sister gave mom car, mom died, wants it back from stepdad.

C

Cave dweller

Guest
Jurisdiction
California
There was a car gifted by my sister in law to my wife's mother, it is now registered in my wife's mother's and stepdad's name. This happened before my mother in law passed away. There is no written terms or conditions to the gift.

My mother in law passed away and my sister in law, who attempted unsuccessfully to wrest control of the estate and mortal remains from my father in law, is now trying to take back the gift under the pretext of "I gave it to mom, not to stepdad."

He is extremely poor and cannot afford any sort of legal struggle. He resides in Oxnard CA, the sister resides in Ojai CA. They were married a month shy of seven years.

We live in Washington state and cannot help him.

He is good man and is being done dirty by all but one of his step daughters who don't seem to realize that everything belongs to him now. Two have cussed him out at length, and the one who wants the car back has harassed (along with her own husband) him via phone calls and text message, refuses to return a phone (he paid for it but she was a rider on mean sister's plan and misappropriated a wallet and book of passwords from my mother in law's purse while she was dying in hospital. She had previously taken custody of mom's purse and other personal effects. Purse was returned, missing items. She also made veiled threats of bodily harm to us for us to relay to him.
Drama...
I seem to have married the better sister.
We both love him dearly and want to see him get justice.

Thanks all.
 
He can simply ignore the vultures.
Should they appear on his property, uninvited, simply call the police and have them trespassed.

Always deal with all troublemakers by involving the police, who are paid, trained, willing, and sworn to keep the peace.


Never engage death buzzards yourself, it only stimulates their very excitable nature.
 
Thanks Army Judge, the car is parked on the street, and the sister may have a copy of the keys either taken from the purse or retained from previous ownership. He has changed the locks in what can barely be called a studio apartment. I wouldent put it past her to take it and park it in a red zone someplace just to spite him.
 
If the car was titled in both of their names, it is his car now. It is unfortunate if the car was intended to be a loan to mom and Mom went and put it in the stepfather's name if that was not the agreement. The daughter would need to sue him civilly if the agreement for the car was violated. It is anyone's guess what a court will do. For now, the way it was handled, stepdad owns it. If the daughter truly intended it to be just for her mother's use until her death, the car should have remained in the daughter's name.
 
adjusterjack said:
Then he is free to tell stepdaughter to pound sand.
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I assume if the daughter intended, either stated, implied, or assumed, for the car to be returned after death. And there is no written agreement, she would likely loose a civil suit.
He is not a well educated man and lives paycheck to paycheck, so a legal battle may not be possible.
 
No state is going to register a car to anyone but the owner on the title, including CA. The original owner would have to sign it over before the DMV will register the car.
 
Cave Dweller said:
I assume if the daughter intended, either stated, implied, or assumed, for the car to be returned after death. And there is no written agreement, she would likely loose a civil suit.
He is not a well educated man and lives paycheck to paycheck, so a legal battle may not be possible.
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Lack of a written agreement does not doom her claim. If she can convince a judge that the arrangement was with her mother alone to help mom out and not to ensure a free car for stepdad, she could still prevail. Stepdad's financial position isn't a factor as far as the court is concerned.
 
ElleMD said:
Lack of a written agreement does not doom her claim. If she can convince a judge that the arrangement was with her mother alone to help mom out and not to ensure a free car for stepdad, she could still prevail. Stepdad's financial position isn't a factor as far as the court is concerned.
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The only reason I bring up his financual position is because hiring an autourny will be imposible for him. If it goes to court, and he can't convince the judge that he and his wife share everything, and to his knowlage, no such agreement was made, then he should cut his losses. If it comes to that. It's not a very valuable car in the first place. Her own sister is willing to testify as to her dishonesty, and I can cite recent examples of her lying to my face. In light of everything that's happened, this seems to be a malicious act on her part. She wanted to be the one who divided up mom's ashes and clothes and other personal items. She's mad that stepdad asserted his rights by gaining custody of the ashes. Now the phone and car are the only barganing chips she has.
It's unfortunate, but if she had simply treated him with a modicrum of respect and not an advasart to be defeated he would have given them all whatever they wanted. He was still going to give them ash, even after sister kicked him out of her house during an informal mediation, and one of the other sisters cussed him out st length in the street. We drove him home and cinvinced him to forgive them, but sister number three calls up asking for ash, he says yes but wait (he still doesnt have ash himself because he's still making payments to finersl home) so she responds by cussing him out too. It's sad that they won't even treat him like a fellow human. The only redeamingvgrace has been my wife, who is just loving the dear man and wont take even what he offered because she recognizes that he needs time to grieve too.

Sorry if i went long on this, you all have given me plenty to discuss with him.

Last question, If she takes it to court he'll probable represent himself and submit sworn afidavits from my wife and I since we can't be running back and fourth across three states. If he looses, he's only out the court fees. But if he's likely to be ordered to pay her autourny fees, that's a diffrent matter. it's a numbers game, we'll have to see how much fight a 20 year old buic is worth.
 
The stepdaughter might have $100 more than the widowed stepdad, but both are penniless, or the car wouldn't be in dispute.

If being sued frightens him, give her the car.
I doubt he's willing to do that, because we're not discussing how he pulled give her the car.

Which, by the way, simply PROVES he owns the car.
The law has a principle.
You can't give away what you don't have (nemo dat quod non habet)

Legally the car, if things are as you recite, now belongs solely to the surviving widower.
It's his car, and his alone.
The title bears that out.
If a side agreement exists, it's meaningless, but a death vulture can litigate it.

He should go to DMV, take a death certificate, and for $10, maybe $25 have the car titled solely in his name.

He should also do the same with his car insurance company.

Then all he has to do is ignore the flock of death buzzards.

If she sues, highly unlikely, she sues.
He defends by taking the current title, with new title.
People without law degrees do that everyday.
Being low on funds doesn't mean he's stupid.
 
He's quite street smart, just not as articulate or booksmart. She's well off and wasn't concerned with the car untill he had interuptedbher plans to usurp him.

I know financial status means little to a judge when arguing a case. I don't expect her to sue, but I want to be ready with an answare for him if she threatens to. The easiest thing for her to do would be to steal it and park it in a red zone. He might not be sble to pay impound fees. Net result is nobody gets it.
His current priority is to pay off the mortuary so he can get His wife's ashes. I think my wife and I are more upset at what's happening than he is.
 
Cave Dweller said:
He's quite street smart, just not as articulate or booksmart. She's well off and wasn't concerned with the car untill he had interuptedbher plans to usurp him.

I know financial status means little to a judge when arguing a case. I don't expect her to sue, but I want to be ready with an answare for him if she threatens to. The easiest thing for her to do would be to steal it and park it in a red zone. He might not be sble to pay impound fees. Net result is nobody gets it.
His current priority is to pay off the mortuary so he can get His wife's ashes. I think my wife and I are more upset at what's happening than he is.
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Who has the car?
If he wants the car, he can go get the car.
Once he has the car, he can simply change the locks, or use one of those steering wheel locks to secure the car.
If he's more concerned about his deceased, beloved spouse, let him grieve in peace.
I know the sting of death in my life.
I don't focus on stuff, I focus on my loss, and I mourn their passing.
Forget the darn car, its his wife that he misses.
I'm sure you'd feel the same way if you lost a person you loved dearly.
If he thinks she's hiding or withholding the car, that's theft.
He can report the matter to the police as a stolen car, and inform his insurance company.
The buzzard of death has nothing, insofar as her alleged claim to the car.
My recommendation applies, stopp communicating with troublesome, negative, quarrelsome people.
He has no legal obligation to tell anyone but a court of law, acting pursuant to a legitimate lawsuit anything.
People love to talk too darned much.
Arguing does nothing but increases your blood pressure and inflame your passions, so I never respond to questions.
I change the subject, and most people get the idea.
If that doesn't work, I simply walk away.
No one is required to disclose their life circumstances to anyone, and its best if you keep everything about your life private.
 
He has the car. But she's harrasing him over it. He just wants to grieve and work and do his thing. He called us last night for addvice and asked us to double check his rights.
 
Cave Dweller said:
He has the car. But she's harrasing him over it. He just wants to grieve and work and do his thing. He called us last night for addvice and asked us to double check his rights.
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he can end the harassment, block her number, stop communicating with her, ignore her, she's what we call in Texas, all hat, no cattle.

He's under no obligation to explain anything to anyone, much less her.

I suggest you do the same, if you support the poor widower, as you say you do.

Stop carrying water for dummies.

Ignore her, she's like a lot of death buzzards, they want stuff, anything they can steal.

If she appears at his door, call the cops, don't communicate with her, argue with her, simply call the police, they'll also remove human refuse.

Then he doesn't need to worry about the car being parked on the street.
If it disappears, call the cops, report the car theft, report the theft to the police, he'll get a rental car from the insurer, he'll wait 30 days, the insurer will give him the value of the car, nothing to worry about.

If the cops catch whoever stole the car, the law will deal with teh thief.

The widower has no problems.

Support him during his time of loss, let him grieve, the car means nothing, its just stuff.

If you insure stuff, you get a replacement for the stuff.
That doesn't apply to the loss of his wife.

What this, what that, doesn't even matter.

Nothing has happened, but if it does, he's insured.
If he has less than adequate coverage, he should address that immediately.
 
The only thing that matters is whose name is on the face of the title at the DMV. Intentions and wishes and who needs the car the most are all irrelevant. Unless sister in law is trying to claim that her signature was forged on that transfer and she will have to prove that. Sorry sister. Once you gave the car to Mom it was hers to sell, trade or convey to whomever she wished.
 

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