Would I win this case?

[amyv555]

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

I took my niece in after a suicide attempt. I agreed to let her live here and pay her medical expenses as long as she enrolled in school and got a job when her injuries were healed. Needless to say, as soon as her bones were better, she left my house. I confronted her and told her I felt used. She essentially said "If you feel used then I will pay you back the medical copays to get you off my back." These amount to $525.

She now has a job and lives with her mom. She has decided she wants nothing to do with me now. I asked her today to start payments, and she has blocked me from contacting her. She also owes money to other family members. I would like to take her to court to teach her an important life lesson of not taking advantage of people and bailing once you get what you want. But I also don't want to invest more time and heartache just to lose and reinforce her behavior.

So my question is this: Could I win a small claim against her if it was initially a gift with stipulations, but she later agreed to pay me back? I still have the message in which she states this.

 

[Zigner]

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

I took my niece in after a suicide attempt. I agreed to let her live here and pay her medical expenses as long as she enrolled in school and got a job when her injuries were healed. Needless to say, as soon as her bones were better, she left my house. I confronted her and told her I felt used. She essentially said "If you feel used then I will pay you back the medical copays to get you off my back." These amount to $525.

She now has a job and lives with her mom. She has decided she wants nothing to do with me now. I asked her today to start payments, and she has blocked me from contacting her. She also owes money to other family members. I would like to take her to court to teach her an important life lesson of not taking advantage of people and bailing once you get what you want. But I also don't want to invest more time and heartache just to lose and reinforce her behavior.

So my question is this: Could I win a small claim against her if it was initially a gift with stipulations, but she later agreed to pay me back? I still have the message in which she states this.

Could you? Possibly.
Would you? No way of knowing.

Feel free to sue your relative in small claims court.

 

[justalayman]

well, let's suppose you can claim her statement when confronted is enforceable.

When does she have to pay you back by? Until she would breach your claimed contract, you have no action available to you.

as to the original transaction:

I agreed to let her live here and pay her medical expenses as long as she enrolled in school and got a job when her injuries were healed.

there is no demand for payment IF she does not comply, correct? It was a gift with the intent of inspriing her to act. It was not a loan and was never considered as a loan.
the other thing you need to realize; A gift is a gift. Either make actions gifts or loans. You cannot unilaterally convert a gift to a loan.

basically, the person that needs to learn from this situation is you. (not meant in a mean way). You need to learn that people can and do take advantage of others.
I have a basic rule when lending to friends or family:

If I cannot afford to literally throw that money away, I will not loan it. Consider it philanthropy. When I do that it makes me feel wealthy in both that I could afford to throw the money away and that I did give it with the intent of helping them, even if it doesn't cause the result I hoped for.

 

[amyv555]

well, let's suppose you can claim her statement when confronted is enforceable.

When does she have to pay you back by? Until she would breach your claimed contract, you have no action available to you.

as to the original transaction:

there is no demand for payment IF she does not comply, correct? It was a gift with the intent of inspriing her to act. It was not a loan and was never considered as a loan.
the other thing you need to realize; A gift is a gift. Either make actions gifts or loans. You cannot unilaterally convert a gift to a loan.

basically, the person that needs to learn from this situation is you. (not meant in a mean way). You need to learn that people can and do take advantage of others.
I have a basic rule when lending to friends or family:

If I cannot afford to literally throw that money away, I will not loan it. Consider it philanthropy. When I do that it makes me feel wealthy in both that I could afford to throw the money away and that I did give it with the intent of helping them, even if it doesn't cause the result I hoped for.

So, in other words, her statement that she would pay me the money back doesn't matter if it was initially a gift?

 

[Zigner]

So, in other words, her statement that she would pay me the money back doesn't matter if it was initially a gift?

Right .

 

[amyv555]

Right .

I guess I am having a hard time grasping this. If she, on her own, offered to pay me back, it doesn't then enter a new agreement?

 

[justalayman]

I guess I am having a hard time grasping this. If she, on her own, offered to pay me back, it doesn't then enter a new agreement?

for their to be a contract, there must be consideration (payment or action (in the simplest terms)) by both parties. When you want to argue her statement converted the gift to a contract, what consideration do YOU put into the deal? Hers would be the payment of the money. You have added nothing. The prior possible consideration (staying with you), is not applicable to this new contract.

so, what consideration did you offer?

her offer to pay you back was no more a contract than your offer to pay her bills. It was an unenforceable promise.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

I guess I am having a hard time grasping this. If she, on her own, offered to pay me back, it doesn't then enter a new agreement?

An enforceable agreement requires consideration on both sides. My favorite definition of consideration is "a promise to do something that you are not obligated to do, or to refrain from something that you are entitled to do, given in exchange for a promise to do something the other party is not obligated to do, or to refrain from doing something the other party is entitled to do".

Here, she made a promise to pay you back, but you did not agree to do anything or refrain from doing something.

If you want to get picky and say that you agreed to "get off her back", and you were not required to do that, then she can claim that you breached that agreement by asking her today to start payments.

 

[amyv555]

An enforceable agreement requires consideration on both sides. My favorite definition of consideration is "a promise to do something that you are not obligated to do, or to refrain from something that you are entitled to do, given in exchange for a promise to do something the other party is not obligated to do, or to refrain from doing something the other party is entitled to do".

Here, she made a promise to pay you back, but you did not agree to do anything or refrain from doing something.

If you want to get picky and say that you agreed to "get off her back", and you were not required to do that, then she can claim that you breached that agreement by asking her today to start payments.

Do I have any other options then? When she lived here, we wrote up house rules, one of them being "Once you have a job, you are responsible for medical expenses." I guess we didn't technically clarify future or past. She agreed to these rules.

Her mother (my sister) quite frankly, is a bad person who uses and emotionally abuses people, and this is exactly what her daughter is becoming. My niece came here after months of hard drug abuse and running a car 60mph into a tree. I saw a really amazing change in her while she was here, but now that she is back with her mom, she is going back to her old ways. There has to be some way I can bring justice to the situation?

 

[Zigner]

Do I have any other options then? When she lived here, we wrote up house rules, one of them being "Once you have a job, you are responsible for medical expenses." I guess we didn't technically clarify future or past. She agreed to these rules.

Her mother (my sister) quite frankly, is a bad person who uses and emotionally abuses people, and this is exactly what her daughter is becoming. My niece came here after months of hard drug abuse and running a car 60mph into a tree. I saw a really amazing change in her while she was here, but now that she is back with her mom, she is going back to her old ways. There has to be some way I can bring justice to the situation?

She is an adult.

Unfortunately, sometimes you can't fix it.

 

[justalayman]

There has to be some way I can bring justice to the situation?

there is no justice to bring. It is what it is. You tried to help. It didn't "take" so you are where you are. There is no recourse for either party.

 

[LdiJ]

Do I have any other options then? When she lived here, we wrote up house rules, one of them being "Once you have a job, you are responsible for medical expenses." I guess we didn't technically clarify future or past. She agreed to these rules.

Her mother (my sister) quite frankly, is a bad person who uses and emotionally abuses people, and this is exactly what her daughter is becoming. My niece came here after months of hard drug abuse and running a car 60mph into a tree. I saw a really amazing change in her while she was here, but now that she is back with her mom, she is going back to her old ways. There has to be some way I can bring justice to the situation?

Honestly, there is really nothing that you can do. What you really want is to try to punish your niece for not living up to your expectations, and there is no method that you can use to do so. In addition, if there was something you could do the end result would only be to destroy family relationships.

I know that you want your niece to turn out differently than your sister. However, that is not going to happen unless that is also something that your niece wants.

 

[Proseguru]

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

I took my niece in after a suicide attempt...

I know what will help her mental state: a lawsuit!

Forget the $$$ ... you gave it to her ...