Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Fraud

You already have a lawyer...either you have a reason not to ask your own lawyer this question, or you have already asked and don't trust the response. Either way, I think you need to address this problem first -- getting legal representation in the divorce case that you'll use and trust.

Now, as to your issues. The parties are supposed to be present at court-ordered settlement conferences. "Appearance" by telephone might be allowable in some cases. Your divorce lawyer should know the local rules governing family law settlement conferences and make sure that the other side observes them.

An oral settlement agreement is not enforceable unless made in court, before a judge, and on the record.

As to the possible fraud being practiced by your wife and her new "friend," one of the first questions you need to ask is who is the victim? To the extent you can show that their misrepresenting marital status in buying property affects you, e.g., if it results in concealing assets that should be disclosed on one of the required disclosures in a dissolution proceeding, you may have some legal recourse.

If, on the other hand, the only possible victims of the fraud are, for example, the seller or the lender on the newly-acquired house, it's probably none of your business, legally speaking.

Fraud can either be civil or criminal. The distinction is very fuzzy, and criminal fraud actions are probably brought whenever the local prosecutor feels the public interest is or was endangered by the fraudulent activity, e.g. by a phony multiple-lot land-sale scheme. The mis-statement of marital status here was probably to deceive the lender into making the loan without getting your signature and/or to obtain title showing no spousal interest. Whether this defrauds you (or anyone, for that matter) in a legally-redressible way depends upon additional facts, such as where the down-payment money came from. You'd need a family-law attorney to look over the facts.

However, as a starting point, civil fraud requires a deception that the victim innocently and reasonably relies upon, and suffers financial harm as a result of the deception. The deception usually consists of a willful and material mis-statement of fact, but can also be withholding a fact that one has a duty to disclose.

Your problem would be to show that you suffered any harm as a consequence of the misrepresentation. You may also have a statute of limitations problem, based on the dates mentioned in your question.