J
jwallen
Guest
Recently my wife filed divorce on me. We were having money problems of course, and that is the main cause of our seperation. That is beside the point, but I will touch on this to give a little background as to my predicament.
My wife and I had stored most of our marrital and personal posessions with her aunt. Her aunt agreed that we could store the items for free. We had rented out our house and moved out because of our financial difficulties. Our plan was to get back on our feet (with the kind help of some of our relatives) and get back in our house after a year. In the mean time, my wife quit her job, moved in with the aunt that we stored our possesions with and filed divorce on me (I was working two jobs at the time to get money saved up and debts paid off so that we could continue living in our house-- learning from our mistakes). After my wife filed for divorce, her aunt started harrassing me about paying money to her for my wife and children to stay at her house. I refused to pay since I was ordered to pay child support and stated that my wife should pay her any money she feels she is owed. My wife stayed with her aunt for 2 months and then moved into our house once the renters moved out. That's the background of it, and now here is where the actual problems begin:
Her aunt took me to small claims court, suing me for storing my property at her house, and for "rent" owed to her from my wife and kids staying with her. The problem is that she ONLY sued me, not my wife too. She purposely allowed my wife to take her possesions, and any marital property, and kept mine and then tried to sue. She lost on that part, but did win in the case of my children staying there. I of course contested this, but the judge overruled it anyway because the court felt that her aunt was due money for the caring of our children and they feel that I owe her for my fair share of the care giving (in the end, the amount of the judgement was considerably lower that what she was asking for). Now in the case of the property, she continues to hold onto it, despite the fact that the court stated that there was no agreement on rent. I sent her a letter demanding the release of the property, and allowed her time to do this. She never contacted me. I then contacted her by phone (recording it of course) and asked her to release my property to me (it's mostly worthless and of a personal nature and does her no good to keep it anyways). She stated "pay me and you can have it back".
My problem is this, before I could do anything, I was just served with a notice of garnishment, which states that she has the right to keep any property in her possession and also that she gets to take the $100 in my savings account. Personally I could care less about the $100 or some of the property I believe she is holding (because it's worthless), but among the items I'm sure she has (if she didn't destroy it) is a scrap book that my mom compiled for me when I graduated from high school. The scrapbook is filled with irreplaceable pictures and things from when I was a child and my mom spent months compiling it. It is a treasured gift and has no value to her whatsover. I don't know exactly what property she has in her possession, and I think I would have a hard time proving what she has (without actually going to her house and looking at it - if I have that right). I am in the process of filing for bankruptcy now because of the financial distress all this has caused me-- so I have a lawyer for that and my divorce. I plan to see him on Wednesday this week. I wanted to get your opinions on this and any information I can get about what my rights are:
Will the bankruptcy stop her from collecting the money from my bank account-- if so, will it come back to me?
Will the bankruptcy stop her from having the right to keep my personal property? If so, will she have to return that property to me? How do I get it back?
Could I take her to small claims court for keeping my property? She has admitted that she has it and will not give it back to me unless I pay her money. If I can take her to court, what would I file against her? Because she took the scrap book, I can no longer look back at myself when I was a kid, or share with my children my childhood memories. Would this type of damage fall under Punitive Damages?
I am in Ohio, is there any exemptions for this personal property, or is there anything I can do to stop her from keeping it?
Thank you.
My wife and I had stored most of our marrital and personal posessions with her aunt. Her aunt agreed that we could store the items for free. We had rented out our house and moved out because of our financial difficulties. Our plan was to get back on our feet (with the kind help of some of our relatives) and get back in our house after a year. In the mean time, my wife quit her job, moved in with the aunt that we stored our possesions with and filed divorce on me (I was working two jobs at the time to get money saved up and debts paid off so that we could continue living in our house-- learning from our mistakes). After my wife filed for divorce, her aunt started harrassing me about paying money to her for my wife and children to stay at her house. I refused to pay since I was ordered to pay child support and stated that my wife should pay her any money she feels she is owed. My wife stayed with her aunt for 2 months and then moved into our house once the renters moved out. That's the background of it, and now here is where the actual problems begin:
Her aunt took me to small claims court, suing me for storing my property at her house, and for "rent" owed to her from my wife and kids staying with her. The problem is that she ONLY sued me, not my wife too. She purposely allowed my wife to take her possesions, and any marital property, and kept mine and then tried to sue. She lost on that part, but did win in the case of my children staying there. I of course contested this, but the judge overruled it anyway because the court felt that her aunt was due money for the caring of our children and they feel that I owe her for my fair share of the care giving (in the end, the amount of the judgement was considerably lower that what she was asking for). Now in the case of the property, she continues to hold onto it, despite the fact that the court stated that there was no agreement on rent. I sent her a letter demanding the release of the property, and allowed her time to do this. She never contacted me. I then contacted her by phone (recording it of course) and asked her to release my property to me (it's mostly worthless and of a personal nature and does her no good to keep it anyways). She stated "pay me and you can have it back".
My problem is this, before I could do anything, I was just served with a notice of garnishment, which states that she has the right to keep any property in her possession and also that she gets to take the $100 in my savings account. Personally I could care less about the $100 or some of the property I believe she is holding (because it's worthless), but among the items I'm sure she has (if she didn't destroy it) is a scrap book that my mom compiled for me when I graduated from high school. The scrapbook is filled with irreplaceable pictures and things from when I was a child and my mom spent months compiling it. It is a treasured gift and has no value to her whatsover. I don't know exactly what property she has in her possession, and I think I would have a hard time proving what she has (without actually going to her house and looking at it - if I have that right). I am in the process of filing for bankruptcy now because of the financial distress all this has caused me-- so I have a lawyer for that and my divorce. I plan to see him on Wednesday this week. I wanted to get your opinions on this and any information I can get about what my rights are:
Will the bankruptcy stop her from collecting the money from my bank account-- if so, will it come back to me?
Will the bankruptcy stop her from having the right to keep my personal property? If so, will she have to return that property to me? How do I get it back?
Could I take her to small claims court for keeping my property? She has admitted that she has it and will not give it back to me unless I pay her money. If I can take her to court, what would I file against her? Because she took the scrap book, I can no longer look back at myself when I was a kid, or share with my children my childhood memories. Would this type of damage fall under Punitive Damages?
I am in Ohio, is there any exemptions for this personal property, or is there anything I can do to stop her from keeping it?
Thank you.