Defamation or Order of Protection Question

[m3by2003]

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

After dating my ex-girlfirend for 7 years, buying a house together, we broke up 2.5 years ago. Recently she found out that I am engaged and has apparently set out to make my life as miserable as possible. After she moved out of the house, I began making the payments on the house (which I still live in) and paying for every aspect of the property. Due to financial hardship, I had fallen behind on the payments and been working with our mortgage company to receive different hardship solutions. The mortgage company sent me a hardship offer that had a place for both the primary borrower (myself) and the co-borrower (her). I sent her an email asking if it was ok for me to sign for her where is stated co-borrower on the form from our mortgage company. I didn't go into detail as to what the form was for, nor did she ask at the time. She just stated, "that's fine." Last month she found out that the mortgage was behind on payments and left me a message threatening to call her attorney and a real estate agent. While I recognize that she could file for a partition for action and force the sale of the property, I haven't ever disagreed to place it for sale if she requested it.

I waited about a month and hadn't received anything until a day or two ago. I received am email stating, "wow...nice forged signature. The "forberance" is going to be voided. Hope you have boxes ready to pack." She had called our mortgage company and told them that I forged her signature on the document, despite the fact that I still have the email proving otherwise, and she asked them to foreclose on the house immediately. She also filed a police report, which I will address tomorrow, stating that I had committed forgery on this document. Which by the way, kept her house from being foreclosed on and had no negative impact on her at all. She is just upset that the deliquency has affected her credit too and that I didn't tell her sooner. You can probably gather why calling her would have been a futile conversation anyway! In addition to the above, she called my parents to inform them that I was behind on the mortgage and had forged her signature, as well as sent text messages to all of our mutual friends letting them know that I was behind on my mortgage payments.

MY QUESTION:
Has she committed defamation of some sort?
Would a judge issue a Restraining Order if no physical harm was ever threatened?
If no, is there any other course of action other than the R.O. that could protect me from her contacting me, my family, or any other party that she has no business contacting for any reason other than to cause issues? i.e. my school.

On a side note, the mortgage company told me that I never even needed her signature anyway on the form. I could have just written a letter stating that she is no longer living at the property and has no financial responsibility for the property, and is unwilling to sign.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[tranquility]

While this is a very complex situation, I'm pretty sure the facts would indicate her "signature" on the document would not be valid. (Reading the agreement would be important.) While it may not be criminal "forgery", there is certainly some tort against either the ex or the bank or both. I don't know the banking laws well enough to know if there are some crimes involving the level of intent you showed. (Assuming you can prove that she did verbally agree for you to sign.) If you don't have good proof, I wouldn't want to get the courts involved as, if she says she didn't give you permission, you may be found guilty of a crime. Even if she says she did, there still may be some violation of criminal law.

Besides, courts are loathe to prevent speech. Speech can be actionable, if false and defamatory, afterwards when there are damages. (Or, in this case because it alleges you to be criminal.) But, again, you have the proof issue.

Pity you didn't avail yourself to the option regarding the letter where you alone signed. Then you wouldn't be on the line for all kinds of legal trouble.

I suggest you play nice with the ex and hope she stops giving you trouble. Because, she can give you a lot of trouble if she gets angry.

[m3by2003]

You think that I have an issue despite the fact that I have the email showing my request to sign on her behalf on the location listed co-borrower, and she replied, "that's fine".

Had I known that I could have just signed myself...I obviously would have, but I was under the impression that I needed her signature as well. With that in mind, I emailed her requesting her permission to sign on her behalf. Once I received her approval in writing, I signed and filed the forms with our mortgage company.

I just called the police department and had an officer come by my house so that I could respond to the complaint ahead of time, before this potentially got blown out of proportion. His advice was to just hold onto the proof that she gave me permission and then to provide that information if I got a call from an investigator.

[tranquility]

Email is sometimes hard to get in as proof. Also, even if confirmed in discovery, there is a problem in what a "writing" is which would conform with the statute of frauds. For some reason, some feel only simultaneous electronic communication (like a fax) can only be used to satisfy the statute of frauds and not asynchronous communication (like email) unless special steps like a PGP key or other electronic signature technology is used.

While a cop may give some guide as to if criminal intent is there, he is hardly an expert on this. There is no way he gave an educated opinion on the legal issues involved.

Info edit:
Let alone the federal or banking issues. Also, reading what was signed would be important.