An ex tenant of my mother's sued her & myself for damages in small claims court that never happened but my mother died without ever knowing this was taking place because she was in the ICU of a hospital. I won my side of the case but because of the horrific type of death my mother suffered my sisters & I were not as gung ho fighting this tenant as we should have been. The tenant never had an ounce of proof of damages she alleged she had but she won a judgement anyway. Because there was a living trust my parents had we did not go to probate court. The tenant never spelled my mom or my name correctly throughout the small claims trial but we didn't realize it until she tried to collect the judgement. We have managed to keep the tenant at bay for almost a year but now my sisters want her out of their hair so we hired a lawyer who's going to pay the tenant off. I have recently found that the tenant lied to the judge several times & I can prove it but I don't know how to go about overturning the judgement, if I can because the lawyer wants me to forget the tenant & get on with my life. . This ex temant also has a bogus restraining order on me for something that never happened & I have a witness to prove it but once again because all of this was going on when my mother was gravely ill I didn't fight it like I should have... My question is how much time do I have to overturn or at least 'stay' the small claims judgement?. Thank you.

Normally it is a mater of so many months, At this point esp since you already paid it, ( acted on it) just move on with life. You would have to contact the court ( it varies by state in the US)

Also normally you can't appeal just because you are not guilty or because now you have new evidence you have to prove that there was a problem with the actual case.

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Originally Posted by suz2u

An ex tennant of my mother's sued her & myself for damages in small claims court that never happened but my mother died without ever knowing this was taking place becasue she was in the ICU of a hospital. I won my side of the case but because of the horrific type of death my mother suffered my sisters & I were not as gung ho fighting this tennant as we should have been. The tennant never had an ounce of proof of damages she alleged she had but she won a judgement anyway. Because there was a living trust my parents had we did not go to probate court. The tennant never spelled my mom or my name correctly throughout the small claims trial but we didn't realize it until she tried to collect the judgement. We have managed to keep the tennant at bay for almost a year but now my sisters want her out of their hair so we hired a lawyer who's going to pay the tennant off. I have recently found that the tennant lied to the judge several times & I can prove it but I don't know how to go about overturning the judgement, if I can because the lawyer wants me to forget the tennant & get on with my life. .This ex temant also has a bogus restraining order on me for something that never happened & I have a witness to prove it but once again because all of this was going on when my mother was gravely ill I didn't fight it like I should have......My question is how much time do I have to overturn or at least 'stay' the small claims judgement?......Thank you.

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As Fr_Chuck stated, there is a time limit on how long you can appeal a case.

You state that the tenant lied to the judge; why didn't you bring it up in court while she was telling the lies? You say she has a restraining order and you have a witness to prove "something" never happened, which doesn't make any sense.

What new evidence do you have that proves the tenant was lying or being dishonest? What was s/he accusing you and/or your mother of? How much is the judgment for?

Also, you don't need an attorney to pay off a judgment. That in itself was a waste of your money.

I came across your answer to my Feb 2010 posting of a question.. .
Re your answer:
I didn't bring up the lies in court because we didn't know about the lies because the tenant gave the judge a journal of sorts of what allegedly went on instead of being questioned by him. She was supposed to have given us the information she gave him prior to the hearing but I guess all conniving people wait until they're in the courtroom, knowing the judge will order them to give us the information right then which is too late to sift through. The judge said there was too much documentation for him to go through right then so the trial was postponed for three or 4 months.

I was never arrested for the charges in the restraining order ordeal nor was my witness to the verbal argument ever questioned. But because I live on an island & our town is so small for some reason the judge granted a 3 year restraining order on me... Since all of this has happened the ex tenant has been given $20,000 for relocation purposes from the apartment she moved into after vacating ours. The owners of the building were going to sell the property but she demanded $10,000. Then the new buyers of the building didn't want to rent to her so she demanded (& got) $10,000 from them.

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Originally Posted by ter4u

I came across your answer to my Feb 2010 posting of a question. ...

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Are you Suz2u?

If so, what's your follow up question?