Hi,
I am being sued by an attorney (they are also a debt collector) in Texas representing citibank (South Dakota). I live in Texas. I sent an intend to defend letter, responded to the discovery etc. requests with a claim of "cannot claim or deny" the debt until an original contract with my signsture on it is presented. I have sent all these certified to both attorney and court with return receipt requested. They sent me a bunch of statements and a standard contract but nothing with my signature on it. I responded to this with another request for signed contract and sent copy to court. They have not provided it. They have now sent a request for summary judgement to the court and sent me copies. It cites cases in Texas where judgements have been granted without signature on contract stating that, in Texas and South Dakota, if one party signs the agreement(I guess they're saying they did) and the other party (me) uses the card, this begins the contract. It also states that because I made charges and payments at one time that it prooves the debt real. The problem is, I have a strong feeling my ex took a credit card out in my name and used an old bank account of mine I thought had been closed to make payments until he decided not to anymore - he would have received the statements. I can not prove this though and don't have the money to pay them. My question is: do I have any chance of this being dismissed if I continue to request a signed contract? How should I respond to this request of summary judgement? If I file a request to dismiss case, do I just MAIL the request to the court or do I need to go to courthouse in person and actually have something like this "FILED". I would very much appreciate any advice. Thanks so much.

I would deliver the document and have it marked as received. If you MAIL anything, send it receipt requested.

You CAN prove that your "ex" took this account over totally without your knowledge if you never used it, your signature is not on it, the bills went to another address.

Continue to deny that you signed for or EVER USED the account. While they may have case law to not require your signature on the contract, they still have to prove you used and paid on the account.

Thank you both for your help in replying. I did (at one time) use the account (checking acc.) my ex was using and they eventually found my new address for statements, I ignored the statements. There is no way of prooving on a checking account statement that it was not ME making the activity, if you know what I mean. Hope this is not confusing (well it actually is), that's why I'm in this stupid mess. This may sound foolish , but at the time I was going through a lot emotionally and made the mistake of ignoring it, I had too many other things and frankly this was not on the priority list, for example, an unpaid electric bill he had incurred at a residence that I owned at the time but allowed him to stay in, the electric bill being in my name. Basically, he woke up one morning and left the residence and disappeared. When I sold the residence, with the very little money I got, I paid a credit card bill I myself had and I paid installments on the elec bill until it was paid.

Does any of this info. Change your opinion?

No, it does make it harder for you to win, but it doesn't change my opinion about you having to fight it. You have the fact that the address was different. If you have no other activity on that account it may help. But you never know what a judge will rule.

You can try to make a settlement offer. You can explain to the plaintiff that you believe the account was started by your ex. Which is why you never paid on it. Tell them you think you can convince a court of that (but not in writing). But that you may be willing to settle for a reasonable amount. Make an offer of 50-60%, higher if you can't pay a lump sum, and see what they say.