More details to this question:
My father in law gave my wife and I a gift of $25,000.00 in 2009 for down payment on a home we purchased. I divorced my wife several months ago. She refused to sign any divorce papers until I signed a promisory notirized letter, agreeing to pay her father back the gift. On the promisory note, it was simply written I received a personal loan from my ex-father in law. Nowhere in the note does it state it was a gift for the home purchase. I agreed to sign in order to finally get my divorce process finalized. On the promisory note, it simply states I agree to pay him back in monthly installments. Nowhere does it state a payment amount or deadline for complete payment. I have been making payments for the last few months. Lately, he has been taking up to a month and a half to cash the check, which in turn causes my finances to shift. My questions is the following, can I write void after 30 days on the check? And second, if he takes me to court for paying him too litte of an amount, will the court realize it was because of a gift and simply void the loan and not have to pay him back? Thank you for your assistance.
1 ANSWER
While you originally had no obligation to repay your ex-wife's father for his gift, you undertook one in exchange for your ex-wife's agreement to sign the divorce papers. It is possible that this agreement could have been considered void due to duress (unlikely since your ex-wife probably had no legal obligation to sign the papers, and if she did have such an obligation you could have enforced it in court rather than agreeing to her terms), or perhaps indefinitiveness (because it doesn't set forth a payment schedule), but rather than seek to have it set aside you have been performing under it. Your chances of setting the agreement aside, slim in the first place, get worse every day you do nothing about it. At this point, you're probably stuck with the agreement, but if you want to try to have it voided in Court, do so ASAP. At any rate, you can stop payment on the check if it isn't cashed in 30 days, but I don't see how that helps you, since I would bet that your ex-wife's father is looking for an excuse to sue you. As far as the amount, I"m not sure how a court would set the monthly amount you're supposed to pay (which is why I suggested the contract could be considered insufficiently definite to be enforced), but at this point it will probably set that amount by the amount you were paying. The most important evidence of a contract's meaning is the meaning the parties give it by performing.
Answered on May 01st, 2014 at 5:12 PM