Mail fraud?

[kitten]

We are in CA.  My BF's ex-wife still resides in the family home but is attempting to gain permission to move her and the children to Alaska and into her fiance's home.  July 1st she had the family mail forwarded to her fiance's home.  My bf found out Aug. 3rd when the ex handed him mail in his name only with yellow forwarding stickers with the address in Alaska on them.  Most were bills he is responsible to pay on time from his children's healthcare providers.  Some of the mail was a month old.
Does this constitute mail fraud?

[socrateaser]

>Does this constitute mail fraud?

Mail fraud is the use of the U.S. Postal Service to perpetrate a fraud. The objective is to communicate with others and intentionally misrepresent or fail to disclose a material fact, that causes justifiable detrimental reliance and actual harm.

Your facts show that your ex-wife forwarded all of her mail to a new address, and as a result, you received some of your mail a month late, which may have injured you or your credit rating. The forwarding of mail without informing you may have been intended to misrepresent your mailing address to you, with the apparent end of causing you harm.  And your mailing address is certainly a material fact when it comes to timely receipt of your bills.

And, your ex certainly could expect that you would rely on her not changing the mailing address without informing you first.

But the question is was the misrepresentation intentional or was your ex's misdirecting of your mail, merely inadvertance on her part because your mail comes to her address and you share the same last name?

Fraud requires proof by clear and convincing evidence, and there is nothing clear and convincing about your ex's intent concerning the forwarding of your mail. Therefore, on balance, I would say that there is no fraud, and without the fraud, there can be no use of the mail to perpetrate fraud.

So, your short answer is: NO. However, this is not the end of the analysis.

Negligence is the breach of a duty of care owed to another causing them to suffer harm and damages.

Your ex certainly owed you an ordinary duty of care not to cause you an unreasonable risk of harm, and by inadvertantly forwarding your mail and bills to a far away address, she breached this duty, and presumably caused you harm and damage, although your facts don't show precisely what harm or damge was caused.

If so, then you could sue for compensation for any pain and suffering, as well as for the reasonably forseeable damages caused by the negligent misdirection.

This sounds like a small claims action to me, but if your credit report was seriously degraded, or you were foreclosed on and you didn't receive notice because of the misdirection, then you could probably make a case for a small pile of gold.

I dunno, hard to say without more facts.

[kitten]

Thank you for such a detailed analysis!