Unsure; go to court or don't

What is the name of your state? Tennessee

Approx. over 2 years ago I lived with my step mother, during college. During my time lving there I ran up a rather large phone bill of $900.00. (My fault, should pay it back) Well, I contacted the telephone company
and made arrangements to pay the bill in 4 payments of 200 somthing odd dollars. My step mother
informed me that she did not want to do that. Her boyfriend gave her the money for the bill. She
told me this and told me now it would be my responsibility to pay him back the money. (Again, I agree with that.) Well, an unfortuanate mishap, my step mother's boyfriend passed away, shortly after I moved to Tennessee. (All of this incident took place in Alabama) About 2 months after the entire incident. Well, I never paid the man back before his death. I have not spoken with my step mother sinced I moved away. Well, she has now told my brother to tell me that I have one week to decide if I want to pay her 50 dollars per month, or she is going to take me to small claims court. I guess I am up in the air on if her case is even legitimate enough to take to court, or should I use the time to say, "See you in court." I have never seen the phone bill, I have never signed anything stating I would pay her boyfriend back. Now, of course it was a debt and I would have paid him. But, the man is deceased now. Who am I paying back? I feel like this is a toughy! What do you think? Settle or do you think I can prove I did not owe her money anymore after her boyfriend gave her the money for the bill. Any advice would be lovely!

My response:

Tell stepmomma to sue you. She can't win because she has no "legal standing" to collect or sue for a debt that belongs to someone else.

However, you DO owe his Estate the money, and the only way she can sue you is if she was named his Administrator in the Probate of his Estate. Then, she can sue you in the name of his Estate; e.g., Estate of "John Doe" (his name) versus "bbajanet", by and through Jane Administrator (her name) of the Estate."

So, unless she went to Probate court FIRST to obtain rights over his Estate, then she can sue you all she wants, and she's not going to get one penny.

IAAL

Thanks a lot! I agree with you, and I am 99% sure there was no probate involved in this whole mess. I guess my next scenerio to get your advice on is: What if she is taking me to court to sue me for the amount of the phone bill in her name, not her boyfriend who paid the bill. Reason why I am thinking like this is I am obviously sure that she did not use the money given to her for the bill. So, I am guessing she perhaps could take me to court trying to sue me for the amount as if she never got any money. Then could I tell the courts about her man giving her the money and they could sopena the cancelled check, right?
I am just trying to figure out what my options are. Obviously your advice was right in the aspect I owe his estate money.
However, I am just wondering how complicated this whole mess can get if she just trys to sue me with the "forgetfullness" of the entire story, which includes her boyfriend. Did I make sense at all?