Legal Question in Business Law in California

You can stop payment on the check, which will cost $25-35, depending upon your bank. The check may have been lost in the mail or accidently mis-addressed. Your are basically telling the gardener that he is lying. Yes, he can sue her and likely would win.

I agree with Mr. Shers. The problem is that both you and your mother are assuming he received the check, especially when you ask to get the check back. Yet if he received the check, why would he not cash it and go through all this trouble?

The safer and more reasonable assumption is that the check has been stolen or lost in delivery. I think you should pay him, and place a stop payment on the check to protect yourselves.

There is a simple process for handling lost, etc. checks. Have your mom place a stop-payment order where she banks. Then cut the gardner a new check, perhaps delivering it personally, with apologies. This will protect all concerned if the check were stolen, etc.

The issue that needs to be resolved here is whether the gardener has been actually paid for the month of February. As you have no proof that the gardener did indeed receive the check, and since it�s not been cashed yet, the best thing to do is to just place stop payment order on the check. In this case, your fear that the February check will be cashed in the future will be eliminated. After canceling said check, just issue another check and personally give it to the gardener and that will solve both your problems.

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