Company Sues Man On Life Support Battling COVID-19 After Failing To Repay Loan

A New Jersey man on life support battling COVID-19 for months has been struck with lawsuits for failing to repay a high-interest loan he was forced to take after his tenants stopped paying rent during the pandemic.

Jeffrey Schneider, who owns a rent-controlled building in Bronx, took a $23,000 loan from Premier Capital Funding LLC in May 2021 after the pandemic-related rent moratorium allowed many of his tenants to stop paying him rent, according to court papers filed by the man’s wife, Cindy Schneider, New York Post reported.

The loan Jeffrey took through his company Remie Realty Corp. later exploded to $85,000 on a high-interest rate. Although Jeffrey managed to pay back $25,000, he still has to repay $58,000 of the amount. However, COVID-19 left Jeffrey fighting for life and he is "on a ventilator and extracorporeal life support (ECMO machine)," Cindy said in the affidavit.

Jeffrey was hospitalized with COVID-19 in the first week of November and was put on life support on Nov. 29 after his condition deteriorated.

Two days later, Premier Capital filed a lawsuit against Jeffrey in Brooklyn Supreme Court as his payments stopped. Although Jeffrey's family said they would pay $11,000 of the remaining debts in a lump sum, "they still rejected it. They wanted their fees," family lawyer Ashlee Colonna Cohen told the news outlet.

Premier has reportedly filed another lawsuit in connection to the same loan against Remie in Manhattan Supreme Court for $20,000 two days after the first case was filed.

Meanwhile, Remie Realty shut down and Cindy was burdened with Jeffrey’s medical bills and attorney’s fees, in addition to the bills he owed as a landlord.

Jeffrey's family is now requesting to reverse a default judgment that Premier secured against Jeffrey to recoup $38,000 of the debts.

Although the default judgment came on Jan.4, Cindy said she realized about it only a week later when a check written to an employee from Remie Realty bounced after the company froze all her husband's accounts.

The family cited that Jeffrey is "incapacitated, disabled and unable to protect his interest or appear in this action." New York state law does not allow default judgments against incapacitated people. Premier was allegedly aware of Jeffrey's condition and failed to inform the judge about it, Cohen said.

"Instead of ceasing collection activity, and advising the court of (Jeffrey's) incapacitation, (Premier) immediately had the New York City Marshal levy default judgment amount," Cohen said in the affidavit, News.com.au reported.