• Filing a lawsuit against father

We are three sisters and my father has lot of debts when we were small and from the time we started earning he took all our money, applied loans on our name by taking our payslips and forced us to sign as surity.When we refused to sign, he abused physically,mentally and made us sign. All our earnings were deducted as EMI and now the lenders from outside are filing a case against us for not repaying the amount.Since he used our name as purity they are threatening us instead of my father.When we asked about this to our father, he is lying that he is paying them money which is not true.How to take legal action on our father appealing that all the debts be transferred in his name and we were not responsible for the repay and no one should file a charge against us.
Asked 9 years ago in Family Law
Religion: Christian

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6 Answers

1) since you have taken loans in your name or acted as surety you are liable to pay the loans

2) liability of principal debtor is co extensive with that of guarantor

3) you can sue your father for recovery of amounts paid by you as surety

4) lenders will not discharge you as surety unless your father arranges other sureties

5) if you are victim of physical abuse you should file police complaint against your father

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94690 Answers
7527 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. Well, since the debts are taken in your name only you can transfer the same inn his name unless he so agrees.

2. Only protection you can have is to avoid taking any fresh loan in your name.

3. Try to repay the loans and shift to some other place so he may not coerce you anymore for any fresh loan.

4. Against the tortures you can lodge complaint in local police.

Devajyoti Barman
Advocate, Kolkata
22815 Answers
488 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. When were the loans taken by your father?

2. If you stood as a guarantor for your father's loan, it implied that you agreed to repay the debt of your father in case of default made on his part.The liability of the surety is similar to that of a borrower, implying that both are equally responsible for paying off the loan taken.

3. Since you were forced to sign as surety you should immediately issue a lawyer's notice to the creditors to contest the claim made by them.

4. If a lawsuit is filed against you then you can defend it in the court.

5. There is no lawsuit that you can file against your father.

Ashish Davessar
Advocate, Jaipur
30763 Answers
972 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Hello,

1) Unfortunately you can not bring a law suit against your farther as the loans were applied in your name and your payslips were submitted.

2) If you stood guarantors and if the borrower, your farther fails to pay, then you will be held liable to pay as you stood guarantee to pay.

3) It would be advisable to negotiate with the debtors for a settlement and pay off the debt in a time bound manner. Take a stand now and firmly refuse the father any further aid and if he tortures you file a police complaint against him to deter him.

S J Mathew
Advocate, Mumbai
3547 Answers
175 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

In your case, since you signed as a surety then the liability cannot be discharged until and unless your father arranges another security. Since the loans were taken on your name, you cannot be a surety so I am assuming that your father has taken loan on all the sisters name by making each other surety for each loan. In such a case, your father here has no role as his name is not surfacing anywhere. However, since your allegation is that your father abused you and forced you to sign on the loans paper, a case against your father can be filed for criminal intimidation, physical abuse, etc. But that needs to be proved by proper evidence, be it oral or by way of physical examination showing the marks of the abuse etc.

As per law, you cannot file any other law suit against your father since the loans are on you or your sisters name and all of you are surety for each other and your father would be given a clean chit by the court if the cases of repaying the loans would be filed against you three sisters.

Shaveta Sanghi
Advocate, Chandigarh
914 Answers
111 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1. You have already signed as guarantors/sureties towards loans availed by your father,

2. If you were forced to sign those sutry documents, you should have filed police complaint against your father,

3. At this stage you can not disown your responsibilities to repay the loan amounts availed by your father as surties since those loans availed by your father remain unpaid.

Krishna Kishore Ganguly
Advocate, Kolkata
27219 Answers
726 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

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