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Suing ex-friend.. do I have a case??

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pamela27m

Guest
my mother put me on her cellular account as an authorized user which gave me access to activate and cancel her account. I let a "so-called" friend use the phone. Now that I have put her boyfriend out of my house she won't pay the whole bill because i told her that I would refund $50 of her boyfriend's money that he paid to stay in my house. I then changed my mind about giving him the money because he lived with me for 3 months free. she is trying to deduct the $50 from the cell phone bill. Will i be able to sue her even though the account is in my mom's name although i am an authorized user??
 
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JudgeJudy

Guest
What agreement did you have with your friend? Did s/he agree to pay the cell phone bill?

Also, if you had an agreement (verbal contract) to deduct certain moneys for certain actions, you can't go back and unilaterally change that agreement unless of course the original agreement included a provision do do just that. Kinda unlikely, huh.

Bottom line- be more responsible with finances and friends. Watch Judge Judy for a week...and all your questions will be answered.
 
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pamela27m

Guest
The agreement that we had was that since i was authorized on my mom's account that I would get a phone activated for her and she would pay the bill each month... Yes we had a verbal agreement that she would pay the cellular bill. She decided that she would deduct the $50 from the bill on her own. It was not something that I agreed to. The whole $50 deal w/her boyfriend's money had nothing to do with our agreement. She's had the phone before they even became boyfriend/girlfriend..
 
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JudgeJudy

Guest
Ok...back up a second...you said you agreed to knock 50 bucks off...but then changed your mind.

Sorry hon, but you can't do that!

If you did indeed agree to deduct the 50 bucks, you then altered your original agreement. You can't change your mind later (unless the new agreement included a caveat to do so.)

What I'm trying to get across is you do not have an agreement unless both (all) parties invovled have a "meeting of the minds". You can't amend the agreement (change your mind) unless the other party agrees to the change. And chances are they won't do that, unless there is something in it for them.

Verbal agreements are very difficult to enforce. That is why you should always put everything in writing! You've put yourself in a bit of a pickel by not doing so, but gather all your evidence (bills, phone records, witnesses) and you should be able to recover for the cell phone bill (maybe less the $50).

I tell folks to watch THE Judge Judy to have many of their questions answered not as a joke, but as a simple way to learn some commons sense approaches to the law. Yes, courts can and do get mired in a bunch of bunk at times, but you'd be surprised by how much common sense does prevail!
 
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JudgeJudy

Guest
Sorry....I've been accused of not reading the posts very carefully, and looks like I've done it again!

Your original post says you agreed to refund 50 smackaroonies to the boyfriend for some type of living arrangement. You did not say this was in conjunction with the cell phone agreement.

Sorry!...my fault!

If these are indeed two separate transactions, then keep them that way. Do NOT muddle your case in small claims court by bringing it up!
 

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