Patty Sue

Patty Sue just won't go away / Queen of lawsuits somewhere in S.F. For the uninitiated, a brief history. Patty McColm is San Francisco's most notorious vexatious litigant -- which is to say, suing others or threatening them with legal action has been her longtime stock in trade. She sued so many people in her neighborhood that real estate agents were required to prepare packets of disclosure information telling perspective buyers about the potential threat. One former neighbor told me once that he read stories about McColm in newspapers and simply couldn't believe them. So he bought an adjoining house and moved in. She tied up his remodeling permits and then filed a harassment suit claiming he was slamming a side door just to bother her. She got a restraining order against him, limiting the time he could open certain doors in his house. In the past two decades, McColm has sued the federal government, the state, the city, Bank of America, Kaiser, the old Emporium store owners, innumerable city workers, judges, private businesses, tenants, newspapers, television networks, small contractors, drivers and any host of unsuspecting, law-abiding citizens that somehow crossed her path. She failed the bar, and sued the state bar. She got bounced from a teaching job, and sued San Francisco State University. She sued to stop her teenage neighbors from playing basketball in their yard. She sued to stop a church from ringing its bells. She sued so often, her poor neighbors nicknamed her Patty Sue. The rest of her admirers called her the Witch of Westwood Park. She sued many of them, too. It may take some time before the state courts finally enforce their own ruling, which was to allow McColm to file lawsuits only with court permission. It seems like the judicial system has put up even less resistance to her than some of her former neighbors -- some of whom actually stopped trimming their trees because they knew the cops would be called on them.