WRONGFUL DEBT AND I WAS NEVER SERVED

Jef R

New Member
Jurisdiction
New York
My dad recently received an information subpoena asking for information on my assets. According to the subpoena, I lost a court case back in 2004 for rental of a garage parking space. We had given up the space before the months they say we owe for.

The amount of the judgement and that they are now trying to collect has more than doubled.

The issues are:
1 - I was never served and never heard about the case nor the judgement until a few months ago despite the fact that it was entered back in March of 2004 and it was sent to the county clerk to be docketed until September 2010.

A few questions:
1 - Is the statute of limitations 10 or 20 years for individuals in NY?
2 - I was never served. Can I appeal the case? I was told by the plaintiffs lawyer that I had to have appealed in the 1st 5 years. I obviously am not putting much weight on their opinion. Can I appeal and if it is indeed 5 years, would it be from when the judgement was entered back in March of 2004 or when it was sent to the county clerk to be docketed until September 2010?

Thank you very much.
 
NY judgments are good for 20 years. See Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) Article 2 - Section 211(b):

2013 New York Consolidated Laws :: CVP - Civil Practice Law & Rules :: Article 2 - (201 - 218) LIMITATIONS OF TIME :: 211 - Actions to be commenced within twenty years.

You would not be "appealing" the judgment you would be seeking relief from the judgment under Section 5015:

2013 New York Consolidated Laws :: CVP - Civil Practice Law & Rules :: Article 50 - (5001 - 5021) JUDGMENTS GENERALLY :: R5015 - Relief from judgment or order.

Note that you had only one year for excusable default but for anything else (like fraudulent service perhaps) there doesn't appear to be a time limit.

What you need to do is go to the courthouse where the judgment was entered and get complete copies of everything in the case file so you can see what happened, specifically the Affidavit of Service which shows how and when you were purported to have been served.

Just keep in mind that it's possible to have been properly served without knowing about it.

See the NY process service rules:

New York Rules of Civil Procedure - Search-For-Servers.com

And compare them to what the Affidavit of Service says.
 
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