interogatory questions

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2006
interogatory questions
4
Thu, 08-10-2006 - 10:19am
What happens if you are unable to answer some of the interogatory questions you were given by your dh?
My sister is going through a divorce and her dh wants answers to question and also receipts from a business that she owend years ago. The business is now closed.
He doesn't want the divorce and I told her that I think he is digging up all this stuff as a way to make it harder to leave.
Also, she has no access to the computer that holds all the financial info so some of the questions she can't answer cuz he won't give her the password to the area she needs.
How should she handle this?
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-13-2005
Thu, 08-10-2006 - 12:27pm

She can just write that she is not in possession, custody or control of that information.

Also was the business operating before the marriage? Was it non-operating? She can also object to that question if that is the case because it is not relevant to discovery.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2006
Thu, 08-10-2006 - 12:56pm
The business was operating during the course of there whole marriage. But then my Dad died 9 years ago and left it to us kids. My brother basically ran it into the ground so my sister and I sold out our shares for $1 just to get out of it. My sisters husband feels there own personal money was used to help fund the business and he also thinks that there is tax evasion etc and he doesn't want to be legally responsible.
However, we have always had cpa's doing our accounting and everything was totally on the up and up. Nothing illegal ever traspired. My Dad was in biz for almost 30 years so you don't have a company doing national business and doing it illegally for all those years and never getting caught.
He is just basically a manipulative jerk and is trying everything he can to put roadblocks in the way of the divorce cause he is "embarssed" that he is getting divorced and what are all of his big time successful friends gonna think. He has flat out told her that. The problem is that my sister doesn't have much self confidence and she lets him railroad her into backing down.
I told her she just has to answer what she can and let the lawyers handle the rest.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 08-10-2006 - 2:49pm

I would tell him that she no longer has access to that since she SOLD (that being the operative word and her not being responsible for anything that happened after she sold her share) the business.... AND... if he had these kinds of concerns, why wasn't he concerned while they were married?


Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-13-2005
Thu, 08-10-2006 - 4:49pm
Her lawyer will probably advise her to say that it is not in her care, custody or control. If the STBX wants it that bad, his lawyer can propound a Notice of Non Party production/Subpoena to the CPAs. She doesn't have to worry about something that she doesn't have.