South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 4, Ed. 1, February, 2001 Page: 2 of 12
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Page 2
Letters
February2001
Coercion!
COERCION! This is
the word that immediately
came to mind when I at-
tempted to cash the finan-
cial aid refund check that
South Texas College of
Law issued to me this se-
mester.
Please allow me to ex-
plain. Students who re-
ceive financial aid to at-
tend the law school are
owed any monies that are
left over after South Texas
College of Law deducts
tuition, fees, and any
other charges the student
may owe. The law school
issues a check to each
student that is drawn on
account with Chase Bank.
Normally, when someone
owes a person money, he
or she expects to be paid
that amount - no less and
no more. However, I dis-
covered that Chase Bank
will not honor the legal
demand instrument that
South Texas issues a stu-
dent without first sub-
tracting a cut for them-
selves. If a person does
not have an account with
Chase Bank, regardless of
the fact that the check is
drawn on that bank and
there are available funds
in the account, the bank
will charge you a fee to
cash it. So, I will not get
the amount that is printed
on the check, which is the
amount South Texas owes
me. A Chase Bank em-
ployee kindly told me that
I could open an account
with them and there would
be no charge to cash the
check. However, I do not
need nor do I want an ac-
count with Chase Bank.
I asked the bank em-
ployee why Chase Bank
refused to honor the de-
mand instrument and give
me the amount printed on
the check. He told me that
the customer who owned
the account that my
money was in made a
choice to "waive the fee."
He explained that South
Texas, which is the cus-
tomer, has chosen to hold
my money in a particular
type of account that
charges every person it
writes a check to who
does not have a bank ac-
count with Chase or with
another institution. Some
of us do not need a bank
account because we do
not have money to put
into it! I myself pay all
of my big expenses such
as rent in advance when I
get my refund check.
How can a student like me
afford to give a bank a
significant amount of
money for doing nothing
more than honoring its
own check? In my case,
the bank wanted to extort
$125.00 for giving me the
money owed to me.
South Texas College of
Law is aware of this prob-
lem. I spoke to a person
in the business office, and
I was told that other stu-
dents had complained
about this. I was also told
that Chase Bank has its
"policy." This is not a
policy. It is a source of
free money for the bank!
I do not know if South
Texas has chosen to keep
our money in this type of
account because of favor-
able interest rates or
something totally unre-
lated to making money.
What I do know is that I
borrow money from a pri-
vate lender as well as
from the federal govern-
ment, and those lenders
electronically transfer my
money into a South Texas
College of Law bank ac-
count where it sits until I
can withdraw it. What I
do know is that unless I
submit to Chase Bank's
coercion to either open an
account in its bank or to
give them money for hon-
oring their own check, my
money sits in a South
Texas account.
Danny Ray Garza,
2L
Melissa's Family: Thank You
South Texas
Editor's Note:
Our friend and classmate,
Melissa Moon died sud-
denly while studying
abroad last semester. We
extend our continued sym-
pathy and support to her
family. Melissa would
have graduated this May.
Dear Friends of Melissa,
Words cannot express
our feelings of gratitude
for all of your love and
support during these past
few weeks. We are so
grateful for the food pro-
vided for our family, the
memorials given in honor
of Melissa and the flow-
ers to brighten our day.
After hearing the news
from the U.S. Embassy in
Denmark, our friends and
family came immediately
to share in our pain and
grief. They helped us to
prepare for the strenuous
week by helping in our
yard, straightening our
home, organizing and pre-
paring our meals each
day. Your prayers, love,
concern and hard work
carried us through the
long and difficult week
of numbness and painful
preparation for the memo-
rial service. We are very
appreciative and even
overwhelmed with the
generosity of spirit that
has been extended to us.
We are very thankful for
such loving friends and
family and most of all for
a sovereign and loving
God.
Our love for Melissa
can never be fully ex-
pressed and our hearts
are deeply saddened by
her untimely death. God
was so gracious to have
blessed us with a loving,
wonderful, caring,
unique, determined, and
willful daughter and sis-
ter. Missy gave us a gift
and a key to living in the
way she lived life, loved
life, and gave
so fully of
herself to us
all. This has
been ex-
pressed so
eloquently
by the many
cards and
phone calls
from family,
classmates,
colleagues
and profes-
sors. Missy
touched so
many lives
in her 30 short years, and
we are better for having
had our beloved Missy
who will live in our hearts
forever. The following
scripture is one we have
claimed as we awake each
morning to the reality of
her death.
But I will sing of Your
strength,
In the morning / will
sing of Your love;
For You are my for-
tress, my refuge in times
of trouble.
O my Strength, I sing
praise to You;
You, O God, are my
fortress, my loving God.
South Texas, our fam-
ily are so appreciative of
your lovely flowers for
Melissa.
It has meant so much
to us for all the cards, e-
mails and letters sent to
us. Your love for Mel-
issa is special and your
many sweet and lovely
words have lifted us ev-
ery day. It has made our
pain easier to endure be-
cause you have shared
how she touched each of
you during her years at
South Texas. You made
her feel a part of your life
and class and she will be
missed by so many. We
look forward to meeting
you in May at graduation.
May God bless each of
you.
Morgan & Cynthia
Moon
Herb & Catherine
Maraman
Claire Moon
Floyd Moon.
Annotations
Editor-in-Chief. Sean Palmer
Assistant Editor. Richard Weaver
Business Manager. Craig E. Bohn
Assistant Business Manager Amanda Trapp
Staff Writers Carla Lujan,
Laura Foresythe
Staff Photographer SJ Davidson
Faculty Sponsor
R. Randall Kelso
Annotations is the student newspaper of the South
Texas College of Law. The office is in Room 206. Please
address mail to Annotations, 1303 San Jacinto, Houston,
TX 77002. The phone is 713/759-9142.
Annotations welcomes letters, contributions and
suggestions from students, faculty, alumni and staff.
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Palmer, Sean. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 4, Ed. 1, February, 2001, newspaper, February 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144545/m1/2/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.