Re: 15 year old judgement

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On 1/31/07, Donna wrote:
> This is my story! I lost my house in 1991 under power of
> sale to Central guaranty trust in which 36,000 was still
> oweing. I sighned a promissary note agreeing to pay 10,000
> in which I stopped paying due to lack of employment. The
> trust company went bankrupt and I thought I was in the
> clear considering I lost 50,000 in the house anyways after
> they undersold it. I had heard nothing over the years even
> when I had bought and sold my second house. I was sitting
> at my lawyers office ready to close the deal on yet
> another buy and resale of my third house, when all of a
> sudden a writ of execution came up on my name for the
> original judgement in 1991. The person had purchased it
> for 2.00 and is wanting to collect with interest over the
> years for the sum of 77,000. Because I am in the posistion
> of trying to close the real estate deals I am forced to
> settle to pay her 5,000 cash and pay her 40'000 in a
> second mortgage. How in the hell can this be legal? If I
> had of known this prior I would have went bankrupt along
> time ago when I had nothing! Anyone out there with any
> help or information to get me out of this would be greatly
> appreciated!!!

Donna:

I don't know what state you live in and what state entered
the judgment against you. However, I am licensed in
Massachusetts and therefore can only give you advice on
Massachusetts law.

In MA, it is perfectly legal for a person to buy someone
else's debt. Once someone purchases another's debt in MA,
and judgment against the debtor has already entered, the
debtor then owes that person the money. You can still attempt
to challenge the debt, but until a judge says otherwise, you
owe the money.

Since the whole point of a title search is to locate title
defects, a proper title search should lead to the
identification of the debt(which appears to have happened in
your case).

You seem upset that you just found out about it in connection
with the sale of your home. However, in MA, you are always
entitled to purchase a credit report, which would most likely
have revealed the debt. In addition, in MA, you are always
entitled to research the title to your home on your own,
which would also have most likely revealed the debt.

However, since your posting states that you had a lawyer, I
would suggest that you ask that lawyer what you can do about
it besides paying the $5,000. Again, my advice is limited to
MA law.

David