California Real Estate Sign

Life can be very ironic.

Back a few years ago I found out that Suzette and her boyfriend Mark Gerpheide purchased a golf membership at Mission Hills Country Club.  As a result of this information, I looked up Mark Gerpheide under the property records in Riverside County and found he had bought a condominium in Mission Hills.  Now a private investigator had already checked out Mr. Gerpheide several years earlier and it was pretty much concluded back then that he was not a man who could afford a Palm Springs lifestyle.  In fact he died with a substantial unpaid California tax lien.

So when I located Gerpheide and Suzette Howes living in a condo in Palm Springs it was easy to assume that the actual funds used to purchase the condo came from Suzy and not Mark.  Because of that conclusion, my attorney in Palm Springs obtained a temporary restraining order(TRO) on the condo preventing Mark Gerpheide from selling the property until he proved it was not purchased with funds from Suzette.

Suzette was able to vacate my mother’s judgment against her in the Hawaii court (which is a story for another day) and therefore the TRO no longer was valid since there was no longer any judgment to enforce against Suzette (until she disappeared again and the judgment was reinstated).  Suzette Gerpheide turned right around and sold the condo for something in excess of $800,000 to make sure any future claim from my mother’s estate would be thwarted.  Suzette soon thereafter ignored the lawsuit against her in Hawaii and went back into hiding.

This all happened in 2006 at the height of the real estate boom.  I am pretty sure if Suzette had still owned that condo today, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars less in value due to the hefty downturn in the California real estate market.

Oh the irony.  You are welcome Suzy.

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2 Comments

• At May 17, 2009, test wrote:

  test

• At May 17, 2009, howesjohn wrote:

  test

Suzette Howes owes my sister and me $1.8 million plus interest as per the judgment shown here.

And the government has information about her credit, customs, social security, medicare and tax records.  Why does Suzette’s right to privacy trump our legal claim?  In order to protect her privacy, could not a disinterested third party be engaged to review the government’s records and provide information that would help locate her whereabouts and her assets?

Back in the 1980s, I attended a seminar for accountants that was about making yourself “judgment proof”.  The entire seminar was about how to keep your assets from being seized by creditors. Why is it OK to teach people how to stiff others on their legal obligations? If someone taught a seminar on how to mentally abuse your spouse and get away with it, would that be OK?  Isn’t denying someone their right to monies owed to them a potential form of abuse?  If my mother had lived to be 94 years old like her mother did, the monies owed to her from this judgment would have been used to pay for her support.  Denying her those monies would have resulted in a tortuous decline in her standard of living.  Isn’t that a form of mental abuse?

Even though mom did not make it to 94 years of age, her being deprived of the maintenance and support due her certainly diminished her quality of life and may have hastened her death.

Why is it OK to avoid your obligations?  Doesn’t Fred Goldman deserve every penny he can retrieve from O.J. Simpson’s assets?  isn’t it true that when people are legally able to avoid obligations that they are capable of paying, someone still has to pay.  If I don’t pay my creditors, don’t you pay a higher interest rate on your purchases or your loan as a result?  If so, why not let the government help in any way they can with their records in order to further the public good of seeing that legally determined obligations get satisfied by the debtor?

Think about it.

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Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

1. Once you have their money … never give it back.
2. Never pay more for an acquisition than you have to.
3. Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.
4. A man is only worth the sum of his possessions.
5. Keep your ears open.
6. Small print leads to large risk.
7. Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.
8. Greed is eternal.
9. Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.
10. A deal is a deal … until a better one comes along.
11. A contract is a contract is a contract (but only between Ferengi).
12. A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all.
13. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
14. Never place friendship above profit.
15. A wise man can hear profit in the wind.
16. Nothing is more important than your health–except for your money.
17. There’s nothing more dangerous than an honest businessman.
18. Never make fun of a Ferengi’s mother … insult something he cares about instead.
19. It never hurts to suck up to the boss.
20. Peace is good for business.
21. War is good for business.
22. She can touch your lobes but never your latinum.
23. Profit is its own reward.
24. Never confuse wisdom with luck.
25. Expand, or die.
26. Don’t trust a man wearing a better suit than your own.
27. The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.
28. Never ask when you can take.
29. Good customers are as rare as latinum — treasure them.
30. There is no substitute for success.
31. Free advice is seldom cheap.
32. Keep your lies consistent.
33. The riskier the road, the greater the profit.
34. Win or lose, there’s always Hyperian beetle snuff.
35. Home is where the heart is … but the stars are made of latinum.
36. Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
37. Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge.
38. The flimsier the product, the higher the price.
39. Never let the competition know what you’re thinking.
40. Ask not what your profits can do for you, but what you can do for your profits.
41. Females and finances don’t mix.
42. Enough … is never enough.
43. Trust is the biggest liability of all.
44. Nature decays, but latinum lasts forever.
45. Sleep can interfere with profit.
46. Faith moves mountains … of inventory.
47. There is no honour in poverty.
48. Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
49. Treat people in your debt like family … exploit them.
50. Never have sex with the boss’s sister.
51. Always have sex with the boss.
52. You can’t free a fish from water.
53. Everything is for sale, even friendship.
54. Even a blind man can recognize the glow of latinum.
55. Wives serve, brothers inherit.
56. Only fools pay retail.
57. There’s nothing wrong with charity … as long as it winds up in your pocket.
58. Even in the worst of times someone turns a profit.
59. Know your enemies … but do business with them always.
60. Not even dishonesty can tarnish the shine of profit.
61. Let others keep their reputation. You keep their money.
62. Never cheat a Klingon … unless you’re sure you can get away with it.
63. It’s always good business to know about new customers before they walk in the door.
64. The justification for profit is profit.
65. New customers are like razortoothed grubworms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they can bite back.
66. Employees are rungs on the ladder of success. Don’t hesitate to step on them.
67. Never begin a negotiation on an empty stomach.
68. Always know what you’re buying.
69. Beware the man who doesn’t make time for oo-mox.
70. Latinum lasts longer than lust.
71. You can’t buy fate.
72. Never be afraid to mislabel a product.
73. More is good … all is better.
74. A wife is a luxury … a smart accountant is a necessity.
75. A wealthy man can afford anything except a conscience.
76. Never allow doubt to tarnish your love of latinum.
77. When in doubt, lie.
78. Deep down everyone’s a Ferengi.
79. No good deed ever goes unpunished.
80. [Quark's rule] When Morn leaves, it’s all over.

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Mad World lyrics

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Enlarge your world
Mad World