My husband has questions about repaying a student loan. He didn't get any traction when he posted, so he asked me to try becuase I have more karma.

Context:

MIL = mother in law FIL = father in law

More than half a decade ago, MIL signed a Department of Education Parent PLUS Loan for my husband. FIL, who is legally married to MIL, did not co-sign this loan. However, MIL and FIL now have a separation agreement in New York state that includes the following clause:

"The Parties (MIL and FIL) acknowledge that MIL has co-signed on various school loans for their [birth order] child, (husband), who attended [school]. The parties agree that should (husband) default in the payment of such loans and MIL be required to pay as guarantor, FIL and MIL will each be responsible for 50% of any payment on such liability."

It’s important to note that MIL is the only signatory on the Parent PLUS loans, meaning the loan is solely under MIL’s name and appears only on MILs credit report. FIL was not involved in the signing of these loans.

Questions:

1. Given the apparent factual inaccuracy in the separation agreement’s wording (stating MIL co-signed when MIL is actually the only one who signed the loan), how might this impact the enforceability of the agreement if MIL were to sue FIL for not paying 50% of the loan payments?

2. If the separation agreement is enforceable, could FIL have this loan added to their credit report or be considered a co-signer by virtue of the agreement, even though they did not originally sign the loan?

3. If FIL consistently pays 50% of the loan payments to MIL as per the agreement, does that prevent MIL from taking legal action against FIL?

Please ignore the ethics and morality of us trying to get out of the loan. We're in a rough spot financially and MIL is a terrible person for reasons I won't go into because of anonymity. We're just looking for advice becuase we really don't want this to fall back on FIL.