Wells Fargo sued Wes Houck, candidate for Lubbock County judge, on December 30, accusing him of not paying a credit card debt.
Houck was shocked – saying he had no idea. It took him a little while to track down the issue, but arrangements are being made for the debt to be paid, he said.
“I just found out yesterday when you alerted me,” Houck said of a Wednesday text message from LubbockLights.com.
He spoke to us the next day – saying he’d not gotten the best night’s sleep in between.
“Yeah. That caught me off guard. … That’s jarring information for sure,” Houck said.
When Houck reached out to Wells Fargo representatives in Lubbock on Thursday, even they couldn’t find the problem, he said.
“I went right today … to the bank, and we sat in their office for about 30 or 40 minutes trying to figure it out. They couldn’t even figure it out,” Houck said.
But he kept looking into it.
“It was an artifact from my old business. There was an old line of credit – a card basically from a business that was actually used more by my staff than myself. It just slipped through the cracks,” Houck said.
Houck moved to Lubbock from Oregon (near Portland) about four years ago. He owned Evergreen Construction – a custom home building company. The notices went to his old address he said. He never knew there was a problem until LubbockLights.com asked about the lawsuit Wells Fargo filed last week in the 72nd State District Court.
After some effort, he was able to find Wells Fargo’s partner company and made arrangements to pay.
“When I contacted them, they were pleasant and said, ‘Just pay it up and we’re good.’ And so, I told them I’ll have it to them – got to move some stuff around, but I’ll have it to them within 30 days and we’ll be good,” Houck said.
LubbockLights.com reached out to the law firm that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Wells Fargo to invite comments Thursday afternoon. The Dallas firm of Waddell Serafino Geary Rechner Jenevein, P.C., did not respond.
The lawsuit said, “[Houck] failed to abide by the terms of the account by failing and refusing to make payments.”
“As a result of Defendant’s default, there is now due, owing and unpaid from Defendant to Plaintiff the amount of $16,441.70,” the lawsuit also said.
Wells Fargo claimed the line of credit started in 2014 – the same year as Houck’s West Coast construction business.
Houck’s opponent in the March Republican Party Primary is incumbent County Judge Curtis Parrish, who said he does not intend to make the lawsuit a campaign issue.
“I think any kind of lawsuit is between him and his creditor. I will leave that alone,” Parrish said.
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