Rights to sell?

Okay, a friend of mine (lets call her Liz) rescued a horse two years ago. She then was "co-owning" him with another friend of hers (well call them Phil). They each alternated months that they would pay for his care. Well, they got on bad terms with each other and Phil has been paying for him for a few months since they're not on speaking terms. Phil is trying to sell this horse when the original arrangement was that he was to come back to Liz if he could no longer provide for him. There are no legal papers saying that Phil owns him but Liz has the bill of sale from the original rescue.

Liz desperately wants her horse back, but thinks that possession is 9/10ths of the law and there is no way she could get him back without a struggle especially since Phil has already found a potential buyer. I have no idea what legally should happen. Anyone else have a clue? It would be much appreciated!

(and yes. I know neither of them were smart for getting into the situation they did. I don't approve of it. Liz should have taken her horse back right when they got into their argument and not waited this long. But you can't tell people what to do, now can you? :roll:)

Bump bump.

I don't think there is much she can do. Since there is no legal documentation of the agreed plan, Phil is technically the legal owner and can do with the horse as he pleases. If she can convince him to give her the horse, there is no legal ground to stand on. It would just be her word against his in court and at the police station.

Liz owns the horse, she has a bill of sale and no contract between liz and phil so its liz's horse.

I would agree that since she has the bill of sale, it is her horse.... she may have to get legal involved though to stop the current sale.

With the bill of sale, she would have legal ground to stand on. But again, there isn't legal documentation on the agreement. And if Phil can produce recepits (sp?) of horse bills, and he can prove they are for the horse in question, that will cause some upheaval in a court of law.

Her best bet is to ask for the horse (and get documentation of the meeting between them and what was said). If that won't work, go to a lawyer and discuss it.

Yeah if he had some document that said he paid for the horse he might be given the horse?

If she wants the horse back that bad, she should offer him the money he is asking. Just a thought.

They both have a decent case since she has the bill of sale in her name, and he should be able to produce proof that he's paid all the bills on the animal for months.

It really could go either way, legally.

What is "bill of sale" from the rescue? I always though it's an "adoption" paper if it's a true rescue. Also is the rescue informed about possible re-sell of the horse? Many rescues require you to provide them with info if the horse goes into re-sale, and they can step-in if it was a requirement on the original papers (meaning it won't let Phil to sell the horse).

I don't think he can just go ahead and sell the horse legally. But in any case even though she has all papers he's the one who paid horse's expenses (BTW, no offense, but bad relations with co-owner is NOT a reason not to pay for the shared horse). So they have to settle that down before going somewhere else.