While working on the bigger legal battle in a very public way, I quietly found out I won a smaller legal battle yesterday.

In the midst of all of the chaos and whirlwind of activity around my larger legal battles with the State, there have been other smaller legal battles stemming from the same sources along the way (quietly pulling at my attention and making it nearly impossible for me to get to my more important work – my advocacy work, consumer goods testing and helping families with lead poisoned children.)

Nearly one year ago (last summer) I got a court summons in the mail saying that I was being sued with a demand to pay the credit card bill for Lead Safe America Foundation.  

Specifically, the credit card bill that I was being sued to pay (personally with my own funds) was the business credit card for the Foundation and the charges that were left unpaid (that the suit was alleging I was responsible for) were primarily the costs charged to pay the lawyer who illegally fired me from the nonprofit I founded in August of 2016.

The lawsuit was a claim for $6,467.08 (to be exact) plus legal fees. $5,000 (plus interest) of this was the Foundation’s unpaid legal bill and the rest was primarily to pay for the printing of several hundred Lead Safe America t-shirts which were delivered just before the nonprofit was destroyed.

I have no idea what happened to those t-shirts (my family got just two… the one for my husband, pictured above, and one for my youngest son.) They were supposed to be sent to parents of lead poisoned children and sponsors of the Foundation (for free, as a gift) all over the country – and while a small handful of maybe 20 or 30 of those t-shirts were sent out (by me personally – before I was illegally fired –  at my expense for postage and packaging)… the rest disappeared into the hands of the evil empire (perhaps shredded for housing insulation? or donated to good will?)

The irony of it all was that when I was illegally fired in August of 2016 I asked if I could at least have the t-shirts and use my own money to send them to the people who had been promised them (since I knew almost every single one of these people personally and wanted to make sure they were properly thanked), but the folks who had taken over the Foundation (again, illegally) refused to let me do that (suggesting in a crazy internal memo that I later got a copy of  – that somehow I might SELL the t-shirts for money in some nefarious plot… GAH!)

Anyhow – I am thrilled that this little lawsuit got dismissed in full in my favor this week and that I got the official notice of the dismissal yesterday! I am especially thrilled that I therefore don’t have to be forced to pay the cost of the lawyer who fired me from the Foundation. And because I tend to be just a wee bit superstitious (for fun, like I read my horoscope every now and then, and enjoy having my tarot cards read by friends!) – I also think it is a terrific omen that on the day we served the bigger lawsuit to the State, we got the notice in the mail that we won this little lawsuit. It’s a good omen for many reasons – but on a more logical (non-superstitious) level – it is a good sign because this little lawsuit now represents the FOURTH lawsuit in my life that I have won Pro Se (without legal representation.) 

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

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