Legal Question in Employment Law in Illinois

We hired someone to do work on an apartment building we own. He proceded to lie about hours worked, and he stole all the keys to the building along with the permits. He was supposed to drop them off at our house and didn't. He then refused to give them back unless we gave him a check for work done. We gave him a check, then when we went into the building, he falsified pictures of work he did and it's not done. In addition he took materials that he did not pay for. We have a security system on the building, he is the only person who had a code to get in besides us to have access to all of the above. We placed stop payment on the check when we realized what he had done. The currency exchange the check was cashed at is threatening to sue. The check was made paable to a business and a womans name is signed on back, it's not even endorsed by a business. Are we responsible to pay the check and can we be sued?


Asked on 11/01/11, 9:23 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Hire an attorney who can review the check; generally issuing a check is an "unconditional promise" to honor it, and your collateral rights against the payee business may be irrelevant. The endorsement issue may or may not be valid depending on whether the woman was authorized by the business to negotiate checks and whether the currency exchange had the proper documentation to allow that to happen. Besides, it sounds like you have other issues that will need to be resolved including but not limited to: getting the work done/corrected, trespass to your security system, theft of keys, etc. And NEVER pay a contractor without getting a property mechanic's lien waiver.

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Answered on 11/03/11, 8:05 am


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