The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
010
:
VERIFIED REPORT OF PROPERTY; EXAMINATION OF RECORDS
(Cite as: 27 V.S.A. § 1565)
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§ 1565. Evidence of unpaid debt or undischarged obligation
(a) A record of a putative holder showing an unpaid debt or undischarged obligation is
prima facie evidence of the debt or obligation.
(b) A putative holder may establish by a preponderance of the evidence that there is no
unpaid debt or undischarged obligation for a debt or obligation described in subsection
(a) of this section or that the debt or obligation was not, or no longer is, a fixed
and certain obligation of the putative holder.
(c) A putative holder may overcome prima facie evidence under subsection (a) of this section
by establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that a check, draft, or similar
instrument was:
(1) issued as an unaccepted offer in settlement of an unliquidated amount;
(2) issued but later was replaced with another instrument because the earlier instrument
was lost or contained an error that was corrected;
(3) issued to a party affiliated with the issuer;
(4) paid, satisfied, or discharged;
(5) issued in error;
(6) issued without consideration;
(7) issued but there was a failure of consideration;
(8) voided not later than 90 days after issuance for a valid business reason set forth
in a contemporaneous record; or
(9) issued but not delivered to the third-party payee for a sufficient reason recorded
within a reasonable time after issuance.
(d) In asserting a defense under this section, a putative holder may present evidence
of a course of dealing between the putative holder and the apparent owner or of custom
and practice. (Added 2019, No. 93 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2021.)