A promissory note is a contract. Legal action can be taken to enforce a contract or for a breach of it for up to six (6) years after the contract was violated--that is, after you were supposed to do something but failed to do it. (The "statute of limitations" or SOL for a written contract in the state you indicate, MI, is six years; it is also six years in NJ, by the way.) You write that you were supposed to have paid 12 years ago. That is far longer than the SOL, so it is too late for them to force you to pay or take legal action. They can *ask* you to pay--anyone can ask anything--but have no power to make you pay.