Statute Of Limitations To File A Civil Suit

[Native Texan]

My question involves court procedures for the state of: Texas

In 1989 a probate case was settled, and there were four parties who should have received equal shares of the disbursement of assett, which totaled about $110,000. The four people were two couples. Only one couple received assets. They verbally told the other couple that no funds were forthcoming from the estate, and the other couple took them at their word without demanding any proof or documentation. The first couple got all the money.

Now, almost 20 years later it has just been revealed and discovered that the second couple did not get any of the assets they were entitled to. Both the husband and wife are dead. Do the heirs to their estate have any recourse to recover the monies their parents were entitled to receive in 1989? There is proof ready to hand that both couples were entitled to equal shares in the estate. There is no proof that the second couple did not receive any of the money: you can't prove a negative?

Surely the court will have records of the checks issued for asset disbursement, and who they were issued to. There should be some way to obtain copies of the deposited checks, indicating what bank account they were deposited to, and then who owned that account. The couple who received the money used all of the money to build a brand new house. Their tax records might very well come into play as proof that they did not share the assets as they should have.

But, before getting into all the proving up of where the assets went, is it even feasible to file a lawsuit on something this old? I know the normal statue of limitation on filing a civil suit is two years. But I'm also under the impression that the 2 year statue of limitations clock begins ticking when the damaged party becomes aware of the harm, not necessarily when the harm took place.

Any input on this would be very helpful.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you're even dreaming about trying to reopen this after twenty years, you need to get the court documents from the original probate and have them reviewed by a lawyer, and explain why nobody knew or should have known of this issue during the past two decades.

[Native Texan]

Thank you for the reply.
It just so happens that I was the original and sole heir to the estate. It's a long story how it came about, and irrelevant to the facts as they stand, but I sold my interest in the estate to my mother and her husband and another husband and wife couple. I have the document in hand defining the sale of my interest in the estate, and which names all four people, and bears all of our signatures.

I know for a fact that when the estate settled two years after I sold my interest that my mother and her husband did not share any of the assets awarded out of the estate. The other couple were "dear friends", and that couple accepted at their word through a phone call that there were no assetts remaining in the estate to be distributed. I know this as a fact for two reasons. First, my mother and her husband used the money they received from the estate to pay cash for a new house they had built during the year the estate settled. My mother and her husband did not have cash assetts, employment, or investments of any kind that would support them having access to the kind of cash it took to build and pay cash for a brand new house. Secondly because my mother and her husband got into a spat and filed for a divorce in 1997. It came up in conversation during the negotiations in the attorney's office that the money was never shared with the second couple. My mother used that fact as leverage and a threat against her husband to get something she wanted out of the divorce negotiations. I believe that threat may have been a contributing factor to the two of them deciding against going through with the divorce.

I tried to find the second couple at that time to inform them of the fraud that had been perpetrated against them, but could not find them. The internet had not yet reached it's potential and I simply had no way of finding them. My life went on, and I forgot all about the whole thing for another decade.

My mother recently passed away, and I inherited her half of the house, and now share a fifty percent interest in the house with her husband. While going through and packing up some of my mother's belongings and old records, I was again reminded of the fraud that happened more than 20 years ago. I have in my possession many of the court documents from the probate, and most importantly the document defining the sale. I believe it is well past time to set the records straight, even though it means sacrificing my interest in the property. I would simply sign over my whole interest in the property, however, I also believe that my mother's surviving husband should finally and at last pay the debt he owes as well.

Through use of the internet and some personal contacts I have discovered that both the husband and wife of the second couple passed away. I have however located their children. The children couldn't have known about the fraud and the debt they are owed, because the parents didn't know about the fraud that took place 20 years ago.

Before I notify the children of the potential windfall I would like to know there is a good possibility that they can pursue this with my help and get what is due to them, from both myself and my mother's husband. I want to do what is right, but I don't want to excite hope where there may be none. I also want to insure that my mother's husband pay his fair share of the debt owed, and that I don't end up carrying the burden alone. He defrauded their parents of the money in the first place, so he should have to pay at least a portion of the debt owed to their children. And being the life time career thief that he is, I have no doubt he will fight to keep the property he stole so many years ago.