Payday loan owner suing to keep business
Suit filed against Shelby County
The Cordova payday loan business owner whose request to stay in business was denied by the Shelby County Commission in July has filed a lawsuit in Chancery Court against the county.
Terri Mansker, owner of Financial One which does business as Cash Now! at Houston Levee and Macon Road is asking the court to overrule the commission’s decision to deny her request to amend the existing planned development and let her stay in business.
Cash Now! has been open for two years after being issued in error a certificate of occupancy by the Office of Construction Code Enforcement. The Unified Development Code prohibits payday loan establishments from operating within 1,000 feet of residential properties and Cash Now! is too close to area homes. The business did not come under scrutiny until a competitor complained.
The commission, in a 5-6 vote on July 27, denied Mansker’s petition to amend the PUD.
That action was “arbitrary and capricious,” and forced Mansker to sue, said her attorney, Robert Spence. “They didn’t give her any choice,” Spence said. “She is so deeply involved in this particular business financially, they didn’t give her any choice.”
Mansker told the commissioners she had not borrowed funds to get Cash Now! up and running, instead investing her own money, a figure Spence put at about $100,000.
He states that in 2014, the commission approved a similar request unanimously.
“Our core argument is that the code enforcement approved it and that she as a citizen has the right to rely on the approval of code enforcement,” Spence said.
Because the case is pending, County attorney Ross Dyer would not comment.
Commissioner Melvin Burgess voted to let Mansker stay in business and said he was not surprised by the lawsuit.
“This lady started her business and she’s invested money and now you want her to move?” Burgess said.
Cash Now! is in Commissioner George Chism’s district and he’s sympathetic to Mansker’s “tough situation.” But, “I just know it should not have been there. And if the county messed up, the county messed up, but two wrongs don’t make a right,” Chism said.