There is a judgement against me for scho...

Asked by the Customer on 17-03-2022 16:16:38
Question posted in the General Law category relating to North West

There is a judgement against me for school fees owed to a local high school. My only son is currently 5 years old. I eventually managed to find out that said school fees was for my husbands son from a previous marriage who was in his mother's custody. According to my knowledge the mother was responsible for the boy's school fees but she did not make the payments. My husband and I are married ANC.

I contacted the lawyers. They were extremely unhelpful but eventually sent me a scanned document with the boy's details, his father's details, and SOME of my details as the person responsible for the account. The document is not signed by anyone. The name and ID number on the document is mine, all other information belongs to the boy's birth mother. It looks like someone filled my name and ID by mistake maybe?

I spoke to the school, explained the situation and requested the case be withdrawn. They informed me that they could not find the original documents, the person responsible no longer worked there and they refused to assist me further unless I gave them personal information of the birth mother. They requested her address, cellphone number and ID number. I explained that I had no contact with this person and they suggested I should look up her ID number on my husband's divorce papers. I am now supposed to contact them with this information, but I'm not sure if I should do that. I don't really want to get involved in this woman's affairs. In the meantime, I have this judgement on my name and I am worried that someone would come knocking on my door to write up my belongings or something.

Any advice as to how I should proceed would be appreciated.

Message from the Attorney

Posted by Att. Patrick on 20-03-2022 09:20:34

Hi there,

I see that you haven't made a payment for the question, but I'm going to assist you a little. If you want to ask a follow-up question, please make the required payment, even if it is R150 or R200.

A mother and father are ALWAYS responsible for their child's school fees, even if they get divorced, and even if they never married. 

It sounds like the lawyers sued YOU instead of the child's real mother by mistake because you are married to the father now. This is a mistake. You can never be responsible for another person's child's school fees. This mistake must be remedied. 

If the lawyers won't fix the mistake, you can always apply to court to rescind (remove, or undo) the court order. But this means that you must hire your own private lawyer, and then hold the school liable for your costs because they refused to do anything about it.  

Att. Patrick 

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow-up questions please make the required deposit, then use the REPLY button and ask your further question. I would like to continue assisting you, but I need to concentrate on people who make deposits for their questions - they get serviced first!

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