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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    6

    Unhappy I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    I am terribly upset; to make matters worse his son is threatening to have the police throw me in jail because I owe him 12,000 dollars. They say because he is older that borrowing the money constituted elder abuse. I know that they have no standing because of my implied and expressed intent is to pay the debt.

    The original terms of the debt was that I would borrow the money to go to school and live on for a time. I would start paying the debt back when I got a job that would support a large monthly payment ($1000 a month) I would start payments until the debt is paid off. For this debt we both agreed not to sign a promissory note. I have the intent on paying this debt off per the original terms set up by my friend and me.

    Now that he is in a coma in the hospital his family is demanding that I sign a promissory note and say that if I do not sign it they will report me to the police. To the best of my understanding the police will be unable to do anything because this is a civil matter. His family keeps calling me a scam artist and a cheat. I have made payments on this debt and I will continue to make 100 dollar a month payments until I can afford to pay more.

    The Promissory note says that I will pay the 12,000 dollars over the next 24 months. This is downright unrealistic as I only have a minimum wage paying job. They want me to continue the 100 dollar a month payments and then next year they want me to make 1,000 dollar a month payments. I have told them I will try to find employment that would pay me enough to live on and to pay them however they say without a promissory they will have me arrested.

    They are also not recognizing some of the work I did for my friend as payment when both my friend and I agreed I would key punch for him and handle a few accounts to help pay this debt back at the rate if ten dollars a hour. To date I have repaid around 3,000 dollars of my 15,000 debt.

    As of now all I have that is binding is word of mouth between my friend and I. I have talked to his wife and told her I would pay her what I owe my friend. My friend said if something were to happen to him I would pay his wife what I owe him.

    The person causing the problem is his oldest son.



    My questions are the following.

    Do I have to sign a promissory note?

    Could they change the terms of a debt without my approval?

    If they keep cashing the checks I send them can they start a civil suit?

    They have threatened to take my car from me even thought I still owe 2500 dollars on it, Can they take my car? If so could I report it stolen without it being an act of malicious prosecution?

    They say that my work for my friend was simply “doing a friend a favor” and doesn’t constitute repayment for any part of this debt. Can they ignore the estimated 3000 dollars worth of work I have done when taking this issue to court?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
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    To the best of my understanding the police will be unable to do anything because this is a civil matter.
    That depends. I've seen charges filed over such "loans".

    Explain the context. How did you come to have access to this elderly person? What, if anything, is your relationship to the elderly person? How did you come to get the money? How was it paid to you, and over what period of time?

    Is the friend mentally incompetent? Unable to speak? Poor prognosis for recovery?
    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
    Do I have to sign a promissory note?
    No.
    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
    Could they change the terms of a debt without my approval?
    If you agree, they can do whatever is agreed to. If they take you to court (or file charges) and say you stole the money, what evidence do you have that it was a loan or of the terms of repayment?
    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
    If they keep cashing the checks I send them can they start a civil suit?
    It depends on the context. If you don't resolve this, for example, by coming to an agreement with them, yes.
    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
    They have threatened to take my car from me even thought I still owe 2500 dollars on it, Can they take my car? If so could I report it stolen without it being an act of malicious prosecution?
    Do they hold title to your car? How would they even get access to your car?
    Quote Quoting hacker_brad
    They say that my work for my friend was simply “doing a friend a favor” and doesn’t constitute repayment for any part of this debt. Can they ignore the estimated 3000 dollars worth of work I have done when taking this issue to court?
    Yes. You would be entitled to try to argue your case to the court.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    6

    Unhappy Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
    View Post
    That depends. I've seen charges filed over such "loans".

    Explain the context. How did you come to have access to this elderly person? What, if anything, is your relationship to the elderly person? How did you come to get the money? How was it paid to you, and over what period of time?

    Is the friend mentally incompetent? Unable to speak? Poor prognosis for recovery?
    I started working with frank as an assistant in 2003. He started talking to me about the possibility of going into business for ourselves, so in July of 2004 we started a C-Corp together. I was listed as the CEO and He was listed as the CFO. No stock was ever issued to anyone. The C-Corp ended up going out of business as of December of 2005.

    After the closing of the corporation I wanted to go back to school so I moved Bakersfield and ended up being homeless for a bit until family members were able to take me in. Frank learned of me being homeless and offered to pay living expenses and to pay for me to go back to school. So frank gave me a credit card and said I could use it to put gas, food and education expenses on the card. He also wrote checks to the school I started attending in April of 2006.

    The family is now also trying to tack on corporation losses’ for 2004 and 2005 as personal loan to me, which is out of the question and refuse to pay.

    My friend was mentally competent until he went into the hospital on December 15th for a normal surgery and ended up having a heart attack when he was in recovery. From the time I was notified of his condition I stopped all transactions on the credit cards and any automatic payments for my car payments were stopped at my request.

    My friend is not the title holder on my vehicle. My friend was helping me out with the payments until I could get a better paying job.

    During the time I borrowed the money he was well and in good health to the best of my knowledge. He never complained about anything, he was able to drive and run his tax business.

    The terms he set up for repayment were that I would work for him doing taxes and other task at 10 dollars an hour which would be subtracted from the debt I owe him. He kept a register of the hours I worked to keep track of the total that would be subtracted. Frank said when I get on my feet I could start paying him back. I started making good faith payments in November 2006 to let my friend know I was trying to repay him to the best of my abilities.

    The term’s the family wants to use is to add all corporations’ loss to my bill as well as ignoring any work I did for frank. They are also demanding that I pay what they claim now to be 19,325 by December 31, 2008. These terms are unrealistic as I can not pay by then because I only make 5500 per year.

    All the records of this debt are in my friend’s office. There is a register with the hours and dates I worked for my friend. The family has since then told me they have no idea what I am talking about so I no longer have that is proof, however I do have a witness who is willing to testify for the days I worked for frank. They also have the corporations records.

    The only record of the terms I have is a word of mouth and a witness.

    Should i stop payments to avoid them being seen as a form of agreement or keep making them per the origional terms?

    given the background on the situation what should i do?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    There's a lot you're not telling us, and still a lot in your story that doesn't make sense. Why would he be picking up your car payments if you were making payments on what you owed? But if you can actually show that you started repayment before he went into the hospital, and that he accepted the repayment, you have some circumstantial evidence that it was a loan you were repaying. If that's the case you wouldn't want to breach the contract by stopping payments.

    They'll probably sue you and/or file a police report, so keep that witness handy.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    6

    Default Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    Thanks for the advice. I do have record that i started payment of the loan before he went into the hospital. so i do have proof that is a loan. I also have the witness willing to testify that it was a loan and that i did around 5,000 dollars worth of work for my friend as a form of repayment


    As far as the car payments I made some of the payments and he picked up the car payments by paying them from his bank account when i was unable to come up with the money. He was helping me keep my car. this amount is included in the 12,000 dollar figure.

    the family has cashed my first 2 payments of 100 dollars since the death of my friend which was on december the 28, 2006.

    If it does go to court i doubt that the judge will order payments much higher than what i am giving them now because i only make around 500 a month.
    I am doing all i can.

    I am in the process getting rid of my car by having someone take over my payments because i can no longer afford it, so the car is no longer a protection issue. the only assets i have left is my monthly income and my tax return which is going to be around 200 dollars.

    '----
    you have pretty much covered what i was asking. I just wanted to know what they could do but i am getting the picture that they do have a right to sue me, however it will only waist time and money because i am broke as a joke and will be unable to pay more.

    The family has turned me into the police department and i have sat down with an investigator. I went over all the proof i had with him. He said i haven't committed any crime. so the charges were found to be "not founded in truth because they told the investigator i never made any payment" and that i stole the credit cards. Thank god the truth always comes out.

    I thank you for you advice. My final question is... if it does go to civil action what can i expect to happen to me (By normal standards)

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    It sounds like your friend is in a bad way, if he's still not able to speak in your defense. You were probably saved by their overstatement and the fact that you had made some repayment. It's sometimes not whether you commit a crime, so much as whether it appears that you have committed a crime, which causes the police to submit their report to a prosecutor for authorization of charges.

    If you're sued, they will make claims as to how much you owe, and you will have to establish to the best of your ability what you actually owe. You can also attempt to establish that you had an agreement to repay on a certain schedule, you were repaying according to the agreement, and thus that there is no breach which would justify the lawsuit.

    It's a bit of a tricky situation for them, as if they hire a lawyer it would eat up a lot of what they claim you owe to file a lawsuit. I don't think you ever mentioned your state, but $12,000 is significantly above the small claims court limit in most states.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    not sure
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    Default Re: I Borrowed Money from a Friend Who is Now in the Hospital

    Quote Quoting aaron
    View Post
    It sounds like your friend is in a bad way, if he's still not able to speak in your defense. You were probably saved by their overstatement and the fact that you had made some repayment. It's sometimes not whether you commit a crime, so much as whether it appears that you have committed a crime, which causes the police to submit their report to a prosecutor for authorization of charges.

    If you're sued, they will make claims as to how much you owe, and you will have to establish to the best of your ability what you actually owe. You can also attempt to establish that you had an agreement to repay on a certain schedule, you were repaying according to the agreement, and thus that there is no breach which would justify the lawsuit.

    It's a bit of a tricky situation for them, as if they hire a lawyer it would eat up a lot of what they claim you owe to file a lawsuit. I don't think you ever mentioned your state, but $12,000 is significantly above the small claims court limit in most states.
    I think Frank died according to the latest post. If that is fact, what happens to the outstanding undocumented debt/repayment? Would the issue become a matter for probate? Without documentation, wouldn't it be rather difficult to collect on behalf of the estate?

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