Collector MRCA Must Pay $854,000 in Damages, Fees

A Jackson County, Missouri judge ordered a collector to pay $854,389 to a consumer and several of her family members for FDCPA violations, detailing in a 35-page judgment the violations that included name calling, threats, harassing phone calls at home and work, and ignoring orders by the consumer’s attorneys to stop the calls.

The case was brought by Dolores Maddux, her husband Gilbert Maddux, and Dolores’s stepdaughter Jeni Maddux against the collector known as MRCA Services and Merchants Retail Credit Association. The collector operates out of Clive, Iowa and collected in Missouri, according to Judge Edith L. Messina’s ruling in November.

The case began in 2001 when Delores Maddux opened a personal credit account with CitiFinancial. Citi sold the account to Nationwide Credit Service, and Nationwide sold it to MCRA in July 2004. MCRA’s collectors began calling the Maddux family in July and continued until December, according to the judge’s ruling.

MCRA collectors demanded $10,000 from Delores Maddux and she disputed the amount.

MCRA then began a series of phone calls to the Maddux family, its collectors calling Delores Maddux “lazy,” “fat,” “inbred,” “pathetic,” “stupid,” "black," and “deadbeat." At one point, a collector threatened he would “ruin her and her husband’s life.”

Collectors also called Gilbert Maddux continuously at home and work, despite being told to discontinue the calls, and at one point threatened to “bring four guys down from Topeka to take care of the situation.”

A collector also falsely stated he was a sheriff to the consumers step-daughter; called a roommate of the step-daughter a racial slur; told the step-daughter to “get your lazy ass out of bed and take a message for Dolores to call us”; and threatened co-workers of the stepdaughter, saying they knew where the place of business was located.

MCRA also obtained the credit report of Delores and Gilbert Maddux without their permission, according to the ruling. In addition, MCRA collectors used aliases while calling the various members of the family and used telephone caller identification blocking technology

The court Delores Maddux $250,000 in damages and $1,000 in statutory damages; Gilbert Maddux was awarded $254,253 in damages, and $1,000 in statutory damages; Jeni Maddux $109,717 in damages, and $1,000 in statutory damages. The three were awarded jointly another $3,117.

In addition, the Mengedoth Law Firm of Phoenix, Ariz. that represented the plaintiffs was awarded $234,302 in fees.