Legal Question in Business Law in Ohio

Hello, I have a situation that needs some professional advice for sure. Lets start with a home owner (Jim) who contracted a guy (dave) to run his 1 million dollar addition. Dave contacted my Husband Jeff to build this addition to build it so Dave would be the supervisor of the job and jeff the builder and dave role would be to make sure materials and other trades and etc. would be in place. Jeff Dave and the home owner sat down with a contract and the home owner wanted some things revised all three parties have the contract but that one was not signed at that time it needed revised. So Jeff revised it and that contract was only signed by Jeff and Jim not Dave he was not included in the contract to be signed because in the contract even though dave was listed as the supervisor he was not on the signing of the contract anywhere just monies and where they would go and be spent who would be getting paid and how much witch included daves cut of the job but Jeff did not have a line for dave to sign because all monies were to be ran thru Jeffs company and Jeff was to pay all trades including Dave cut listed in the contract when the job was completed. So anyhow a new contract was revised with the changes that Jim wanted and was signed only by Jeff and Jim no Line for dave for he was only getting paid. Now that this is clear on the contract here is what happened.

Approximately somewhere in phases of the job the homeowner releases a check to start to pay trades that need paid for jobs done. Jeff asked Dave to ask the homeowner to release a check for this since he is the supervisor. Well few weeks go by and there was a meeting with all 3 to take place and jeff said before they walked in that dave was to ask for a check. Dave replied oh yeah he gave me one. Jeff went home after the meeting and personally called Jim and said I need to ask you when you gave a Check to Dave he said a few months ago! They started to talk and the homeowner sent over a copy of the check and it was for over 50 thousand dollars when Jeff looked at the copy of the check that Jim sent over he was shocked and so was the homeowner that on the payee line it had Jeffs company name and / then Daves name next to it and endorsed it on the back with the Jeff's company name and then his. He had all the money for months and never let Jeff know this. Jeff called Dave and they met at panera bread and he gave Jeff all the money except 8 thousand he paid in cash to the electrician and 15 thousand he took as a cut of his profit and would only give Jeff 25 thousand back in a check form. Dave was told to bring the full amount to run through the business but he would not. Jeff left and spoke to Jim and Dave after this point never stepped another foot on the job again this job from this point took 8 months to finish and Jeff became not only the builder but took on the role of supervisor too. Jeff and Jim did not want to deal with Dave at this point because of the forgery and right fully so. Over the months Dave would still call Jeff and act like he was still getting a cut and Jeff said are you kidding me you committed forgery have not done any work and honestly were overpaid for the work u did in the first stage and left it at that. When the Job was completed about 2 months afterwards we got served papers that dave was suing for the rest of his payment that was listed in the contract for services rendered which is 43 thousand dollars! Jeff then went to the sheriff and told them what dave had done with the check and they told him there was nothing they could do! He then contacted a lawyer and to start we had to pay out 5k for this to start to be resolved. Daves lawyer sent over documentation to Jeffs lawyer and he saw where dave took the original contact the was never signed because it needed revisions and he put a line under Jeff and Jims signatures and Signed his name to make it look like he was on this contract legally! you can see that is does not line up to the other lines and that it is forged as well. Now Jeff and Jim on the revised contract are the only two signatures on that revised updated contract. Dave forged his name to a old contract with no updates on it! Okay so now its going to trial which Jeff now has to pay more lawyer fees and go to trial and the homeowner is 100 percent behind Jeff in this matter.

Now my questions after you read all of this.

Jeff would not be in this position if the bank did its job and never cashed the check or put a hold on it. I used to work at a bank and You cant cash a check it has to be deposited into that business account now how did dave get this deposited or cashed he not the payee on the check a business is! why when jeff went to the police did they say they couldnt do anything. If the bank did there job and not cashed it dave would of had to give it to jeff and this situation would of never of been. Now its trial and proving he forged a check and a legal contract. You can not make out what bank on the copy that he did this at or trust me Jeff would of gone there and why are his lawyers not pressing charges against dave for the check or going after the bank. The bank is at fault and at this point i feel they should be going after dave and paying lawyers for jeff to pursue it. Jeff so far is out 10k and counting .......I will await your response Thanks Lisa

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