by Structured Settlement Watchdog
The Lape lawsuit against Structured Asset Funding/123 Lump Sum stems from a series of transfers in which SAF/123 Lump Sum allegedly induced New York resident Philip Lape to come to Florida to do the deals even though they knew he was a resident of and domiciled in New York. As reported here, the May 26, 2020 Complaint against SAF/123 Lump sum includes copies of emails from Mel Luback, then an employee of Structured Asset Services that speak for themselves, highlighting who induced who as well as the manufacturing that was done to do the deal in Florida. As one would expect, part of SAF/123 Lump Sum's defense has been to attack the customer and alleged victim for in pari delicto, saying they were complicit in the fraud. Forum shopping was a dirty little secret of the structured settlement factoring industry before it began to get exposed in a series of legal cases and chronicled here. One not so shining example was Judge Michelle Morley's courtroom in Sumter County Florida, which figuratively served as a structured settlement forum shopping "convenience store" until Florida's structured settlement transfer laws were tightened up in 2016.
As predicted, Structured Asset Funding argues the following in its submission to the New York State Supreme Court in Monroe County New York earlier this month...
"Plaintiff May Not Benefit From a Scheme He Claims to Have Participated"
Simply stated, the Complaint and the documents remitted by Structured Asset on this motion demonstrate that Plaintiff is asking one of two things of this Court. He wants the Court to reach a different determination about his domicile than was reached in Florida, because that different conclusion is the basis for finding that the Florida proceedings were fraudulent and “fatally flawed.” Or he wants the Court to issue relief to him notwithstanding what would be his own active participation in a purported fraud. Indeed, he would have participated in multiple different Florida proceedings spanning multiple years without ever raising any issue as to his purported disagreement with domicile. In fact, almost six (6) years went by before he even raised it in this Court. Moreover, he admittedly made at least one in-person court appearance, signed no lease (sic) than five sworn statements attesting to his domicile and actively obtained his license, apartment and bank accounts in furtherance of the proceedings. It is well settled that courts will not grant relief to one who bases his claim upon his own illegal act, or a transaction in which he was an unlawful participant".
In What You Need To Know Before Selling Structured Settlement Payments in 2021, one of the cardinal rules for consumers is " If a Representative of a Structured Settlement Buyer or their Lawyer Tells You to Lie About Your Residence, Run Now!" . Forum shopping is a sucker play for structured settlement annuitants.
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