Ask Me Help Desk - Ok here we go with summary judgment

Long story short

Bought a car with wife (now ex) in Jan 2001. Divorced in October 2002. Ex was awarded car and debt in decree. She defaulted. Here we are in 2008 and there is a balance of 10k as they auctioned the car for 1350.00. I have no idea what she did but it obviously wasn't paying for her car. Now they are coming after me. And well... Only ME. I keep referring them to her but there is this guy with a bone to pick there I suppose. I did file a Response to Complaint but now we have moved on to their filing of a Motion for Summary Judgment and Affidavit in Support of Summary Judgment and I do not know which direction to go... Spend all my money filing responses to their motions or just give it to the BK lawyer and let him fix everything. This debt is not going to be paid by me. I never even drove the car. I am at my witts end with this. I know if they win judgment against me it will not include her. I also know that I can file judgment against her for not following the divorce decree but if they can't get her to pay how will I? I can't really afford to fight the bank and their team of lawyers. These responses cost me 200 bucks a pop with filing fees and certified mail. I am afraid they are going to win judgment anyway because my signature is on the contract that they so happily include in all their filings. I haven't spoken to this company since the divorce was final. Like I said earlier, I don't know how she had the car from the beginning of 2001 to the end of 2005 and still owed 10 grand. It was only 14k to begin with.

Help? I am out of stuff to read about it... Thanks

I'm afraid that you going to have to pay that one or include it in BK if you file for chapter 7, I don't see any other way out

Hi, I had a similar situation where the Plaintiff came after me when they couldn't get anything out of my ex. The business was a sole proprietorship in my ex's name but the ex had stated somewhere in the contract that I was also an owner of the business when I was only a bookkeeper who signed the paychecks and did not sign any contracts of any sort. Anyhow, my lawyer had included as one of the Defense that the Plaintiff failed to include all the proper party in the lawsuit. Not sure if this will have any leverage or anything especially since you did sign the contract but it should buy you more time. Also, if you do pursue with this and the Plaintiff ends up winning, you could always go after your ex since you have your Divorce Decree as your proof that the car was your ex's responsibility.

If your name was on the lien, then you are responsible. What the judge ordered in the divorce is separate and you will have to deal with that separately. If the both of you were on the lien, then both of you should be getting sued.

Find out what your state's SOL is. Some states have fairly short SOL and SOL goes by date of last activity(such as a payment)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accx4

Long story short

Bought a car with wife (now ex) in Jan 2001. Divorced in October 2002. Ex was awarded car and debt in decree. She defaulted. Here we are in 2008 and there is a balance of 10k as they auctioned the car for 1350.00. I have no idea what she did but it obviously wasn't paying for her car. Now they are coming after me. And well... Only ME. I keep referring them to her but there is this guy with a bone to pick there I suppose. I did file a Response to Complaint but now we have moved on to their filing of a Motion for Summary Judgment and Affidavit in Support of Summary Judgment and I do not know which direction to go... Spend all my money filing responses to their motions or just give it to the BK lawyer and let him fix everything. This debt is not going to be paid by me. I never even drove the car. I am at my witts end with this. I know if they win judgment against me it will not include her. I also know that I can file judgment against her for not following the divorce decree but if they can't get her to pay how will I? I can't really afford to fight the bank and their team of lawyers. These responses cost me 200 bucks a pop with filing fees and certified mail. I am afraid they are going to win judgment anyway because my signature is on the contract that they so happily include in all their filings. I haven't spoken to this company since the divorce was final. Like I said earlier, I don't know how she had the car from the beginning of 2001 to the end of 2005 and still owed 10 grand. It was only 14k to begin with.

Help? I am out of stuff to read about it... Thanks

If the court decree order that she paid the debt for the vehicle, than she is in violation the court order. Take her back to court and have the court order her to pay te debt. Give notice to the debt collector or attorney of this decree.