being sued for gift and car damage

[taken56]

I was serioulsy dating a man for some time, in March 2008 he took me to a car dealer and bought me a car. The vehicle was in his name, as well as registration. The insurance was in his name but I wrote him a check for the insurance. In early May, I scraped the paint on the back bumper of the vehicle and was very upset because it was a new vehicle. I went to his home and shoed it to him and told him how upset I was and that I wanted to claim it on the insurance becuase i wanted the vehicle to still look nice, there was no damage to the bumper, only scraped the paint off in a small area. He told me that he would not claim it on his insurance and that he didn't know what the big deal was that you could hardly notice it. He told me if it bothered me that much, then he would have a friend of his fix it for free or next to nothing. Later that month, my ex-husband informed me that he would not be paying me my child support or alimony for the month because he did not have the money. My friend told me he would pay the mortgage for me and I refused. Shortly before the mortgage was due, my ex-husbnad came up with the money, so I was all set. My friend then gave me a check for 1200.00 with my name and mortgage in the memo part, I refused the check and told him I did not need it because I had been payed by my ex-husband. He told me he wanted me to take the check anyway because he wanted me to have buffer money in case this happened again, so I did. In early June, my friend (who has anger problems) gfot very mad at me and came at me, but did not hurt me, screamed, yelled, pretended to hit me, got in my face. etc. I decided that was the fianl straw and ended the relationship. On July 21st he came to my home with the police and told them I refused to give his vehicle back (he never asked) I expalined to the police that he had given me the vehicle, but they said I could not prove it. He took the vehicle. I have had no correspondence with him, yesterday I recieved papers that he is suing me in small claims court for a $1200.00 loan (the mortgage payment) and for $1500.00 for damges to his vehicle. I do not know what my legal rights are. The check was not a loan, I would have never taken it if it was because I cannot pay it back, I am financially broke. As far as the vehicle, yes I caused the scrape, but he refused to claim the insurance and siad it was no big deal (it was my vehicle) Can someone help?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Essentially you have a court appearance and you can tell your story to the judge. With regard to the scratch, you can tell the judge (and prove) that you paid the insurance costs and that the scratch that happened was meant to be and is covered by insurance. He has no right to collect here and collect with the insurance, nor should should he have a right to decide from whom to collect. He has his first remedy, with the insurance company you paid premiums for and that the damage is nowhere close to $1,200 if that is the case. It's not so simple.

The second check will be difficult to justify. There is a note on the check for what it is for. The best you can do is prove it was a gift and the typical presumption is that money given to someone else is usually a loan in absence of a clear indication that there was a gift made. The notation for what the money was for makes this even more challenging. Was there any talk about a time to repay? If not, this was arguably not a loan and you should ask the plaintiff/ex questions and hammer him about what specific date and terms there were for the loan. Let him stammer in court if this really was a gift. It's not easy to make that case but it comes down to you against him in court. Good luck.