IMG_1533.JPG

Jack Mongeon, the defendant in a lawsuit about a coin collection, ran his appraisal business out of this Pearl District address.

(Aimee Green/The Oregonian)

A senior citizen who claims a Pearl District gallery owner charged her more than $26,000 to appraise a coin collection worth less than $9,000 is suing the gallery owner claiming elder abuse.

According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Janice Link brought her coin collection to Jack P. Mongeon at Galerie Mongeon in Northwest Portland to have it appraised. The collection included a rare 1937 D mint 5-cent piece and a silver dollar minted in 1879 in Carson City, according to the suit.

“Mr. Mongeon greatly overcharged Ms. Link,” states the suit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

A coin expert later consulted by Link's attorney estimated the collection's worth at $8,863, the suit says. The expert didn't see the coins because Monegon won't return them, the suit states. But the expert made the estimate based on a description of the coins from Link, the suit says.

The expert also said the appraisal should have taken three to four hours to do and cost a few hundred dollars, said Warner Allen, the Portland attorney representing Link.

“He frankly just took advantage of her,” Allen said of Mongeon. “He basically committed elder abuse. ... It’s fraud, pure and simple, in our view.”

Link, who lives in Vancouver and whose age is listed as over 65, didn’t call police. Mongeon hasn’t been charged with any crimes.

Mongeon, 84, could not be reached for comment Thursday. His daughter said he is very ill, and can't respond to Link’s accusations.

The coins belonged to Link’s late husband, according to Link's attorney. From May to July 2014, she paid Mongeon $16,458 of the more than $26,551 he charged her, the suit states.

“She then became concerned or suspicious that it seemed like an awful lot of money, and she still hadn’t gotten an appraisal,” Allen said.

One of Link's friends told her about a January 2014 suit, filed by another customer who claims Mongeon wouldn't return seven prints believed to have been created by French artist Edgar Degas, possibly worth $160,000. A judge ordered Mongeon to return the prints to owner Nicholas Jepson, but the case is still headed toward trial to recover attorney fees and $6,000 that Jepson said he paid Mongeon to verify their authenticity.

Shortly after that lawsuit was filed, Mongeon told The Oregonian that he hadn’t returned the prints because Jepson owed him more money for his work. That included a trip to meet with an expert at the Louvre in Paris, Mongeon said.

Link, the owner of the coin collection, is seeking the return of her coins or their estimated value of $8,863. She's also seeking attorney fees and $49,374, which is triple the amount that she says she paid Mongeon. Oregon's elder-abuse law allows elderly people to recover triple the amount in economic damages.

-- Aimee Green

503-913-4197