Legal Question in Consumer Law in Ohio

Stop Payment on Check

Two days ago I purchased a 1999 Freightliner truck and paid in full with a check from New York. On the return trip to New York the truck began to act up. I contacted a local dealership and discovered that the engine in the truck is a 1994 with an undislocsed amount of miles. The truck was sold with a reported 365,000 miles. We have been able to determine through Detroit engine records that the engine has at least 700,000 miles possibly as much as 1,000,000 as 2 years are unaccounted for. I then contacted the dealership where we purchased the vehicle and informed them of our findings and that they had falsely advertised this equipment, at which point they said they were unaware of any of this information and would not have bought the truck themselves if they had known this. At this time we put a stop patyment on the check and plan on returning the truck ASAP. Is putting a stop payment on this check a FEDERAL OFFENSE? I spoke with our bank V.P. and she said it was not.


Asked on 3/31/03, 10:56 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kenneth J. Ashman Ashman Law Offices, LLC

Re: Stop Payment on Check

Knowingly writing a check with insufficient funds is a criminal offense. Taking legitimate action to remedy a fraud or breach of contract is not.

With the caveat that I have performed no research on the point, I would not spend any sleepless nights worrying about whether the cancelation of corporate check that otherwise had good funds was stopped under the circumstances you describe.

If the dealer does not agree to remedy the wrongdoing, however, it seems to me that you have a valid claim.

-- Kenneth J. Ashman; www.AshmanLawOffices.com

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Answered on 4/14/03, 6:27 pm


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