Mom's going to court...
Well myself and my mom are going to eviction court to tell the judge and jury that her son exploited, lied, and took advantage of her blindness to get her house. Now he is dead and his son sold it. He went to probate Court and got all his dad's things but Houston is where all his dad's things were located. The house is in another town and we never got anything from probate that the house was on it. Well anyway she wants it back and the deed made like her will. And she has witnesses and evidence that she would of never signed it without it being as her will reads 4 children split and if any of us take the other to court for our part then that child gets nothing. My mom is 91 and blind and was blind at the time that her son had the deed done.
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I'm going to be it.I know it's not a good idea but I don't have any other choice unless one calls.
Any ideas for a opening statement..I am studying the procedure for a civil courts trial with jury but any ideas for the opening statement?
Unless your opening statement will be something like...
"We will present the courts with documents including:
[list the documents you have]
which will show that Mrs [Mother] was fraudulently deprived of her house, to which she now claims title."
... you're right up a gum tree.
What matters is TITLE. You have to show
• that your mother was the owner of the house
• that when she transferred the house to your brother she did so in the belief that... what? What did your brother tell her the document was about?
• that the transfer was therefore invalid
• that therefore title remained with your mother
- and hence she has continued to live in it and still does
• that therefore the house was not your brother's to bequeath to his son
- and hence you have assisted your mother by paying property taxes, in the reasonable belief that the property belonged to your mother.
But you will need proof. If you don't have any, forget it. Even the most tender-hearted and compassionate jury still needs some kind of evidence to go on.
Maybe, actually, the best thing you could do would be to ask for more time to find a lawyer.
He lived in Houston and a Houston lawyer is who I will be facing.. ll
To clarify.
Your mother lives in a house. You live with her.
Your late brother's son claims that he owns the house. He is going to court to evict you and your mother so that he can sell it.
You have to prove that the house belongs to your mother, and that her grandson does not have title to it and therefore cannot evict her nor sell the house.
What exactly does it say on the deed?
How do you aim to prove that any documents showing that your mother transferred ownership to your brother are invalid?
Receipts won't do it. Statement from your sister? - saying what? People who helped you over a five year period and witnessed your brother's behaviour? - does any of this help to prove that your mother did not knowingly transfer ownership of the house to your brother?
You have to prove that your mother was actively co-oerced by your brother into signing a document believing that it was something other than what it was. Or, are you suggesting that your mother did not sign any document, and your brother forged her signature?
No jury is going to *like* a young man who goes to court to evict his own grandmother. But that doesn't mean he doesn't in fact own the house. And unless you do mean that there was forgery involved, you're talking about proving that ten years ago your mother signed a document without knowing what it was because a person who is now deceased lied to her about it. Please tell me her signature was not formally witnessed?
What will you do if the court finds against you and the eviction order proceeds? I wonder if you might do better to work on a Plan B.
So the eviction is being pursued by the new owner. Who must have bought the house with a sitting tenant, then; and is therefore either a natural-born optimist or is very experienced in dealing with this kind of property and knows what he's about.
But if your mother's name is still on the deed, although I wouldn't actually know for certain, I do not see how the house could be sold without her agreement. So I'm guessing her name is no longer on the deed. Do you in fact have a copy of the deed as it currently exists?
Your father died in [date], leaving the house to your mother.
Your mother added your brother to the deed, giving him part ownership of the property, when? And why?
At some point your mother must have been removed. When? And why?
Your mother was in a nursing home for how long? Who was paying for this?
When did she return to the house?
Who had been paying taxes in the interim?
How did the property taxes come to be three years in arrears?
Get everything down in date order, you need a timeline.
It occurs to me, too, by the way, that the court may be able to advise you on where you might find a lawyer.
But lawyers aren't normally reluctant to take on work. If no one in your area wants to touch your case with a stick, are there reasons for that that you're aware of?
If this person is deemed to have done something wrong, he may be on the hook for YOUR legal fees.
If this document is also in direct contradiction of every other instruction she has ever given to anyone about her property, and given that this is a civil case and the benchmark is the "balance of probabilities" rather than reasonable doubt...
You might just get somewhere. You are trying to prove that the transfer of property was carried out *fraudulently*. Stick to that, don't muddy the waters with a load of boo-hooing about how mean your brother was.
Apart from anything else, he was paying property taxes on the house your mother was living in for some years, right?
Be careful to stick to that one key point: there never was a legal transfer of property.
The villain of the piece is the (allegedly) skulduggering brother who told Mother the (alleged) taratiddle about what she was putting her name to. But he will not be paying anyone's costs.
If the grandson misrepresented the legal situation to the purchaser, the purchaser (now would-be evicter) might have some comeback against him.
Not Lisa's problem! That's something :)
We have family land and with her lease money she paid taxes .We have no claim on the land till she is deceased.From 1985 when dad and her bought the house till 2015 when brother died . His son didn't pay the taxes either. After his dad's death.my brother found out the house had been in his name long enough so merp couldn't get it . That's when he locked me out and Mama and left her in nursing home and told me I better get gone..Had to move to hotel and try to make it but ended up leaving in my car and the clothes on my back to Oklahoma with my daughter.That was 2013 August..Then in 2015 may , he died and I came back and got into my bedroom through the window with mama watching.. We came in and when we got back to nursing home my brother son called the chief of police on me .So he came to nursing home and asked me who this guy was told chief who and what he wanted to harass me for being in the house and Mama told him that's her house and he needs to leave me alone. He came down to tell her that her son was dead but not that he was selling her home and he knows my brother never lived there or came here to see mama due to his home situation.His common law wife is the one that had been telling him for years to leave since2005 but he wouldn't leave.We didn't know till 2005 when he came to see Dad and us up in Austin and when he got back after a week she had moved all his stuff out into a storage and locked him out and the next thing you know cause he wouldn't leave she shot him in self defense 10 years later..I really believe and my mom and sister that in 2005 is when he changed and was very controlling due to her wanting him out and him not wanting to move from there . Not sure about the man that bought it but I do know I sent his lawyer all receipts for the saving the house from auction and offered to give my brothers part of house cash to whoever.Never got a response.Just hope I can get a lawyer or more time to get one..So much stuff to explain, I need to narrow it down..
As you're "in person" I'm sure the court will do all it can to help you within the bounds of normal procedure.
Whether or not the house in question belongs to the person seeking the eviction order in question is, pretty obviously, highly germane.
I completely agree with SnoopyLove that the key thing to focus on immediately is your and especially your mother's wellbeing. But that doesn't mean the title issue isn't worth pursuing.
What was the grandson even doing there? I thought he'd already "sold" the property?
How is your mother after her moral victory? :)
I am not exactly sure where you can find information about who officially owns the house and when it is changing hands. I am guessing any sale has to be recorded by a city or county department, such as who is now responsible to pay property taxes on it, etc.
I hope some other folks have better answers for you, Lisa. And I hope you and your mom are hanging in there.
This appears to be a link you can search for Texas filings:
www.texasfile.com/register/
There is a realtor listed on the Movoto website; I'm sure she'd be interested to see your mom's deed.