Peter D. was a customer of one of our clients and had neglected to pay his bills. So we applied for a court order, which, after being contested by Peter D., led to proceedings under the jurisdiction of the local district court. An ordinary story so far!
Of course, from time to time, a suit cannot be served because people simply move house. And debtors who are short of money seem to do this particularly often.
Fortunately, in Peter D.’s case, the suit was served. However, it was sent to the wrong person, who happened to have the same last name. Even this is not entirely unusual, but it happens time and again with young people who have just moved out of their parents’ house. The suit against a child who has not properly registered a change of address then goes on to land with the mother, who still lives at the old address.
For Peter D., we then received the following message:
“…Furthermore, I would like to clarify that Peter D. no longer lives at the address specified; I live alone. There has been no Peter D. since February, 2012.
Johanna D.”
Wow – Peter D. no longer existed! Fortunately, one rarely has to deal with opponents who die during the proceedings. The problem with Peter D. was simply that we had ordered a credit report on him before the proceedings, according to which Peter D. was supposedly perfectly healthy. The questions only grew from there once a request with the registry office revealed that, according to the registry, Peter D. was still living but the Johanna D. from the letter was unknown to the authorities.
And what helps in a case like this?
Correct! The internet and the stupidity of debtors who believe their websites and Facebook pages will be read by everyone except lawyers. It was exactly there that Peter D. had posted a picture of himself in an outfit similar to that of Mrs. Doubtfire, changed his gender on his profile to female, changed his name to “Johanna D.”, and had written about the horrible human race’s lack of understanding about transsexuals. Of course, this threw into a completely different light the statement that “Peter D. no longer exists”.
In the meantime, we won the suit and I still have nothing against transsexuals. Only against those who want to rid themselves of their debts when they change their names.
