Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Personal gurantee

They can sue you, but the question is whether you are going to let them get away with it. One of the hallmarks of a forged signature is that it is usually an exact photocopy of your signature. Finding the original signature that they copied will usually help you prove it is a forgery.

If you do get sued, you are going to need an attorney and what is known as a "questioned documents examiner." I would start rummaging around now to find copies of documents that someone may have obtained to photocopy your signature.

Questioned documents examiners were able to prove that the Truman signature on the Majestic 12 documents was a photocopy from other legitimate memos that President Truman signed.

To answer the other aspect of your question, a corporation can be sued, even though it has gone out of business, in the process of winding up its affairs.

Very truly yours,

Re: Personal gurantee

Your attorney would already have told you about document authentication issues and how you have to handle the the issues in court. You don't have an attorney? I suggest you weigh the cost of reasonable counsel against the cost of a potential judgment against you. Feel free to contact me if serious about protecting yourself in this action.

Re: Personal gurantee

As the previous answers advised you, the question you present is an issue of fact: The other side says you signed, you say you did not. The other side, being the proponent, has the burden of proof, but a lot will depend on how credibly you and your adversary will appear.

There are many things your attorney can do in pre-trial discovery at reasonably modest cost to ferret out the facts, including asking for inspection of the original by a handwriting expert (the "questioned document examiner mentioned in the previous answer). Other discovery tactics can put into doubt the claims of the person who contends that you signed the guaranty.

In the end, however, it comes down to who presents the stronger evidence on this issue. You will need able counsel to help you ferret out the facts and present your strongest case.

Re: Personal gurantee

Just to add to Mr. Roach's correct response, the burden of proof initially will be on the party trying to establish the document as being true. So the other side must first show that, but a judge probably would find that once they introduce the document into evidence the burden shifts to you. Your merely denying that it is legitimate might be insufficient; you might very well have to show that you never signed the document. Are there any facts which would ilmply that you would not have signed it, such as it was not your function in the corporation to sign for what is covered is that agreement, you were out of town on the date it was supposedly signed, going through with the contract would clearly be harmful to the business [buying items the business could not use or already had a surplus of what cost less than the contract price in this agreement, etc.]. Do you suspect that the party truing to enforce the contarct knows it is a fake or can you carefully speak to them to find out why they think it is genuine and what harm has occurred to them from the breach of the contract. They can only collect damages if they can show that your breach caused them damages; if the agreement was for the sale of items and they sold the same items at the same price a few days later, what real damages do them have? Who else do you think would have profited from your getting into trouble?