A Bend couple says a bank has harassed them for more than a year in an attempt to collect a debt already discharged in bankruptcy court.

David and Linda Culpepper filed for bankruptcy in October 2009, and the bankruptcy was discharged in February 2010. Wachovia, now Wells Fargo, was the first mortgage holder for the Culpeppers’ home on Northwest Upper Rim Place. An order issued at the time of the bankruptcy’s discharge told the bank to stop collections against the Culpeppers, and specifically prohibited the company from contacting them to try to collect the debt.

According to court documents, the Culpeppers moved from their home in 2010 after the bank changed the locks. But that same year, the bank began calling the Culpeppers nearly every day, sometimes telling them they still owed debt to the company and other times offering modifications and other incentives to bring their mortgage current.

“Sometimes, Wachovia tells the (Culpeppers) that despite their bankruptcy, Wachovia can still legally collect on the balance due after discharge,” the motion states. “Other times, Wachovia tells the (Culpeppers) their phone number cannot be taken out of Wachovia’s automatic dialing system, or just to ignore the collection attempts.”

Michael Fuller, the Culpeppers’ attorney, said their phone number was placed in an autodialer, and they received calls almost every day.

“When they’d call them, they either said ‘Pay us this money,’ or they said they were letting them know the status of the loan, telling them what to do if they want to try to get current (on the loan),” Fuller said. “It was various things as part of this campaign they had to try to help borrowers, but in my opinion it was to collect on the debt.”

Fuller said the calls finally stopped on Jan. 12.

The Culpeppers have filed a motion asking the bankruptcy court to hold the bank in civil contempt. They filed a lawsuit in Deschutes County Circuit Court on May 1 asking for $40,000 in actual damages and punitive damages of $1 million that will be asserted in an amended complaint.

“After receiving written notices from this court, three letters warning of contempt from (the Culpeppers’) counsel, and several dozen verbal notices of the bankruptcy by the (Culpeppers), Wachovia telephonically harasses (the Culpeppers) on a near daily basis in an attempt to collect a debt discharged in bankruptcy, in direct violation of this Court’s Order,” the motion states.

The motion asks the court to award sanctions against the bank.

“Wachovia took no action to remedy its contemptuous conduct, presumably because the cost of compliance outweighed the risk of contempt,” the motion states.

Attorney Philip Lempriere, who represents the bank, said he was not authorized to speak about the lawsuit or the motion in bankruptcy court.

In a declaration to support the motion, Linda Culpepper wrote that by filing bankruptcy, she and her husband, who suffers health problems, hoped to get a fresh start. Instead, she wrote, the constant calls worsened his health and stressed the couple.

“Receiving calls almost every day from Wachovia constantly reminds us of our bankruptcy and worries us that we may never be free from our debts,” she wrote. “We have a right to be free from harassment and Wachovia’s calls, specifically calls telling us the bankruptcy does not stop them from collecting, causes me and my husband severe anxiety to the point we have had to contact our bankruptcy attorneys again.”

According to Deschutes County property records, the house remains in Linda Culpepper’s name. In an email to her attorney in December, she said the bank has several times attempted to auction the home, to no avail.

The lawsuit in Deschutes County Circuit Court asks for up to $1 million in punitive damages and $40,000 in noneconomic damages, and alleges that the phone calls have caused David Culpepper health problems, including problems with his blood pressure.

The Culpeppers and the bank will go before a bankruptcy judge in Portland on June 8. The lawsuit in Deschutes County is due for a pretrial hearing in August.