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Theft of savings after Divorce final

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Barry52F

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My wife moved out back in February, and in March we closed our joint checking. We also had an eSavings account that was in her name, but has me listed as a secondary. This eSavings account had nothing in it and was somehow overlooked and not closed. We each proceeded to open our own checking accounts with the same bank, and were able to keep our original online banking logins.

Our divorce was finalized in August. In September I took out a $10000 loan to make some home improvements, and after spending $8500 I transferred the remaining $1500 to the eSavings account. Because it's an eSavings account, no monthly statements are mailed and I was thinking it was an account that only I had access to. Well as soon as she saw the $1500 show up in this eSavings account, she went down to the bank, withdrew the money, and closed the account.

My question is this: Do I have a chance at recovering the money if I take her to small claims court? I can easily establish where the money originated, that it was from a loan to me, and was not part of the marital assets to be divided up.

In the divorce decree, the following paragraph is in the property to wife section, and my ex is using this as the basis for her decision to keep the money:
"All sums of cash in the possession of the wife or subject to her sole control, including funds on deposit, together with accrued but unpaid interest, in banks, savings institutions, or other financial institutions, which accounts stand in the wife’s sole name or from which the wife has the sole right to withdraw funds or which are subject to the wife’s sole control."
However, as I read it, she did not have SOLE control of the account, as it has both our names on it and I obviously had the ability to moved money to and from it.
 


Antigone*

Senior Member
Hate to tell you Wizard :eek:, if that account had her name on it, then the money is just as much hers as it is yours when it comes to the bank.

A judge might see things differently, but then again...maybe not.

Had you married the wicked witch of the east, the house would have fallen on her and you would possibly have had a nice insurance pay out. :D
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
There are a couple of problems:

1. Small claims court has no jurisdiction. As far as they're concerned, her name is on the account, so she didn't do anything wrong. If you want to argue that what she did was a violation of your divorce decree, they will refer you back to your divorce court.

2. A divorce court might agree that she had no right to take that money even though her name was on the account. However, balance the time and cost of fighting over it against the $1,500.

Personally, I would leave it alone, but you might want to file a complaint on your own in the hopes that she'll give in. if you do it yourself, your odds of recovery are smaller than if you use an attorney, but you don't have much invested. However, it could just open a can of worms and cause her to come back at you for something else and so on. You could end up with a very expensive battle on your hands even though the initial amount is $1,500.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My wife moved out back in February, and in March we closed our joint checking. We also had an eSavings account that was in her name, but has me listed as a secondary. This eSavings account had nothing in it and was somehow overlooked and not closed. We each proceeded to open our own checking accounts with the same bank, and were able to keep our original online banking logins.

Our divorce was finalized in August. In September I took out a $10000 loan to make some home improvements, and after spending $8500 I transferred the remaining $1500 to the eSavings account. Because it's an eSavings account, no monthly statements are mailed and I was thinking it was an account that only I had access to. Well as soon as she saw the $1500 show up in this eSavings account, she went down to the bank, withdrew the money, and closed the account.

My question is this: Do I have a chance at recovering the money if I take her to small claims court? I can easily establish where the money originated, that it was from a loan to me, and was not part of the marital assets to be divided up.

In the divorce decree, the following paragraph is in the property to wife section, and my ex is using this as the basis for her decision to keep the money:
"All sums of cash in the possession of the wife or subject to her sole control, including funds on deposit, together with accrued but unpaid interest, in banks, savings institutions, or other financial institutions, which accounts stand in the wife’s sole name or from which the wife has the sole right to withdraw funds or which are subject to the wife’s sole control."
However, as I read it, she did not have SOLE control of the account, as it has both our names on it and I obviously had the ability to moved money to and from it.
"Your honor, I deposited money, after our divorce was final, into an eSavings account that had her listed as the primary account holder, with me as the secondary account holder, and she stole the money from me."

Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? You had at least one bank account of your own, why in the world would you deposit money into an account...AFTER YOUR DIVORCE WAS FINAL...that had her as primary? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

You would have a very hard time convincing a judge, small claims court or family law court, that you didn't intend her to have access to the money.
 

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