Legal Question in Business Law in Tennessee

Long story, short... My husband's business incurred a large debt to a residential contractor before I came along. No paperwork. No contract. Just the contractor saying that my husband owed him almost $14000 in advances. Bookkeeping for this one-man business was not kept so he felt like he had to believe the contractor. My husband filed bankruptcy in 2001 but did not include this amount in the bankruptcy because he was trying to maintain the friendly working environment and feared he would lose his business opportunities. A short time later his business was forced to close because his equipment was stolen and he had no insurance. I purchased new equipment for him and we went into business together under my company, and later married. Now I am saddled with this old debt and have been trying to pay it off over the past 9 years. This contractor no longer has any work for us and has been trying to coerce us into signing an agreement for the balance of this debt by withholding a paycheck we rightfully earned. That is extortion as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, the accounting on the "agreement" is inaccurate and the wording is vague so I refused to sign. The deal is, I have been making regular payments to him unless a critical situation in my family occurred. We lost a year of payments due to a serious injury to myself that kept me off the jobsite for almost 10 months. We nearly lost our house to foreclosure during this time and I couldn't pay anything, but I kept in contact with him and he was, at the time, very merciful. Before the injury I paid him a significant amount thru "discounts" on my invoices. I couldn't simply write him a check because it seems that he charged off the amount as a bad debt on his taxes some time back and couldn't figure out how to account for the income without paying taxes on it again. I called the local law enforcement about the extortion business and they told me to come in and file a complaint but I'm really not sure what my rights are regarding this. He says we owe him the money but I can't verify the amount is accurate because there was no accounting before I came along. Do I just take his word for it, rewrite the agreement with accurate numbers and pay, or do I have grounds to fight this and need to locate an attorney to pursue this?

Asked on 6/06/10, 5:33 am

3 Answers from Attorneys

Kevin B. Murphy Franchise Foundations, APC

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Your attorney question is too complicated to answer on this billboard. You need to consult with an attorney in your area for specifics. He or she will need to review the entire file, correspondence, etc.

Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. - Mr. Franchise

Franchise Attorney

Answered on 6/06/10, 8:56 am

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James R. Becker, Jr. Becker Law Firm

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You may have grounds for fighting this, but I emphasize the word "may." If you are serious about this dispute, you need to gather together all of your documents and sit down with an attorney to go over them and work out whether or not you really have a good legal claim.

Answered on 6/07/10, 7:51 am

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