Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Connecticut

Theft?

My wife and I are looking to start a business in web design. We've both got full time jobs that pay relatively well, and a little extra time to dedicate to it. We can do the HTML etc, but we needed someone to do our graphics for us. My wife suggested her sister, who is rather poor and has very little computer skills due to the fact that she doesn't own a computer. Or didn't, rather. I'd shipped my old computer to her, it was ruined on the way there by the shipping company, and we got a $1500 check in the mail because of it.

So we set my wife's sister up on our Sam's Club account, and got her a 1500 dollar certificate to use there to buy a computer and some software, and peripheral devices for the business.

The sister hasn't performed well, and the business is going no where fast. She's recently played fast and loose with her husband (adultering, she left him and is going to get a divorce) and we decided we didn't want her in our business any more because she lied to us about it.

And she won't give us the computer back. She lives in WI and we're in CT.

What should I do?


Asked on 5/17/99, 11:14 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Silverberg Silverberg Law Office

Re: Theft?

If there is anything else you could have done WRONG in this deal, I can't think of it. The lack of a written agreement with your sister-in-law, your having GIVEN her a GIFT CERTIFICATE to buy a computer, instead of having it in your own name... but, I suppose, you probably saved at LEAST $150.00 by not spending an hour with an attorney before you went into this.

To do anything about recovering either the computer or your money you would have to go to where she lives and sue her in small claims court there. The suit can be started by mail, but if she opposes you, there would have to be a trial and you would have to go there to testify. Depending on her side of the story, it is quite possible you would lose, if the judge decided that you gave her the computer for your convenience, but that it did not obligate her to give it back because you separated her from your business.

Check with your accountant or tax advisor -- you may be able to write off the cost of the computer as a business expense. If you are in, for example, a 30% tax bracket, that tax deduction would reduce your federal income tax and social security contribution by about $500, leaving you out of pocket "only" $1,000.00, but that might be better than trying to sue long-distance.

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Answered on 5/25/99, 9:44 am


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