Well thats a nice one (Legal advice needed)

[Freiwillige]

I bought a truck off of my friends GF in august of 2010. We came up with a contract that I would pay them $1,000 USD down and $300 dollars a month payments for a total of $3,000 total. I had just started a new job and there was risk with anyjob of being fired or layed off so we agreed verbally that If the worse case scenario should happen I would return the truck and we agreed that they could sell it or I could sell it, Also if it sold for less than the 3,000 I would eat the difference.

So in September I got laid off and in October of 2010 I returned the truck.
Again we had a verbal agreement that I could try and they could try to sell the truck and again I would probably not get my 1,300 back that I had into it but I would get the Difference or when I got employed I could start paying for it again and they would return it to me. Either way it was a no hurry were all great friends kind of deal. Well when I offered to sell the truck I found out there was a discrepancy with the title. The truck had 153K miles on it but the title read 300,000K due to the girl messing up when she put the title in her prior room mates name. So the last discussion we had was about them fixing the title and teaming up with me to sell the truck.

Well I just got re-employed so I called and asked about the truck and let them know I could pay for it again only to be told that they had an agreement to sell it in 2 weeks to some guy. When I inquired about how much and what I would get back I was told that repossessions don't work that way and that If I sold the truck I could have payed them off but since they sold it and its been sitting in their driveway since October that I would be seeing nothing back with a big sorry man thrown in.

Now when I replied that that was breaking our verbal contract he got annoyed and argued that the verbal contract never intended anything but for me to sell it but they consider it an abandoned contract because I had not payed on the truck since October

I have witnesses to the verbal contract my Girlfriend and she has witnesses against our verbal contract her boyfriend (MY best friend) Or was anyways.

Do I have any legal standing to go after her?

[Takeda Shingen]

I don't have any legal advice, but you have my sympathies. That sounds like one hell of a mess. :cry:

[GoldenRivet]

I think the question is - which is worth more to you? the cash/truck or the friendship.

If you chose the cash/truck - the friendship never was worth two turds in a bucket to start with - be aware that even with witnesses, a verbal contract is never as strong as a written one and it will be their word and their witnesses word against your word and your witnesses word. if it went to small claims court, i would think that in these matters... 9 of 10 times the judge will side with the seller not the buyer / leasee etc.

If you chose the friendship - just let it go, learn from it, and try not to do business of this sort with friends in the future.

thats all i got

[Bakkels]

Well GoldenRivet has got a point there, but I would also be wondering what your friendship is worth to them. Because to put it mildly, the way they handled this doesn't look really friendly to me.
But hey, I wasn't there, and though I believe what you say about what you guys agreed upon, they may have interpreted that conversation different. Things like that happen a lot. Especially with these kinds of arrangements.
I don't know if you legally have a chance to get your money back, but I know it'll cost you a lot of energy, perhaps more money, and (I assume definitely) your friendship. You got my sympathies too though. Good luck.

[Freiwillige]

Well I consider the friendship a loss, Why would I want to be friends with people who would do that? Obviously greed won out over doing the right thing and honoring our conversations and agreements on how this scenario would be handled.

In fact I argued this same thing with my Girlfriend several months ago that "He" would never do that even if she would. I was wrong.

They aren't married so its really me vs her but they reside and have a child together so I guess I now know where they stand. The very fact that they agreed to sell the vehicle without so much as a heads up show's me that they were trying to slip it under the radar.

So yea the friendship I had and valued wasn;t worth much from their perspective or else they would have A. Let me know it was sold and B. Said hey lets get together and figure this thing out and settle up. Instead I got a STUFU and when I called em out on it all I got was a "sorry man".

I agree when the truck was returned in October nobody could foresee how long it would take me to get real employment ,I was working part time but never made enough to pay on the truck. But when ever we talked it was always hey your trucks still sitting here you find work yet?

The thing that really bothers me is that I have 1,300 into it and I can start paying again and I argued that I was able to hold up on my end of the deal but he was adimant that the truck is sold in two weeks time and they had a deal with this guy. I already almost paid half of the truck off! He hasn't even shown up to get it yet!!!!:damn: No money has changed hands the truck is still theirs but they wont work with me because they have a verbal agreement to sell it to him???!!! Again STUFU to me.

They have a written contract explaining our payment plan etc I was trusting enough to not get a copy.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Considering that I already almost got into a lot of trouble for practicing law without a license, and still have very little experience or education in law, you probably don't want my advice, nor am I inclined to give it.

What I will say is that if this is a verbal contract and your name isn't on the title, you're fighting a very uphill battle, witness or no, vagaries of said contract notwithstanding. If you don't get an answer from someone here, there are several websites where you can get a free legal consultation on your case via email or message boards. Civil attorneys are always looking for clients, after all.

Best of luck:up:

[Takeda Shingen]

Considering that I already almost got into a lot of trouble for practicing law without a license, and still have very little experience or education in law, you probably don't want my advice, nor am I inclined to give it.

Oh I remember that story. I hope you don't mind, but I chuckle a bit when I think back on it; in no small part due to your rendition of the story. I am sure, however, that it was not very funny at the time.

[Freiwillige]

Well I figure if I take them to small claims court and lose I stand where I am currently stuck with $0 dollars on the deal but the satisfaction that I stood my ground.

If I win I get some or all of my money back and the satisfaction that I stood up for myself and said what your doing is wrong!

Its a win\win as far as I am concerned and they can kiss my :D

[JSLTIGER]

Don't forget about court costs when you're figuring that out...

I'd love to be able to give you some legal advice, being a law student and all, but they warn us in advance that we are not permitted to dispense said legal advice until we pass the bar. As a result, I may (hopefully) be able to help you in about six months...

[em2nought]

Don't forget that bad(less ethical) people can do worse things to you than you probably plan on doing to them.

[Aramike]

Do I have any legal standing to go after her? You can try, but unless she admits to wrongdoing, there's not much that can be done legally.

Remember: a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written upon.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Oh I remember that story. I hope you don't mind, but I chuckle a bit when I think back on it; in no small part due to your rendition of the story. I am sure, however, that it was not very funny at the time.

Well, I wasn't happy about it at the time(especially the jail part), that's true, but it sure seems funny to me now. What's even funnier is that I got away with it (more or less). Not sure how that happened, but I'm trying to learn.

On a somewhat less cheery note, I'm beginning to wonder if I really want to study criminal law. So much of it is at odds with what I consider to be "proper" law, or even basic constitutional law, that I'm not sure I have the ability or intelligence to make a difference. I write my research papers and essays and offer case-studies and cite precedence and so on and so forth. I get good grades, but I also consistently get instructor commentary on my assignments. And it's not the good kind of commentary. Seems incongruous, doesn't it? One has to wonder.

But that's another discussion for another time.

[TarJak]

Sounds like a case for JJ!
http://innerconfidence.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Judge_Judy.jpg

[Molon Labe]

This has more or less already been said here, but what I see is a verbal contract where the meaning of parts of the contract is disputed, and with it not being written there is no way to prove either party's version. Without a method of proof, a court won't act on a claim.

[Platapus]

1. Verbal contracts are not worth the paper they are written on

2. One never conducts business with friends or family, for as soon as you do, they stop being friends and family become business partners

Very sorry to hear about this. Hope it works out well.