Getting Sued by Ex in Small Claims 2 years Later Help Please

[jpantel]

Soc,

I was together with my ex for 4 years. From 2000-2004. We have a child together who is now 2 years old. We are in the middle of a custody case which I brought to court because she was keeping our son from me when we broke up.

She does not like what I am doing by taking her to family law court to get proper court orders. I now have Joint Legal and Joint Physical Custody and support has not been ordered yet but I am asking for supprt according to the dissomaster read out of guidline support.

We are in California. My ex just had me served with an SC-100 saying she is sueing me for $5000.00 for "Plaintiff took out loan on car and paid off credit cards for the amount of $5,148.00" The date happened is March 7,2003.

She states on the document she has bank statements, credit card statements and a witness.

This being filed by her is in comlete retaliation of me taking her to court for custody and visitation and support. The facts are we where a couple during that time. We both did things to help each other out. She did this for me.

I in return paid numerous amounts of her bills ie. Car payments, Car Insurance, Credit Card Bills, Cell Phone, Food, and a whole amount of other things. There was never a written or verbal contract saying I would pay her back for refincing her car for the money to help me out as the same I never asked for the money back for all the items I helped pay for her.

1. What is the best way to appraoch this case?

2. Should I counter sue for frivulous claim?

3. How do I get this dismissed in a Judges eye's? What does he need to her or see to dismiss this claim by saying we where a couple who helped each other out and now out of being made that she is being taken to court over custody she is retailiating by sueing me?

4. What can or should I do in your opinion to fight this case?

Any comments, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

[socrateaser]

If your ex paid for things of which you now have possession/ownership/title, and she can show that you benefited unjustly from her payments, then she can get the court to order you to restore the property or the value thereof to her.

Your argument could be that these things were gifts, and that there was no expectation of your repayment. This may be valid, especially if a long period of time has passed since you broke up and she is only now asking for restitution.

You can also make similar claims of your payment for things of which she now has ownership/possession/title.

A judge will generally view things as gifts if they are reasonably affordable by the person who purchases them. So, a person who earns $20K per year, is not likely to gift a $5,000 car to someone else -- but she might gift a $100 ring.

In order to make a case or a defense, I would need to know the exact facts surrounding each individual transaction, and your living arrangement at the time the transaction took place.

I would certainly attempt to quantify the amount of money that you spent on her during the time that she claimed to have spent money on you, because if you can prove that the amounts were equal, or you spent more, that could cause the judge to simply say that you were both partners and that you both received an equal benefit of your partnership.

This kind of case is all about what you can prove with receipts, because if you paid cash and have no receipt, then it's just your word against hers and the judge will ignore any transaction where objective proof is not available.

A car, however, is a pretty substantial item, and the case may well devolve into that single transaction. However, as I said, I would need to know everything before I could comment on your chances of successfully defending against her allegation that this was a loan v. a gift.