her privacy on the opposite end of the home from the other bedrooms.

This was a modest home for the day — much smaller than the home Mildred had at 123 XXXXX Road. It was only approximately 2,500 square feet of living space with a small  basement for Charlie to tinker in — to work on his lawn mowers, Henry’s bicycles, etc. The basement  also was used for the women’s deep freeze for food storage. For a family of four people, as stated above, it was very modest. The cost of the new homestead when they moved in was approximately $40,000.00 — Land & Dwelling.

Sometime in the late 1970’s, or early 1980’s, Durham decided to annex this area of the county into the city limits. No, they didn’t extend any of the city services at that time; services like trash collection or bus routes, or other amenities of the city life. The Durham leaders STRICTLY wanted extra tax monies. Charlie & Leslie fought this annexation, along with many of their neighbors. They lost that battle. And to this day, there are still no bus routes within 2+ miles of the homestead.

Mildred passed away in the early 1980’s after several years of declining health due to suffering a stroke. Henry was a young adult by this time & had moved out on his own.

Charlie & Leslie have a past history of paying their taxes, in full & on time for over 40 years. Every so often, the City / County  would do their ‘Re-Evaluations’ and jack up the value of the property. Charlie & Leslie would occasionally question these so-called ‘DRIVE BY’ evals & would get tossed from person to person there at city hall. No one would answer reasonable questions and the county commissioners answer to them was  — “We HAVE to GET the money from somewhere!” Very frustrating to have public servants that refuse to serve their constituents. And Charlie & Leslie didn’t hire lawyers every 4-5 years to file complaints & challenge these unlawful actions. In fact, it wasn’t widely known that these are unlawful acts by an out of control municipality & local government.

People have been told for years & years that you MUST pay taxes or the government will lock you up; they will take your home, etc. We also have believed these things . . . until we started reading the actual laws  that are codified by statute.

Our current NC State Constitution was completely rewritten in 1971. From a review of the former Constitution, to the newly written 1971 edition, there are several questions that need addressing. These are many and I won’t get into all of them here.

Our current general statutes are also a complete mess here in North Carolina. One will say one thing, another one will state something completely different.

My general point here — referring to Constitutional changes & general statutes — is how we’ve gone from a rule of law, a free & sovereign state, to basically chaos where one hand doesn’t have a clue as to what the other hand is doing. And specifically here in Durham County.

Allow me to cite a couple of examples:

North Carolina Constitution:

ARTICLE I – DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

Sec. 2.  Sovereignty of the people.

All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.

Sec. 8.  Representation and taxation.

The people of this State shall not be taxed or made subject to the payment of any impost or duty without the consent of themselves or their representatives in the General Assembly, freely given. [The representatives of the general assembly are forbidden from delegating the power to tax citizens at the county level — Art. V (2),(2)]

Sec. 19.  Law of the land; equal protection of the laws.

No person shall be taken, imprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the law of the land.  No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be subjected to discrimination by the State because of race, color, religion, or national origin.

Sec. 25.  Right of jury trial in civil cases.

In all controversies at law respecting property, the ancient mode of trial by jury is one of the best securities of the rights of the people, and shall remain sacred and inviolable. [Yet the courts often hold proceedings that have only a judge that makes these decisions.]

ARTICLE V – FINANCE

Sec. 2.  State and local taxation.

(1)        Power of taxation.  The power of taxation shall be exercised in a just and equitable manner, for public purposes only, and shall never be surrendered, suspended, or contracted away.

(2)        Classification.  Only the General Assembly shall have the power to classify property for taxation, which power shall be exercised only on a State-wide basis and shall not be delegated.  No class of property shall be taxed except by uniform rule, and every classification shall be made by general law uniformly applicable in every county, city and town, and other unit of local government.

(5)        Purposes of property tax.  The General Assembly shall not authorize any county, city or town, special district, or other unit of local government to levy taxes on property, except for purposes authorized by general law uniformly applicable throughout the State, unless the tax is approved by a majority of the qualified voters of the unit who vote thereon.

Number 5 above is KEY here. Somewhere between the FORCED Constitution of 1868 (done after  Military Order 120 was issued and the sovereign State of NC was forced under federal control) and 1971, the word ‘Therein’ was changed to ‘Thereon’. When did the voters of N.C. ratify this change? I can not find it anywhere. I honestly believe this was done unlawfully. 

I wonder when the word ‘therein’ was changed to ‘thereon’?

My point here, number 1 & 2 under Article V states only the general assembly shall have the power of taxation, and they can’t delegate it away —  then they say in number 5 that the counties can tax property? Is that not delegating it away? Confusing isn’t it? Which is it?

Same here with our NC General Statutes — one says one thing, another one says the opposite.

Is a STAMP a Legal Signature? Photo of the Civil Summons

Text from the above image: “The summons shall run in the name of the State and be dated and signed by the clerk, assistant clerk, or deputy clerk of the court in the county in which the action is commenced. It shall contain the title of the cause and the name of the court and county wherein the action has been commenced.”

                 

Durham is completely contaminated with fraud & injustice. It has been for years. From its disgraced court system (DA’s Nifong & Cline for 2 examples); to its city council resolutions (sanctuary city / welcoming of refugees); to its school board nonsense (Jackie Wagstaff era); to its board of elections fiasco here recently. Outrageous salaries for tax admins, & city/county attorneys that do nothing. Police chiefs that have their hands tied by elected leaders and are routinely discarded in disgrace — Theresa Chambers, Jose Lopez to name a couple.

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Comments from Henry: I for one am tired of financing this band of progressives and I believe it is time to expose them for who they are. I’d love to go to a jury trial — so that all this gets out in the open & the leaders can be charged with the crimes they’ve committed.

I think the time is right with the current political climate. I think a jury would agree with me and the evidence presented to them would make for a slam dunk case.

However, I will settle for them to simply stop their BULLYING of my 84 year old Korea era veteran father and repay us the extorted over-payment of taxes — from the last 19 years.  [NCGS § 105-277.1.  Elderly or disabled property tax homestead exclusion.]

                

And after that said re-payment of over-paid taxes, we will agree to pay them every year at the correct rate of 50% of the appraised value as stated in NCGS § 105-277.1

                                                   

From my rough calculations —

$2,500 X 6 years (1997-2002) = $15,000

$2,800 X 6 years (2003-2008) = $16,800

$3,000 X 4 years (2009-2012) = $12,000

$3,300 X 3 years (2013-2015) = $9,900

 

$53,700 Total paid since Charlie turned 65 years old. His taxes should have been half of this amount  — with the effect of  NCGS § 105-277.1 (a) (a2)

                                            

Respectfully submitted by SilenceDogood2010 this Sixteenth Day of November in the Year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Sixteen.