Marital Debt in Tennessee (a Marital Property State)

[honey32]

I live in Tennessee, which is a marital property state. My ex-husband and I separated November 1st, 2004, and due to many delays, the divorce was not final until June 21, 2005. We had been married 4 1/2 years at the time of the divorce.
I was served with papers last week being jointly sued with my ex for $10,000 in medical bills. The medical bills were incurred in mid August 2004. These debts are actually one of the reasons for our final split. He quit a job, after finally getting one, after just a few days, to have an unnecessary operation to his arm. He had no health insurance (all I could afford at my job was insurance for me and our children). He then became addicted to pain pills (more so than he already was - which is one reason why I believe he had the operation - to get all the pain meds he wanted). He made several trips to emergency room after the operation for pain medication. After then not working at all and becoming more of a pain pill addict and a bigger acholic, I finally kicked him out November 1st 2004. I did not take him to the hospital for the surgery, and I did not sign any papers and I did not take him home from the hospital.
In the divorce decree, I took all debt that had my name on it (house, autos, credit cards) and he was responsible for all debt that had his name on it, including all his medical bills. All the debt either had my name or his, there was no debt that had both our names on it. However, now I am being told that because we were legally married at the time of medical service, and because this is Tennessee that the court can still sue me for the debt and collect (through garnishment) and that the only recourse I have is to sue my ex for violating our "divorce contract". I can't even get child support from the man, much less this.... PLEASE HELP!!!
I know I've probably given way too much unnecessary information, but I thought all this could be brought out on the court date.
Thanks,
honey32

 

[hurtBYliar]

Found out my husband's a con man

I recently posted a question with similar concerns with the title "Found out my husband's a con man". I read on the Internet that debt/assets will be divided in 1/2 in TX, because it is a community property state, BUT the creditors can still come after the other spouses if the Ex doesn't pay their 1/2. The reasoning is that the judge orders it to be 1/2, but that the creditors are not a party to the divorce and can come after the other spouse if the Ex goes into collections.

Assuming my Ex would pay 0% of his 1/2 and even continue to charge after separation, I don't know how creditors would calculate what to collect from me and the start and end dates in Texas. I'm still hoping for conclusive facts on this as I really don't believe my Ex would pay his 1/2. Some of my questions: Are we safe if the cards are in the Ex's name and always have been...Is it possible that their delinquency wouldn't go on our credit reports but they could still collect from us (maybe it would only go on our CR if we don't pay it when they try to collect from us)???

From your situation it sounds similar to the scenario that I read on the Internet. I'm not sure what the difference is between "marital property" in TN and "community property" in TX but maybe they're the same for this purpose... maybe they're different??? Honey32, I suggest you start from scratch and shorten your post. I'm very surprised no one else responded to you... there are helpful 'senior members' who seem to log in everyday and read the latest posts, so if you try again with a shorter post they'll probably help you. Good luck and if you'd like to email me in a support group kind of way, I'm at [email protected]... Good luck!!