Unpaid Loan

[enginama]

YOUR STATE NAME - Texas

My wife just got a summons for $4000 which was from someone who cosigned for a loan for her.
The purpose of the loan was to pay an attorney for my wife to adopt the co-signers grandchildren.
My wife and the co-signer had signed the loan agreement and as collateral for the loan the co-signer put up a cd.
Co-signer had made slanderous accusations abolut my wife and myself so my wife told co-signer and bank that she no longer would pay, so the bank cashed the CD and returned all the loan papers to my wife.
My questions are:
1. Was there a contract between the co-signer and my wife?
2. If so and my wife has no income am I liable under community property law.
3. To get out of this can my wife file bankruptcy without affecting me or do we both have to file?

 

[JETX]

Q1) "Was there a contract between the co-signer and my wife?"
A1) Based on your post... yes. Your wife was the primary debtor to the contract. When she breached the contract, the lender went to the secondary signer to get payment (via the CD). The secondary has now been damaged by your wifes breach and can recover her damages.

Q2) "If so and my wife has no income am I liable under community property law."
A2) Yes. And in Texas, the judgment creditor (after judgment) can file property liens, seize any non-exempt assets, etc.

Q3) "To get out of this can my wife file bankruptcy without affecting me or do we both have to file?"
A3) Pay the debt. Why should someone doing your wife a favor have to get damaged to to her decision to breach the agreement.

 

[enginama]

Thankyou for your comments.
The co-signers(also grandpaparents of the children concerned) were not doing us any favors, we had agreed to adopt these children for them, as the children were going into state care if someone didn't do something.
We probably should not have agreed to sign a loan , that I would say was our fault.
But the statement that we caused them damages is a hard one to see as I see it as us doing them a favor as they did not want to have to take care of the children themselves.

 

[JETX]

You may be accurate in your claim that this was done as favor or benefit to them.... but that has nothing to do with the contractual basis of the co-signed agreement. That is a stand-alone issue that you have to face. Any other issue is irrelevant to the breach.

 

[enginama]

1 more question then.

The suit is not in a location any where near me in fact it is 600 miles away which is where we used to live over a year ago.
Can we make a request to have the venue changed to a local court as I have found information that the case can be requested to be heard local to the defendant.
If I can are there any specific forms we have to submit and would this request be sent in with our answer to allegations.

Actually that's more than one question

Thanks

 

[enginama]

Actually my wife just corrected me that this was no a co-sign the plaintiff put up the cd as collateral but did not co-sign the loan.
There name is nowhere on the loan contract.
Also there is no consideration as the children are not in our care.