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| Real Estate investment -- former partners as plaintiffs and myself as defendant in small claim court |
stiletto_5 |
01/22/06 |
Basically, my 2 former real estate investment partners is suing me to take me out to small claim court to attempt to get their part of the money back that was divided into 3’s to pay for the penalty for withdrawal from escrow before closing. They claimed they each “lent me the money” because they say I was looking into buying a house, when in fact I wasn’t looking into buying any houses since the purchase is an investment by the 3 of us. Because I withdrew and the money they each said they gave me was a “loan”, they claimed they therefore are entitled to getting that part of their money back.
However, that is not the whole picture. Please allow me to explain.
I believed they distorted and changed the story after the fact by retroactively saying the money they each “gave me was a loan”.
In actuality, they did not “just give me the money”; they put their money in along with mine as a part of a down payment investment to buy a house property.
All this happened last year in 2005 between MARCH and JUNE. Here was how the story happened as I have all the bank and escrow paperwork, as my name and signature are the ONLY ones on all documents:
Around MARCH or late FEBRUARY, 2005, my friend called A (now ex-friend) at work and her friend called B, and myself, all agreed verbally to form a partnership to buy a house property. We also agreed verbally that no matter what happens throughout the entire buying transaction, if something should happened that caused one or all of us to withdraw from the transaction, one or all of us can safely withdraw from our verbally-agreed upon formed partnership.
That is exactly what happened; my wife refused to signed the trust of deed and quick claim form before closing. That forced me to withdraw from the purchase transaction. The total penalty was $6,948.96. As per our initial verbal agreement, I divided the penalty amount of $6,948.96 into 3’s, which is $2,316.32 that each of us would lose and have to pay for the penalty.
When they gave me their part of the contribution investment money, they did it by electronically wiring the money into my bank checking account. Person A electronically deposited $7,600 and Person B electronically deposited $4,600. I myself invested $17,600. How each of us agreed verbally to contribute in varying amounts is too long of a story, but suffice it to say that is what we agreed verbally to put in together to have as one single down payment.
Surely, is it fair to say shouldn’t each of them have some type of note accompanying each of the deposit written somewhere on the electronic deposit to show that the each of the deposit made was for some purpose, either as a loan or as an investment, especially if the deposit was a large amount of money? If so, they did not put “such supposed loan” in writing to say that they loaned me any amount of money. I also called my bank to ask if they wrote anything along with their respective deposit transaction forms to say the amount they each deposited were for loans. And my bank said NO.
Because my name and signature are on all documents with the bank and escrow company from the 1st step to the final step before closing, I believed they have used that fact retroactively against me to say I myself therefore on the surface appear to be looking for a house to make a personal purchase. Can they legally do that, even without their names and/or signatures appearing on any purchased transaction documents? In other words, the bank and escrow company know only that I was the sole name involved throughout all transactions. The bank and escrow company also only know that the single down payment came solely from me because I wrote a personal check to the escrow company for one single down payment. The bank and escrow company do not even know about who about or who they are. Therefore, I believe persons A and B are not in any position to sue me for “any supposed amount loaned to me”, because there are no such records of any loan offered to me. They do not have any records of 3 of us signing such loans, and I certainly do not have any records of such loans, because those never existed in the 1st place.
Can I legally say that in small claim court?
Also, as a will of good faith, I returned the difference of each of their initial contribution money minus each of their amount for the penalty back to them.
For Person A, that would be $7,600 - $2,316.32 = $5,283.68 in returned money to her via a check.
For Person B, that would be $4,600 - $2,316.32 = $2,283.68 in returned money to her via electronic deposit to her bank checking account. (I had asked her for her bank checking account number).
On the other hand, since each of their deposited amount transaction did not include any kind of reason or purpose, couldn’t I say in court each of their deposits made to me could have been for any reason, not necessarily for mutually agreed-upon investment? If so, couldn’t I say they had owed me some money or they gave me the money as gifts? And whatever I do with the gift money is my personal business, not theirs, including putting the money they deposited as a down payment to purchase a house property if I wish to do so?
Any help on this matter, I appreciated very much. Thank You
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Clarification/Follow-up by stiletto_5 on 01/23/06 12:27 am:
Jim, thank you for your expert response. You are right that this matter could go either way. The problem was I trusted my friend, Person A, in just about everything, because she seems pretty smart and knowleadgable in buying property, though she is not a realtor. She has several properties already, and since I didn't know anything about real estate, I listen to her. At first, I also questioned her about having some kind of written agreement bewteen the 3 of us. But she said that can be done later when the purchase closes. Then when things didn't make sense,including me puting up the most money, I sought 2nd and 3rd opinions and more opinions from actual realtors. By that time, things were in escrow. My wife refused to sign any forms, and convinced me not to go forward. It turned out they were using me as the fall guy because the property is in S CAL, and Im in N CAL. Still, since they do not have anything in writing about the money they put in my bank, can they they call the money they out a loan? I am still unsure about that? pls let me know in light of my new revelation. thank you, Jim
Clarification/Follow-up by Jim.McGinness on 01/23/06 3:49 am:
Sorry, I'm not your attorney (or any sort of lawyer) and I can't add anything to my earlier observations. For the amount of money at stake, it may well be worthwhile hiring one (though I bet his first reaction will be: you should have consulted a lawyer before you got into this).
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