Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Missouri

Re: Statue of limitations for Kansas City, Missouri

In order to answer your question I need to know when the last payment was made on the account. The creditor's statute of limitations does not begin to run until you miss a payment. Once you miss a payment, the creditor is on notice that you are breaching the contract. Also, if you make payments six or seven months later, that restarts the clock.

So, to make this simple, let's say in January 1980 you bought a bed that cost $400. Your payments were $10 a month. You made payments from January until June. If you never made another payment, the statute begins to run from the date of the last payment in June. Recent case law suggests that the statute is five years if its carried as an account, and 10 years if there is a separate note of indebtedness that provides for payment of money. So if you bought this "on account" with XYZ Store, then your statute of limitations would have run in July of 1985. If you signed a separate note with JLK Finance where they loaned you $400 to be secured by the furniture, your statute of limitations ran in July 1990.

But, lets say that in May of 1988, you felt bad and sent XYZ (or JLK) a paymnt of $50. Now the statute of limtations is reset to 1993 or 1998, depending on which scenario is the case.

Hopefully this helps explain things. If you believe you have a valid defense, make sure you show up and askt he trial court to dismiss on the basis of the statute of limitations. It would be a good idea to hire an attorney to help you with this.