Man sues finance company for slander

TEXARKANA -- An East Texas man claims a finance company has resorted to slander as an attempt to thwart lawsuits he has against it.

Acting as his own attorney, Robert Garland filed suit against Toledo Finance Corp. and attorneys Matthew Mettauer and Jeffrey Adams.

In the documents provided to the court, Garland states that Toledo Finance Corp. falsely issued more than 100 loans in his name. He claims the company fired some of its employees over his identity theft but otherwise tried to hide its illegal activities.

Trying to remove the information from his credit, Garland filed lawsuits against Toledo Finance and against credit bureaus in county court. In the midst of the lawsuits, a county clerk sent a form letter to one of the defendant's attorneys.

In part the letter stated, "Any future child support will continue to be paid to the Texas Child Support Disbursement Unit as previously ordered."

Garland believes this is false information used to discredit him in the identity theft lawsuits. Garland alleges that the defendants are violating his equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Garland is asking the court to award him $750,000 from each defendant. He claims to have sustained emotional distress, mental anguish, harm to reputation and incurred medical expenses.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom has referred the litigation to Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven.

Case No 5:10cv00043