Hello,
My situation is as follows, I got married in jul of 2000. Just before that my soon to be mother-in-law payed off some debt that I owed, and for a vehicle she bought her daughter, around $30k. There was never any talk or any promises or anything in writing saying or stating that this would have to be re-paid. Everything was fine until approx 4 yrs later she was layed off from her job and then asked when we were going to repay her the money we owed her.

We were doing pretty well financially so I allowed my wife to start to pay her $500 a month because that is her mother and she didn't have a job or money. Well a few years later we moved, I am in the military. After the move money was tight and I told her that we weren't going to pay her anymore, 1: because we dont have the money and 2: because I didnt feel that we owed her anything. I have tracked on a spreedsheet when and how much we gave her. We have given her approx $18k when we stopped.

She didn't say anything else about the money until a year later when she was notified that her daughter and I were getting a divorce. Now she says she is going to sue me for what I still owe her.

My question is that, Can she do this? If nothing was ever put in writing and since it has been 7+ years can she do this? I dont know where I would begin to defend my self in such a situation. She claims to have the recipts of the things that were payed off by her. But, like i said several times...nothing was ever mentioned about repayment. Anyone with any info on a situation like this would help me termendously.

Thank you for reading my post and thank you in advance for helping me.

I know that this is frustrating for you. I would suggest that you speak with an attorney regarding your legal options as every state has different laws regarding this. You can locate one through the attorney locator on Lawinfo's home page at http://www.lawinfo.com/. Some do offer free consultations.