Disclosure of marital agreement question.

[sainty333]

Ex wife filed ch7 which included her student loan (which I co-signed) but it was in our divorce decree that she was to pay it.
I don’t believe she told the courts it was part of our divorce decree and now they are coming after me.
Can I ask the court if she disclosed it? Any help is greatly appreciated.
thanks

[despritfreya]

In all likelihood, she listed the student loan. To verify what she did or did not list you need to get a copy of the Schedules she filed. Look at Schedule E/F.

Since both of you signed on the loan, you are both equally responsible regardless of what the Divorce Decree (DD) states. A DD is a contract between ex-spouses, It is not binding on any other party. From the moment your ex filed bk, the student loan lender stopped attempting to collect from her as is required by law. It can still collect against you as you are not in bk. Since student loans in general are not dischargeable, once she gets her discharge, the lender may (and probably will) resume collections against her.

As stated, the DD is a contract between the two of you. To the extent you are forced to pay any obligation that was assigned by the DD to your ex, you have a claim against her for breaching the contract if she does not pay what the DD assigned to her. Similar to the student loan, the claim you have against her is not dischargeable pursuant to either 11 USC 523(a)(5) or (a)(15). As a result, to the extent you are forced to pay the student loan lender, you should be able to bring her back to the family law court for reimbursement.

Please talk to your divorce attny as well as a bankruptcy attny to determine your rights and how to proceed against your ex, if the need arises.

Des.