Wells Fargo Typo Victim Dies in Court
On the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, in a Torrance courtroom, Larry Delassus‘ heart stopped as he watched his attorney argue his negligence and discrimination case against banking behemoth Wells Fargo.
His death came more than two years after Wells Fargo mistakenly mixed up his Hermosa Beach address with that of a neighbor in the same condo complex. The bank’s typo led Wells Fargo to demand that Delassus pay $13,361.90 — two years of late property taxes the bank said it had paid on his behalf in order to keep his Wells Fargo mortgage afloat.
But Delassus, a quiet man who suffered from the rare blood-clot disorder Budd-Chiari syndrome and was often hospitalized, didn’t owe a penny in taxes.
One of his neighbors, whose condo “parcel number” was two digits different from Delassus’, owed the back taxes.
In a series of painfully tragic events, Wells Fargo relied on its typographical error to double Delassus’ mortgage — from $1,237.69 to $2,429.13 — as its way of recouping the $13,361.90 in taxes Delassus didn’t owe. Delassus, a retiree living on a $1,655 check, couldn’t meet the mysteriously increased mortgage. He stopped paying, and soon was far behind on his mortgage.
Delassus and his attorney did not discover until May 2010 that a mis-entered number had dragged Delassus into this spiral. As court documents obtained by L.A. Weekly show, after admitting its error, Wells Fargo foreclosed on Delassus anyway and sold his condo.
Delassus had to move to a tiny apartment in an assisted-living home in Carson.
Friends say he didn’t die of heart disease that day in court, as the coroner found. He was, they believe, killed by a system so inhumane that it could not undo a devastating piece of red tape the system itself created.
Rest here…
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They should be sued for wrongful death. They killed this poor gentleman. His family should seek massive redress.
That is such a shame, the banks are so Evil!! WE can conquer but some will pay the price unfortunately. How dare they do this and how dare they keep on.
Wells Fargo and many big banks are getting away with murder! The mortgage sevicing business is another area that is full of fraud,deceptive trade practices.All mortgage and mortgage servicing companies need oversight to prevent criminalty.Wells Fargo,Bank of America and especially Wilber Ross’s servicing companies should be investigated and punished for their crimes to the American people.IF you agree-sign my petition on “mortgage fairness” on care2.Let’s do something about the largest crime wave in history!— thanks Patrick Ainsworth
This is outrageous!!! Thieves, all of them. I hope there is surviving family who will take up the cross and go after WF with all their might! Wrongful death but WF will take the stand that the man in fact died from the heart problem. Any really good attorney can get by that smoke screen.