Legal Question in Banking Law in California

Re: Naming Bank as Defendant

I presume there is an active lawsuit, since you have entered an answer to a complaint. You will need to obtain leave of court to interpose a cross-complaint. The question of whether or not you can file a cross-complaint against the bank cannot be easily answered in a few sentences.

First, an attorney would have to review the underlying documents to ascertain whether or not you have a cause of action against the bank. Typically, warranties and representations made by the vendor do not flow to the bank; i.e. the bank is not responsible is the vendor defrauded you -- the bank merely loans the money to you.

If the cross-complaint against the bank is a viable one, then you would file it in the action where you have presumably been sued by someone (it is unclear who has sued you, whether it is the bank or an assignee of the loan -- but presumably, it is not the vendor, as typically, vendors have nothing to do with the transaction once it has funded). If the underlying action is a limited civil case (under $25,000), then you will want your cross-complaint to be filed in the unlimited civil jurisdiction, where the procedures and rules are a little different.

There may be an advantage to filing in federal court, but whether or not that makes sense must be determined according to a variety of factors. An attorney would have to review the facts to ascertain whether or not it makes sense.

There are a variety of statutes under which your claim might be filed, depending upon the facts.

You should see out an attorney familiar with litigating consumer credit issues.