| Invalid Promissory Note
California
In February 2003 I signed a promissory note secured by a deed of trust used to pay for a proposed stock transaction in an early-stage private company. In March 2003, the shareholder informed me the stock transaction was completed and gave me a stock certificate. In April 2004, after the company had failed, the note holder informed me he was going to sell my note. I asked him to send me the documents verifying my stock transaction, and I received a stock transfer agreement signed by the company, but I never signed or saw this document prior to this time. I also discovered that the Operating Agreement of the company (an LLC) requires my acceptance of not only the stock transfer agreement terms but also the Operating Agreement, which I never signed or accepted. I stopped paying interest on the note...my last payment was June 1, 2004. I also engaged the services of an attorney in June 2004 to write a nastygram letter notifiying the note holder that the note was not valid as consideration was never provided. The note holder never recorded the deed of trust and, while threatening foreclosure shortly thereafter, never took action. Given that the note holder did not take any action to enforce the note through foreclosure, or record the note, I believed that he conceded the issue. The note matured March 2008. Out of the blue, last month on May 30, exactly fours years since my final payment on the note, the note holder recorded the deed of trust which is now a lien on my property. For the record, my first missed payment, perhaps the date of breach, was July 1, 2004.
What can I do to remove this malicious lien? Are there any statue of limitation issues that I need to be concerned about? If so, what would be the start date of the SoL? | 
06-21-2008, 01:20 AM
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