Hello nice man gifted me money in a check but stated in memo loan now man has passed and estate is seeking repayment no promise notes or contracts were ever made this has been 5 years 4 months ago no action ever made for repayment

You may have felt this was a gift but if he wrote loan in the memo of the check its likely you have known all along it was a loan. In that case this is a valid demand of payment on the loan. SOL does not apply since the demand is in present time.

... SOL does not apply since the demand is in present time.

Possibly.

What does the memo say?

Pennsylvania SOL is 4 years.

My understanding, with no previous repayment agreement, the SOL would start the moment the estate demands the first payment. This one will be on my "fuzzy" list awaiting to hear what the courts have to say. In this case it may boil down to he said/ she said. He's dead but wrote loan on his check, she said gift but acknowledges he wrote loan.

My understanding, with no previous repayment agreement, the SOL would start the moment the estate demands the first payment. This one will be on my "fuzzy" list awaiting to hear what the courts have to say. In this case it may boil down to he said/ she said. He's dead but wrote loan on his check, she said gift but acknowledges he wrote loan.

I can't disagree in principle.

But let me play devils advocate for a moment: what if the check was written 30 years ago? And no mention was made of it all this time?

Thus the reason that there are courts and attorneys get to drive BMW's. This is one that will end up in court because it is not always clear cut.