Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
in the final divorce decree the ex husband was granted the truck and to pay one of the loans in full. Since then he has had the truck reposed and is not paying on the loan. The creditors are coming after me and the loan has even been taking money directly out of my checking account. Per the decree I am not liable for these 2 items. The items granted to me for responsibility are being taken care of. What rights do I have in this?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You're out of luck.
Remember that the divorce Court has jurisdiction over you and your husband. They don't have any control over the creditors, the people who financed the purchase of vehicles. The creditors were not served with the lawsuit, and had no opportunity to come into Court to assert their rights.
The debts that you and your husband have are a matter of contracts that you made with the creditors. Nothing in the divorce decree can change those contracts.
When a divorce decree states that a joint debt is to be paid by one party, and that party doesn't pay it (and this is a very common situation), and the innocent party is forced to pay the debt, he has what's called a right of contribution against the party was required to pay the debt.
In other words, the person who was not "awarded" the debt, if he is forced to pay the debt or any part of it, has a right to sue the other party for money damages. This remedy is pretty much worthless. You would pay a lawyer to file a lawsuit and get a judgment that is not going to be collectible.
This is called a right of contribution.
An order in a divorce decree that require someone to pay a debt is not enforceable by contempt.