Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri

Money owed and a baby crib not given back

We have a signed noterized statment from my ex friend that she needed $2000 as a loan for her divorce. She would pay 80 each month starting November until the 2000 is paid. Should she fall behind she said she would pay us interest. We have yet to see a penny.

Furthermore, when she was divorcing her husband she said she needed a crib and if she could borrow ours and she'd send it back to us as we were living for California when we had another baby. Well now we are due to have a baby and they refuse to send the bed back and they said we gave them the bed as a gift. We have a witness her ex husband that the bed was on loan not a gift. They refuse to pay for the shipment. So I said we will pay for the shipment they said just thow the bed in the lawsuit.

Can we sue for the cost of the bed plus the cost to purchase a new one and the $2000 that they owe us?


Asked on 1/21/05, 5:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Money owed and a baby crib not given back

You can't recover both the value of the old crib and the cost of a new one, since that would give you more than you lost.

You can demand both the return of the crib and its current value, but you can only recover one or the other. Since you will probably not recover anything before you need a crib for the new baby, you should plan on buying one. You can then add as a component of your damages the expense your "friend" should have expected you would have to incur to replace the crib.

You can also sue for the money your friend owes you, but it sounds like you don't have a written agreement and that fact is likely to complicate matters. You can still win based upon an oral contract, but the two sides may disagree about what the agreement said. The part about interest, for example, is likely to be too vague to be enforced.

Also, unless your agreement said that you were entitled to full, immediate repayment if your friend's installments were late, the court probably won't award you a $2,000 lump sum. Instead, it will require your friend to pay you for the amounts that are late and to continue making $80 monthly payments per the agreement.

And don't forget that this case still must be brought in Missouri even though you have since moved to California.

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Answered on 1/21/05, 5:36 pm


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