Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Louisiana
Credit card fraud
My mother-in-law, age 80, gave her credit card to her grandaughter for an eye examination. It was not used for that but instead was used for other things amounting to $14,000.
The grandaughter called the credit card company and had the address for the billing changed to her own address therefore my mother-in-law had no way of knowing about the bill. She is not well and take alot of medication...she forgot all about the card up until recently she received a phone call from a collection agency.Now the bill has been turned over to an attorney and they want their money. My mother-in-law does not have any money but does own a house that is paid in full. So my question is can they force her to sell her home to pay that debt and is she totally responsible even though she did make the charges herself. There are two heirs to the property but succession was never opened so my mother-in-law feels like this will protect her from having to sell the house for this debt.In other words her attitude is they can put a lien on the house and let the two heirs to the property have to deal with it.So can they force her to sell the house or not?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Credit card fraud
Your mother-in-law must report the charges to the credit card company to be fraud. However, to avoid being responsible for the charges, she must cooperate with the credit card company in prosecuting the granddaughter - file police reports, etc. The granddaughter should be imprisoned for this miserable crime. If she fails to cooperate with the granddaughter's prosecution, then the credit card company's attorneys may indeed obtain a judgment against her, then they may file a lien against her home, and if the value of the home exceeds the amount of her available homestead exemption (which could be as high as $125,000), and if the home is free and clear of other debts, then they will probably go through a sheriff's sale to collect the judgment. By the time they tack on reasonable attorney fees and court costs, the amount in question will probably exceed $25,000. Another option for the credit card company, after obtaining the judgment, would be to accept a deed from the grandmother for the property in exchange for letting the grandmother live there for the rest of her life. The grandmother's best bet - assuming she declines to prosecute the miscreant granddaughter - would be to pay the credit card company, then prepare a will which punishes the granddaughter and the parents who failed to assume responsibility for their child's abusive behavior - by writing them out of the will entirely or for at least four times the amount of the credit card debt grandma had to pay. This crime also qualifies as elder abuse, which is a separate criminal offense.
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