Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina
purchased a horse, making payments and found out the lady couldn't get his papers, which makes him worth less money. Already paid over 1/2 the amount and stopped paying. She came up and said she now has the papers and wants the horse or her money. What can she do or can I do on this situation? BTW we tried to pay her as she asked us to 100.00 every two weeks and gave her checks to run for the the amounts. her boyfriend handed them back to us an hour later and said she wouldn't take that as payment.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Read your written agreement. You have the horse - you are obligated to pay for it. She does not hae to accept $100 every 2 weeks if that was not in the written agreement - she is entitled to be paid the whole sum owed.
She can either sue for the rest of her money or she can se to get the horse back. I don't knowhow much is owed, but the cheapest thing to do might be to get the whole sum owed and tender that to her and get the papers.
Stopping payment was stupid. By doing that you breached the agreement. If it turned out that the horse could not be registered then you could have sued her for damages or tried to work something out. But you cannot just unilaterally decide you are not going to pay any more.
I don't think she will refuse if you tender the whole sum. However, if you don't pay and she sues, you can try to argue that there are no papers and that she misrepresented the condition of the horse and counter-sue her. If you pay the whole thing and then she gives you papers which are wrong or if the horse cannot be registered, then you can sue her for the difference in value between what you paid and what the horse without papers would be worth.