Breech of contract, falsified credit app.

[Lionfishlegal]

Jurisdiction

Indiana

What up my Legal eagles!?

got served a breech of contract lawsuit.
I bought a used car and got it financed thru a company, dealer falsified my financial information on Credit app and i have a copy, they did not submit this in their documents to the court.
Pretty sure that will get me a void.
i also can support contract being voidable due to contract was signed under undue influence.
Main point is i want to counter claim as high as possible.
I have most paper work from the original signing including a service contract and gap waver that literally has no value and a cancelation of gap waver signed at same time. ( charged 400$ for gap waiver).
Was told some bs about having to buy a service contract that didn't cover anything even after the truck broke down the same day i drove it off the lot. 1195$. (Also have service reciepts for 800$ in repair)
Question is,,,
How do i draft this in my response?
i called the clerk of court and they said all i needed on their end was the case #
Tia.

 

[Zigner]

What up my Legal eagles!?

got served a breech of contract lawsuit.
I bought a used car and got it financed thru a company, dealer falsified my financial information on Credit app and i have a copy, they did not submit this in their documents to the court.

That means that you were just as complicit in this "fraud".

Pretty sure that will get me a void.

If you think this is some sort of automatic win for you in court, you're mistaken.

i also can support contract being voidable due to contract was signed under undue influence.

What caliber gun did they point at your head? Alternatively, what family member did they hold hostage in order to force you to sign?

Main point is i want to counter claim as high as possible.
I have most paper work from the original signing including a service contract and gap waver that literally has no value and a cancelation of gap waver signed at same time. ( charged 400$ for gap waiver).
Was told some bs about having to buy a service contract that didn't cover anything even after the truck broke down the same day i drove it off the lot. 1195$. (Also have service reciepts for 800$ in repair)
Question is,,,
How do i draft this in my response?
i called the clerk of court and they said all i needed on their end was the case #
Tia.

The clerk isn't allowed to give legal advice. Furthermore, this (or any) internet forum isn't allowed to give specific instructions on drafting legal documents. You should speak to a local attorney to get a realistic appraisal of your case. I suspect you are going to be disappointed.

 

[Lionfishlegal]

That means that you were just as complicit in this "fraud".
If you think this is some sort of automatic win for you in court, you're mistaken.
What caliber gun did they point at your head? Alternatively, what family member did they hold hostage in order to force you to sign?

The clerk isn't allowed to give legal advice. Furthermore, this (or any) internet forum isn't allowed to give specific instructions on drafting legal documents. You should speak to a local attorney to get a realistic appraisal of your case. I suspect you are going to be disappointed.

Thanks,
That leads me to the real question, is the response my whole case, and a final decision will be rendered after this or do i go to a hearing if no decision reached. Id love to argue as to me being part of the fraud but football is bout to start

 

[adjusterjack]

Thanks,
That leads me to the real question, is the response my whole case, and a final decision will be rendered after this or do i go to a hearing if no decision reached. Id love to argue as to me being part of the fraud but football is bout to start

Depends on the answers to the following questions:

1 - How much are you being sued for?
2 - What court level? Small claims? Regular civil?
3 - What did the summons instruct you to do? File an answer or appear on a specific date?

 

[Lionfishlegal]

Depends on the answers to the following questions:

1 - How much are you being sued for?
2 - What court level? Small claims? Regular civil?
3 - What did the summons instruct you to do? File an answer or appear on a specific date?

6628$
Not sure but over 5k usto mean not small claim...
Answer written responce.

 

[Lionfishlegal]

I remembered one of my old tricks for responding to legal documents as far as the format goes. But thanks Zigner for referring me to a lawyer. That is exactly the reason joined this forum.
Thank you adjusterjack.

 

[Lionfishlegal]

That means that you were just as complicit in this "fraud".
If you think this is some sort of automatic win for you in court, you're mistaken.
What caliber gun did they point at your head? Alternatively, what family member did they hold hostage in order to force you to sign?

The clerk isn't allowed to give legal advice. Furthermore, this (or any) internet forum isn't allowed to give specific instructions on drafting legal documents. You should speak to a local attorney to get a realistic appraisal of your case. I suspect you are going to be disappointed.

Has the "what caliber gun " argument been a winner for ya... threat level is a matter of perception or opinion. Your answer sounds a lil spam-ish. Didnt think there would be someone on here telling me im might me mistaken and disappointed..... the. Direct me to a lawyer. I googled "DIY legal forum " and joined the first one i saw..... seems like a lead generation source for hack saw lawyers so far..

 

[cbg]

Believe it or not, an internet forum cannot take the place of an attorney. We can provide general legal information but not specific legal advice. That can ONLY come from an attorney in your state.

 

[adjusterjack]

6628$
Not sure but over 5k usto mean not small claim...
Answer written responce.

Not small claims then. A small claims summons would order you to appear in court on a certain date. Filing an answer is regular civil court.

Here are some resources about answering a complaint.

indiana answer to complaint at DuckDuckGo

 

[Tax Counsel]

What up my Legal eagles!?

got served a breech of contract lawsuit.
I bought a used car and got it financed thru a company, dealer falsified my financial information on Credit app and i have a copy,

Did you sign that falsified credit application? Or did the dealer add the false info after you signed it? And if the latter, can you prove the dealer added it after the application?

Also, I assume that the dealer didn't finance the car. Instead, some finance company did. I also assume that it is the finance company suing you for the breach (not breech) of contract because you haven't made the payments as required, right?

Understand two important things here. First, if the plaintiff (the company suing you) is the finance company then it is not responsible for whatever the dealer put on the application. It took the application that was signed by you as true and issued you a loan based on that application. If you signed the application with the false info already on it, then you are a party to the potential fraud along with the dealer. You are responsible to read what is on the application before you sign it. If you didn't bother to read it, that's on you. If you didn't make the payments, you breached the contract and the finance company will likely win the judgment.

Second, if the dealer added your falsified information after you signed it, then it is really the dealer's fault that you got the loan, assuming that if your application was accurate the loan would have been denied. What this means is that it may be that you would need to bring in the dealer as a third party defendant in the case. That will depend on your state's law and court rules, which I have not researched. Doing that would allow you to argue that the dealer should be the one to pay for the fraud, again assuming you can prove the false info was added after you signed it.

they did not submit this in their documents to the court.
Pretty sure that will get me a void.

The lender did not have to attach the application to the complaint. That's something that gets presented at the trial, if the case makes it that far. So not having the application attached isn't going to get the lawsuit dismissed. Even if it did, the dismissal would be without prejudice, meaning the lender could just refile the lawsuit again and attach what was missing.

Note that less than 5% of civil cases filed nationally make it to trial. The statistics vary a bit by state, but in every state it's around that number.

i also can support contract being voidable due to contract was signed under undue influence.

Two things about this. First, you have the problem that the lender wasn't there in the room negotiating the deal. The car dealer did that. So even if there was undue influence or duress (which I'll address in a moment) that undue influence or duress was not applied by the finance company that is suing you.

Second, most Americans misunderstand the terms undue influence and duress. As to undue influence, in general that occurs when a situation exists that the other person has such a degree of influence and control over you that he/she is able to overcome your free will to get you to do something you otherwise would not have done. Specifically, the Indiana courts state that:

Although courts are reluctant to define undue influence in terms of fixed principles " 'lest the very definition itself should furnish a finger board pointing out the path by which it may be evaded,' " Id. at 57 N.E.2d 605 citing 12 Am.Jur. s 148, 640, 641, this court has outlined those elements necessary to constitute undue influence. As expressed by Judge Sullivan, "(u)ndue influence is the exercise of sufficient control over the person, the validity of whose act is brought into question, to destroy his free agency and constrain him to do what he would not have done if such control had not been exercised." Hunter v. Milhous, supra, at 305 N.E.2d 459.​

O'Dell v. Youngblood, 422 N.E.2d 381, 383 (Ind. Ct. App. 1981). Usually the successful cases of undue influence involve an especially vulnerable person, like an elderly or disabled person, who is convinced to do something (like sign a will giving the person exerting the influence something in the will) by a person in some position of trust, like a pastor or minister.

Car dealers are very good at turning up the sales pressure. But sales pressure, while it might seem hard to resist, is not the exertion of control to the extent that it overcomes your free will. Sure, you might be suckered into a bad deal by slick talk, but that's not going to get out of the contract on a claim of undue influence. You'd need more here than just pointing to common high pressure sales tactics for an undue influence case. So I don't see it as very likely you could make that case here unless there was something unusual about this sale that you didn't mention.

If you ever feel like the dealer is applying a lot of pressure, just walk out and take time to think about the deal a bit without the dealer hovering over you. Believe me, very likely that car, and that deal, will still be available later that day or the next day. I did that with a used car dealer. They wanted $2000 more for the car than it was worth. I walked out. The car was still sitting on the lot a month later. I walked in and renewed my offer of $4000. The dealer jumped at it.

As for duress, that's when force, threats of force, or other illegal/improper forms of pressure are used to get you to sign the contract. So if the dealer put a gun to your head to make you sign the loan agreement, that would be duress. But the usual slick sales talk and pressure used by car dealers is nowhere close to being duress.

Was told some bs about having to buy a service contract that didn't cover anything even after the truck broke down the same day i drove it off the lot. 1195$. (Also have service reciepts for 800$ in repair)

Yep, dealers are good at upselling you with overpriced services, too. But the fact that you bought a service contract that turned out to be pretty worthless is not at issue in this lawsuit. That has nothing to do with the finance company that is suing you for not making payments.

Question is,,,
How do i draft this in my response?

See a civil litigation attorney to help you get it right and to help you determine if you need to also bring in the dealer as a third party defendant. Very generally answers to a lawsuit are mostly in the form of either admitting or denying each allegation in the complaint. Often a failure to deny a claim in a complaint is treated as an admission by you that the allegation is true. Therefore you have to take care to specifically address each allegation.

If you have any counterclaims to bring, you'd include those in the answer, too. Nothing you have mentioned here, though, is a counter claim. Note that defenses and counter claims are not the same thing. A counter claim would be something that you could sue the plaintiff for if you had brought a lawsuit yourself. Defenses are those things that rebut the claim that the plaintiff is bringing against you. And if you need to also bring in the car dealer, you'll have another extra step here.

If you don't know how to do all that, that is why you need a lawyer. I realize that hiring a lawyer to defend you can get costly and might easily exceed what the plaintiff is asking for. But look at your loan contract. Does it say that the winner of the lawsuit can get reimbursed the legal fees paid in the lawsuit? If it does, then it may be worth hiring a lawyer for this, assuming that you have a pretty decent chance to win. You'd want to discuss that with the lawyer. If there isn't a provision for attorneys fees in the contract then you might want to just get help with some pointers on your answer right now, which a lawyer might be willing to provide you without undertaking to handle the whole case for you.