This may be a little confusing so please bare with me. My parents and my uncle agreed to purchase a house together 15 years ago. It was put under my uncle's name with a verbal agreement that the house would be shared. In 2000, we bought the house from my uncle and retained half the equity on the property and they (my uncle) took half the in cash.
Now the problem begins when in 2003 my uncle files for bankrucy. His creditors are sueing us (my parents) for fraud saying that we diliberately took half of the equity eventhough we did not have a name in the property. Our evidence included a deposit into my uncle's account for half of the down payment when we first purchased the house 15 years ago and many mortgage payments that we (my parents) had paid.
We (my parents) have gone to court for a preliminary hearing and got the general feeling from the courtroom that we should settle the case with the creditors. But why are we going to settle when we've done nothing wrong and it's a large amount, approx. $50000. There's no way we can pay off that kind of money. Please help. Is it a losing battle to fight this case? What else can we do?
Now the problem begins when in 2003 my uncle files for bankrucy. His creditors are sueing us (my parents) for fraud saying that we diliberately took half of the equity eventhough we did not have a name in the property. Our evidence included a deposit into my uncle's account for half of the down payment when we first purchased the house 15 years ago and many mortgage payments that we (my parents) had paid.
We (my parents) have gone to court for a preliminary hearing and got the general feeling from the courtroom that we should settle the case with the creditors. But why are we going to settle when we've done nothing wrong and it's a large amount, approx. $50000. There's no way we can pay off that kind of money. Please help. Is it a losing battle to fight this case? What else can we do?
