City Has Vested Interest In Buying Old Suit Gypsy Loses Legal Standing In His Own Civil Rights Suit
A bill collection agency paid $25 at a sheriff’s auction for Grover Marks’ legal standing in a $40 million Gypsy civil rights suit against the city and county of Spokane.
After making the purchase, Bonded Adjustment Co. sold it May 9 to the city for $3,163, public records show.
The odd development means that, in legal terms, the city now owns Marks’ interest in the case and is one of 28 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against itself.
“This looked like a smart thing to do,” Assistant City Attorney Rocco Treppiedi said Thursday.
The purchase, he said, was approved by City Manager Roger Crum and City Attorney James Sloane without a City Council vote.
Treppiedi said he believes the city has neutralized Grover Marks’ standing in the pending suit with the $3,163 purchase.
Marks angrily charged that the maneuver “is the latest dirty politics” in a 9-year-old legal fight that “is costing taxpayers millions.”
“Why don’t they just come out and shoot us and burn us down, like Waco?” Marks snapped. “Why don’t we just go to court and get this case over, once and for all? They’re cowards.”
His attorney, T. Glover Patterson, said he will go to court in an attempt to void the sheriff’s sale or an earlier default judgment against Grover Marks.
Marks’ standing in the lawsuit was auctioned at a sheriff’s sale April 21 because he failed to pay an $891 bill in 1985 to Rockwood Clinic.
The Spokane medical clinic turned the delinquent bill over to Bonded Adjustment for collection in July 1986.
That was one month after police raided the homes of Grover Marks and his son Jimmy Marks looking for stolen property.
The police raids were ruled illegal by the State Supreme Court. Grover Marks, Jimmy Marks, the Gypsy Church of the Northwest and 26 of its other members later filed the civil rights lawsuit.
The collection agency filed suit Sept. 7 against Grover Marks and his wife for the 1985 medical bill, and won a default judgment in October.
Tamara Vervair, office manager for Bonded Adjustment, said Marks and his attorneys were notified of the sale. But when the sheriff’s sale was held on April 21, no one showed up.
When no one submitted a bid, Bonded Adjustment president Jim Keenan bought the legal standing for $25.
Marks said he called Bonded Adjustment, and thought he had the matter resolved. When he later attempted to make a payment, Marks said he was told his legal standing was bought by the city.
“Why are the city and the police department running a bill collection business?” Marks said. “I don’t think they can sell my legal rights, not for a bill.”