location: Pittsburg, Pa
My Aunt who we haven’t been in touch with for over 15 years has recently passed away with a tremendous amount debt and nothing of value. She left no will and the only one that has been close to hersis my dad’s other sister. Unfortunately, we are the closest relatives to her. The bank that my Aunt had a 40k loan is now attempting to sue my dad for the debt. My question is, is my dad legally responsible the debt or is there anything they can do?
Comments
Why would your dad be responsible for this debt? Did he co-sign? Or did the debt finance your dad’s car? Something doesn’t make sense.
If he did not consign, generally no.
But your father must respond to the lawsuit or else the bank may get a default judgment. This should be easy to dismiss with the PA equivalent of a FRCP 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.
But consult with an attorney licensed in PA for two reasons instead of doing this yourself because: (1) there may be something buried in the complaint that takes this out of the realm of frivolous into a weird but bona fide case or a novel bona fide legal theory; and (2) there is a high probability your attorney can get sanctions to pay for his own fees if this is indeed frivolous.
Unless he co-signed or she faked his co-signing, he’s not on the hook. The bank has to make a good faith effort before a write-off, and sometimes their “good faith” effort is trying to trick people with no legal obligation into paying it.
Did your father co-sign the loan? If so, yes they can come after him. The documentation to verify their claim should show if your dad put his name to anything, knowingly or not.
NAL, it seems weird that a bank would even have a siblings contact information unless The Sibling was involved. Did you Dad cosign for the loan? If not is it possible that she forged his signature and made him a cosigner? I would ignore them unless they actually come with a lawsuit but if they do then they probably have some grounds to think he’s responsible