Ex wants to sue for dog in her name that I take care of

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ChihuahuaMomma

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Lisa, my girlfriend's ex girlfriend, had her mother buy her a dog. Lisa's mother's only condition on buying this dog was that we, my girlfriend and I, keep the dog at our house. (Long stupid story inserted here.)

Lisa has now decided that she wants "her" dog back. She personally doesn't have any rights to the dog. Nothing is in her name. She thinks that her mother can take us to court and get the dog back. The police already said that she can't say we stole him because we've had him the whole time.

He is over a year old and we have kept him in our house ever since he came home from the pet store. We have paid for food, shelter, grooming supplies. He is my girlfriend's name at the vet. We have paid for medication for him, and that is in my girlfriend's name too.

He's lived with us since day one. Lisa lives in a house with all hard wood floors. Paco, the dog, is terrified to walk on anything but carpet or rugs. We can't even get him to walk into the bathroom! Lisa smokes in her house. Paco has asthma attacks every time we go to Lisa's house. He is also on medication for seizures. Lisa doesn't know anything about caring for him when he has one, nor did she wake up the one time he had one at her house! I think it also should go against her that the last dog she had, got parvo, died and she left him at the vet for them to stick in some mass grave at the pet cemetery.

Someone please tell me there isn't anything they can do.
 
ChihuahuaMomma said:
Lisa, my girlfriend's ex girlfriend, had her mother buy her a dog. Lisa's mother's only condition on buying this dog was that we, my girlfriend and I, keep the dog at our house. (Long stupid story inserted here.)

Lisa has now decided that she wants "her" dog back. She personally doesn't have any rights to the dog. Nothing is in her name. She thinks that her mother can take us to court and get the dog back. The police already said that she can't say we stole him because we've had him the whole time.

He is over a year old and we have kept him in our house ever since he came home from the pet store. We have paid for food, shelter, grooming supplies. He is my girlfriend's name at the vet. We have paid for medication for him, and that is in my girlfriend's name too.

He's lived with us since day one. Lisa lives in a house with all hard wood floors. Paco, the dog, is terrified to walk on anything but carpet or rugs. We can't even get him to walk into the bathroom! Lisa smokes in her house. Paco has asthma attacks every time we go to Lisa's house. He is also on medication for seizures. Lisa doesn't know anything about caring for him when he has one, nor did she wake up the one time he had one at her house! I think it also should go against her that the last dog she had, got parvo, died and she left him at the vet for them to stick in some mass grave at the pet cemetery.

Someone please tell me there isn't anything they can do.
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She cannot sue to to get the dog back, but she can certainly sue you for the value of the dog. The fact that she can sue you, in no way means she will win the lawsuit.
 
Antigone, she actually can sue for the return of the dog.

This post makes no sense to me. Lisa's Mother bought HER a dog on the condition that YOU and your Girlfriend would keep it? Why would you agree to keep a child that isn't YOURS? You freely admit that the dog is not YOURS. In your own statement you state that the dog was bought by Lisa's Mother FOR LISA. I don't get the deal but you have defeated your own case with your post.

The dog is not yours. The dog belongs to Lisa and her Mother. For some completely unexplainable reason you agreed to keep a dog that isn't yours. If she sues you for the dog and you tell the story that you told here you probably will lose. If you tell a different story, you will be lying.

Offer to pay for the dog. I honestly don't know what a Judge will say about your case. Your claim that you have sheltered and paid the expenses for the dog do not give you ownership of the dog. You have essentially borrowed the dog. I agree it makes no sense, but that was THE DEAL. Why would you have agreed to that?

In any case, they are going to try to take the dog because they can. I would offer to pay the Mother for the dog. Tell her to buy her daughter another dog. Good luck.
 
jharris352 said:
Antigone, she actually can sue for the return of the dog.

This post makes no sense to me. Lisa's Mother bought HER a dog on the condition that YOU and your Girlfriend would keep it? Why would you agree to keep a child that isn't YOURS? You freely admit that the dog is not YOURS. In your own statement you state that the dog was bought by Lisa's Mother FOR LISA. I don't get the deal but you have defeated your own case with your post.

The dog is not yours. The dog belongs to Lisa and her Mother. For some completely unexplainable reason you agreed to keep a dog that isn't yours. If she sues you for the dog and you tell the story that you told here you probably will lose. If you tell a different story, you will be lying.

Offer to pay for the dog. I honestly don't know what a Judge will say about your case. Your claim that you have sheltered and paid the expenses for the dog do not give you ownership of the dog. You have essentially borrowed the dog. I agree it makes no sense, but that was THE DEAL. Why would you have agreed to that?

In any case, they are going to try to take the dog because they can. I would offer to pay the Mother for the dog. Tell her to buy her daughter another dog. Good luck.
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...LOL... I could not get passed who's on first either, but we do know one thing a judgment in small claims court would be a money judgement, unless they decide to let Judge Judy handle this whole strange mess:nuts
 
Well you didn't say small claims! I guess I was talking about an equity court but I understand. A small claims court will give a judgment for money and one can decide whether to pay the money or give up the dog. This is why I said, "offer to pay for the dog."
 
So, you're basically telling me that if I agreed to take care of someone's child for them, then proved they were a bad mother, then they'd still get their child back? That's not okay.
 
You could file a Equity suit in the proper court if you knew how.
 
ChihuahuaMomma said:
So, you're basically telling me that if I agreed to take care of someone's child for them, then proved they were a bad mother, then they'd still get their child back? That's not okay.
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Yes, they would absolutely get their child back. Only a court can take away custody rights. Your analogy doesn't work anyway.

The dog is clearly hers, given to her by her mom, and you did not buy it. The fact that the dog has stayed at your house is entirely irrelevant.

If you honestly are attached to the dog, offer to pay a reasonable value for it. If you are keeping the dog to be spiteful- knock it off and just give the dog back. The courts have better things to do than to sort this out for the two of you.

She has a legitimate claim though.
 
I also recommend gathering up all of the receipts for all of the care you have given Paco.

Make sure that everyone understands that if you go to court and they want to sue for the value of Paco that you want to be fully reimbursed for the care that you provided.

Receipts only. None of this "we played with her an hour a day and I bill $300 an hour" garbage.

If they feel good about going to court for the value of their property, I would show them that the care of said property was not without cost.
 
Cyjeff,

While your advice is generally a good idea their expenses for care are not recoverable. They agreed to keep the dog and to incur the expenses on a dog that they never were suppose to own. I don't know why they agreed to it but they did. They cannot now come back and say that they want ownership of the dog or they want their expenses back.

They possessed the dog as a pet but all the time they knew they did not and would not own the dog. Its a strange situation to me but that is the law of it.
 
jharris352 said:
Cyjeff,

While your advice is generally a good idea their expenses for care are not recoverable. They agreed to keep the dog and to incur the expenses on a dog that they never were suppose to own. I don't know why they agreed to it but they did. They cannot now come back and say that they want ownership of the dog or they want their expenses back.

They possessed the dog as a pet but all the time they knew they did not and would not own the dog. Its a strange situation to me but that is the law of it.
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The way I was reading this post, the owner of the dog was saying that the OP was merely a caregiver for the animal and, therefore, has to return the property when asked.

I imagine the details of the agreement are part of the long story omitted for brevity.

If taken to court, I can see a judge saying that if the OP was a caregiver that some monetary compensation is due.

The owner cannot have it both ways. She either gave the dog to the OP or was kenneling Paco there.

Absolutely, the costs should have been worked out in advance. however, I can see it worth the OPs time to bring said receipts to the judge to see if those costs can be used to mitigate the cost of the dog or the costs already incurred.

It costs nothing to try.
 
ChihuahuaMomma said:
Lisa, my girlfriend's ex girlfriend, had her mother buy her a dog.
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It is Lisa's dog... a gift from her mother. They shared the dog together, apparently living together, but when Lisa left the dog was hers to take same as her clothes or any other property belonging to her.
The arguments given here for why the dog is not Lisa's do not stand up against the quoted text above that clearly says the dog IS Lisa's.
The simple way out of this mess is to give the dog back. The OP will have to pay the value of the dog and any other damages that can be proven, plus court costs in order to keep the dog.... add in on top of that lost wages for having to go to court, more lost wages if the court date is continued for any reason, more lost wages if it is appealed.... why do that?
Give the dog back and buy your own if you want one.
 
mightymoose said:
It is Lisa's dog... a gift from her mother. They shared the dog together, apparently living together, but when Lisa left the dog was hers to take same as her clothes or any other property belonging to her.
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I agree... but I would like clarification here.

Did Lisa live with the OP?

Part of the post was the difference in the living conditions between the OP's house and Lisa's... right?
 
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