Personal Guarantee Validity

[FXBiz]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maine

Hi,

I'm currently being pursued personally for a business debt from last year. No lawsuit has been filed yet. The other party's attorney claims that I signed a personal guarantee for the debt.

I have since gone back and reviewed the document that was signed. The verbage is as follows:

"
The undersigned hereby unconditionally personally guarentee(s) to ________, its successors and assigns, the punctual payment of all sums due to _________ in accordance with the terms of the foregoing agreement.

Date: _______
Customer Name: _________
Customer Signature: ____________
"

In the Customer Name, I had written my company's name and in the signature field is my signature. I had never intended to be personally bound to this debt. Is there a legal basis for this constituting a personal guarantee on my part even though my name is not in the name field?

 

[tranquility]

While you may have a technical argument, I would get an attorney. If your business was getting a loan or something and a personal guarantee was demanded (Which is the usual course for a business unless very large.), your signature may very well bind you.

Is that what happened? Did you try to borrow in the name of your business and they wanted a personal guarantee? What did you think that clause meant?

 

[FXBiz]

This was actually for a payment plan for a unpaid debt. The prior text on the document specified the details of a payment plan of a bill that was past due. There was no PG on the original agreement with the vendor.

 

[justalayman]

It's looking pretty simple to me. The undersigned, not the identified client or customer (that means the person that actually signed the document is the undersigned), personally guarantees the debts of the company. Since a company cannot personally guarantee diddly squat the statement of "personally guarantee" obviously refers to the person who signed the document.

Additionally, to defeat your argument that you were signing on behalf of the company, your failure to include "as (position in the company) of company XYZ or as representative of the company XYZ, your signature gives no basis to believe you were signing as anybody but yourself.


Is English your second or third language? If not, is there something about the word "personally" that you do not understand?