I work at a title company, and we recently found a funky affidavit that looks like it was written by a fairly extreme cult. They all signed their names as John-Fred: Brown. First and middle names hyphenated, and a colon before the last name. I’m curious if this style is recognized by anyone here?
The writing implies that they are of the “no law is valid unless God said so” school of cultery, if that helps. She’s suing the bank, collection agency, and state of Oregon because they foreclosed on her house. What grounds? They don’t really exist, because they’re not in the Bible.
She’s also apparently suing herself. Sort of. On the grounds that Jane M. Doe does not exist, only Jane-Mary: Doe.
Sounds to me like you’ve got some “sovereign citizens” on your hands. They believe that the existing state & federal governments are usurpers and refuse to recognize their authority. They also tend to favour some pretty bizarre ideas that these illegitimate governments only have authority by spelling names in all caps, so if you insist on spelling your name with lower case, hyphens and colons, you are denying the illegitimate governments any power over you.
Some of them further believe in something called “redemption” - that when the government writes a name in all caps, it’s not referring to you, but to a legal fiction called a “strawman” that somehow controls your assets. If you accept that idea, then when John-James: Doe brings suit against JOHN JAMES DOE, he’s not suing himself, but the government “strawman”, and is really trying to re-gain control of his own assets, free of any government-imposed obligations, like income or property taxes.
Here’s a couple of sites that you may find of assistance. If you want more info, feel free to e-mail me.
Bingo! That describes perfectly what this affidavit is about. Your links also clear up several details and explain some of the more obtuse language. I note that Oregon is cited several times as well. I knew that nothing was too obscure for the SDMB. Thanks, Northern Piper!
