They forged the check!!!

[Country357]

Texas
In Nov. 04’, my wife flew from Germany where I was stationed in the military and was in the market for a used car in Houston. She found an overflow lot filled with trade-ins from a new car lot. She did not have a (POA) from me so her Grandma in Louisiana agreed to co-sign. I talked with the salesman on the phone & told him I need a car that would total no more than 10K after down payment financing and all(final pymnt 10K). He showed her a Merc. Mountaineer & said it was around 7K and total 11K @ the final pymnt. My wife gave a 1K dwnpymnt he gave her the keys. No paperwork was signed but he gave her a # to the finance company where she would be making the payment. She made the $281 payment until Nov 08’. We wanted to pay off the balance & get the title. We figured we owed 1K or so because we had some slow pymnts. The finance company said we owed a cash Bal of 5K still. So we requested the pymnt history and all the contracts whick took months. We had paid over 9.5K w/dwnpymnt. But all the supporting Docs i.e the check from the finance company, the contract (about 7docs in all) were forged with my wife’s grandma’s name. She had never left La. and they had never mailed anything. She had only spoken to the salesman on the phone the day of the sale.No docs were sent to her or my wife. The 10.5K check from the finance company required the new car lot to sign and my wife’s grandma, non of us ever seen the check until Jan 09 when the finance company sent a copy, but it had her forged signature on it (name spelled wrong). We stopped paying and the acct went to a collection agency. They are calling and harassing saying the amount is now 7K. We still have the vehicle, but the only proof we have is the orig.vehicle buyer’s order form they gave my wife with no signatures & a date & the forged copy that was faxed to the finance company to approve the loan. I contacted the BBB, used the free veteran’s advice panel, and tried to file small claims for them to pay the balance so we can get the title. They ignored a mediation meeting and have never returned my calls. Small claims court said because the amount is over 5K they can’t handle it. I am lost and for this to be on my grandmother’s in law credit after she was so kind to help us out. I need a plan to attack this as an abused consumer.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[cyjeff]

When you called the police to report the identity theft, what did they say?

 

[JETX]

I need a plan to attack this as an abused consumer.

Regrettably, you (and your wife) did just about everything WRONG here.... starting with not getting copies of all signed documents AT THE TIME of the sale. This continued through every payment made without the documents. Here we are now five PLUS years later and it will be very hard (if possible at all) to successfully assert a forgery claim on the signature.

Compounding this issue is that the SOL on any forgery claim would be in question (would require a full review of ALL the facts).

As you noted this issue cannot be heard in small claims... not because of the limit (which is now $10,000), but because the Texas small claim courts are limited to monetary claims only, and your case isn't really such.

I suggest you talk with a local attorney (ask for a free- or low-cost consultation) who can review all of your concerns and documents and advise if you have any recourse, and if so, what it might be.