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As some of you may know or remember, my grandparents’ home was taken in a tax sale. I didn’t care, but my cousin asked me to fight back. I said I’d try, but the deeper I dove into the issues, the more I realized the injustice occurring across the country. Long story short, 1) counties are auctioning off homes for a fraction of their value to recoup relatively small tax bills (in my case, at least a 94% theft of value), and 2) doing so to people who are particularly vulnerable and therefore cannot fight back (e.g., dementia, financial hardship, logistical issues). Despite SCOTUS unanimously forbidding the practice in Tyler v. Hennepin County, it continues because, well, the victims can’t fight back, so there are no consequences for continuing the practice. Thus, the legislature, counties, and even courts allow the unlawful scheme to continue.

Facing local, small-town bias, I lost in the trial court without any stated argument other than, “Those SCOTUS cases aren’t relevant.” Her honor also claimed I was fighting the battle in the wrong type of case, and to justify that, carefully parsed out the relevant part of the statute that says otherwise. I suspect that, as a trial court judge, she simply doesn’t want to overrule a decades-old statutory scheme based on Federal Constitutional grounds, but that’s reversible error. I don’t think either her Honor or opposing counsel expected the appeal. (I don’t think opposing counsel even expected my Answer to his Complaint.)

Now I’m working on my appeal. It’s been a grind. I’m learning litigation on the fly, and certainly screwing up, but so far it hasn’t bit me in the ass yet. The bad news is that it may. I might get my appeal thrown out on a technicality I didn’t anticipate. The good news is that, if it goes through, there’s a good chance that SCOTUS will decide Pung v. Isabella County (MI) by the time my reply brief is due. You see, the way the states have continued to justify this is by splitting hairs on the facts. That’s going to be exceptionally hard for Pennsylvania to do once Pung is decided. It’s even closer to the facts of my case, and I’d bet serious money that SCOTUS will not only rule unanimously in my favor, but also do so with a biting takedown of the unlawful practices of the counties and the dereliction of duty committed by the legislatures and judges. (Note: The Michigan Supreme Court took the taxpayers’ side, but the counties are still doing this because, again, no one fights back.)

Either way, this practice will be unquestionably forbidden going forward, so you won’t lose your potential future case even if I do on a technicality. Pung did the work to make sure of that.

And in case you’re wondering, none of the non-profits are willing to help. I asked all of them, but unless it’s a SCOTUS case, they aren’t interested. Only one even responded, asked for the Order I was appealing, then never replied again. The arguments I made were in part copied from their amicus brief in Tyler, so I know were on the same page. It’s just not yet worth their trouble.

I’ve also tried to get Pennsylvania media to interview me with no luck. If anyone has any media contacts up there, I’d appreciate you putting my case in their ear.

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