Original owner on registration papers

[shortcake]

My jurisdiction is: NE, USA

I'll try and provide as many details as I can, it's kind of a long story!

2 years ago I lived in WY, and owned 3 horses, all registered in my name and paid for by me. I was 20, and my family life wasn't good, I had a controlling and abusive stepfather, and the situation was escalating to physical violence. I got to the point where I couldn't stay there anymore. I didn't have any option for my horses though - I could barely get a bag of my clothes out of the house so I could leave, let alone my horses. I moved in with a friend here in NE, had a protection order put against my stepdad, and a month after that got a letter from my mom saying they would keep my horses until I had a place for them.

Imagine my surprise when I found one of my horses listed for sale on craigslist a couple months ago. I'm finally at a place where I'm secure and able to take care of my horses again, had been bored and combing the classifieds, and what do I see but one of my horses. Saved me the mess of calling my parents and having to go thru that whole fiasco. But anyway, tracing back the horse's travels, my mother had actually listed them for sale before I even received the letter saying she would keep them. The horses wound up with a rescue, here is what the owner of it said:

T****a did buy the gelding, the Stallion and a mare. She told the seller she was a rescuer. She used the rescue money to buy the ponies then had the ownership of them put in her name. Long story short, We ended up with all of them and have placed them. I will see if I can contact the new owner to see if they are interested in you contacting them. I can assure you he is in a good home. I don't think they'd sell him.

We have not heard from T****a. She is a con artist . she told us the ponies where going to slaughter. that the owner was moving and needed them gone. We sent her with a truck, trailer and a Check and some cash. After 2 weeks of asking for the brand inspection or a bill of sale she finally came up with a bill of sale showing her as the owner. After the lawyers contacted her she transferred ownership.
We have not heard from her since.

will let you know what we find out,

The seller he's referring to is my mom or stepdad. I'm happy that they found good homes. I'm still going to try buying back the stallion that I did find. But my question is, if I find the other two aren't in good homes (which I do wonder about considering that the woman with the stallion adopted him and now has him for sale again) then do I have any legal ground under my feet to go get them? I'd pay for them, but what if the people don't want to sell? The horses are still registered in my name, I checked with the registry a couple weeks ago. If they did sell the horses with papers, they would have had to forge my name, since I did not sign any of their papers over. Just not sure how it would work since I don't know if my parents sold them as papered or unpapered horses, if they gave the woman a bill of sale, or if she just made one up herself. Any advice on this would be much appreciated, I'd like to know my options.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Honestly - I think you've got a real challenge financially that will prevent you from doing anything about this situation, even if you could. I highly doubt that any of the new owners will allow you to just take back the horses that they paid for because you don't like who the new purchasers are (and didn't object as the proceeds of a sale as the result of theft.) Just my humble opinion.