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former family member suing for $ "owed"

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K

kindnesscounts

Guest
What is the name of your state? IL

My ex's sister informed me she is planning to sue my exhusband for about $20,000 (the amount she claims she loaned him during the time he and I were married combined with the $ she loaned and the total of the bills he wracked up while living with her after he & I divorced). Although it's my ex she says she's suing, I find it possible she'll file against me as well.

But would she have a legal leg to stand on to go after either/both of us?

I can't speak for AFTER he & I divorced, but I know that while he and I were married there where times she paid for in full or in part bills/debts. She'll likely have cancelled checks to prove this.
HOWEVER:
1) to the best of my knowledge and recollection, only ONE of those times that she did this was it ever stated that we were to pay her anything back. That amount was put in writing. We paid some back but ended up filing bankruptcy, and the balance was put in the bankruptcy.
2) It was my and my then-husband's understanding this was a "recipricol: arrangement. She "helped" us financially & we helped her in service related ways. She never paid us for our assistance, and we never asked her to. Same as she never asked us to repay her for her financial assistance (other than the ONE time we agreed in writing to repay one loan)

We lived next door to her for 3 years, and provided what most would consider nanny or aupair service and handy-man/maintenance service. We DAILY helped her with one or more of her 4 children (she was a single mom), transporting them to activities, babysitting, cooking meals, feeding them; sometimes spending entire weekends with 1 or more of the kids while she went out of town either for one child's sport activity or just to party; I cleaned her house; my then-husband did things on a regular basis like mowing her 2 acre property, trimming trees, fixing leaky plumbing and problem electrical stuff, etc.

When we moved a little further away (about 10 mi), my then-husband still went to her house to help out with handy-man issues whenever she called, put furniture together, mowed her property, etc.; and we still "babysat" and helped shuttle kids when she asked.
 
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stephenk

Senior Member
Other than you and your ex believing your services were payment for the money your ex-sis-in-law paid, was your belief ever expressed to her and did she ever agree that your services would be repayment of the money she provided?
 

JETX

Senior Member
Lots of issues:
- Limitation: When did these 'debts' supposedly occur?? The SOL for verbal debt in IL is 4 years. Any debt older than that would be unenforceable.

- Liability: Does she have ANYTHING to prove that there was an agreement to repay her for these claimed 'loans'?? If not, then she would likely not succeed in claiming that they were loans.

- Amounts: Any claims that she cannot support would presumably also not be allowed.

- Finally, your bankruptcy: If the debt(s) were included in the matrix as indicated, they are uncollectable. In fact, her attempts to collect them could make her liable for contempt issues from the bankruptcy court.
 
K

kindnesscounts

Guest
replies to StephenK & JetX

StephenK--->"was your belief ever expressed to her and did she ever agree that your services would be repayment of the money she provided"

A: No, our belief was never expressed to her. Nor did she ever express her belief that our services were in lieu of repayment.

I don't know if it's important to note or not, but until just this past week when she informed me she was suing my exhusband (her brother) for $20K, there was never ANY time in which she stated, directly or indirectly to me that she ever expected/desired any form of repayment (with the exception of ONE loan-which was put into writing...and this agreement stated a specific dollar amount she was lending us and we were to repay. It did not include any referance to any other monies owed her.)

JetX: Thanks for your input. I'll answer your questions and have one of my own, at the end, though from what you said so far, it seems it's going to be difficult--maybe even not possible at all--for her to get her complaint to fly....

---->"Limitation: When did these 'debts' supposedly occur"

A: To my recollection, it would have been between January 1996-Aug. 2000 (as far as those I would have been directly involved with). The remaining amounts would go into 2003 (If she expected to be repaid and was upset she wasn't being, WHY in the world would she KEEP "loaning" money over a period of 7 years?!)

--->"Liability: Does she have ANYTHING to prove that there was an agreement to repay her for these claimed 'loans'....
Amounts: Any claims that she cannot support would presumably also not be allowed."

A: Other than the ONE thing in writing for ONE loan, no. She has xled checks made out to us, or paid on our behalf though, so she could feesibly back up her claims as to the dollar amount she's paid.

--->"your bankruptcy: If the debt(s) were included in the matrix as indicated, they are uncollectable."

Q:If the amount she claims is owed is a good deal larger than the amount claimed in the bankruptcy (which it is---because we only claimed the loan we put into writing!), is it possible for her to try to collect on the differance?
 
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