Can you sue someone if you gave them the use of your accounts to pay bills for you but they took the money for themselves instead?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Can you sue someone if you gave them the use of your accounts to pay bills for you but they took the money for themselves instead?
To further detail, let’s say you needed a little help with sorting out your debts, so you put your daughter/son in charge of the finances, especially in order to pay the house note which is most important. But instead of paying it, you find out that you’re thousands of dollars behind and they’ve taken the money, but you have no clue what they did with it. You’ve put it in their name but it is your money they took and didn’t pay the house note. Would you be able to sue them for the money they took? Or for anything?
Asked on July 14, 2011 under Bankruptcy Law, Washington
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
If you allowed someone to manage your assets with the clear expectation that those assets (including bank accounts) would be managed and used by the third person solely for your benefit but were not, that person has significant legal problems from a civil and criminal perspective.
However, if you placed a bank account in a person's name then the laws in most States are that there is a presumption that the person whose name is on the bank account is the owner and can do whatever he or she wishes to do with the bank account, including using the money for his or her own benefit and not yours.
Is this what happended?
If you placed your bank accounts in a third person's name and that person used the money for purposes not agreed to between you and them, you created a problem for yourself and if you want the money back, you need to first try to get repayment back voluntarily and if that doe not work, you will have to become involved in a court action.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.