Legal Question in Business Law in Washington

Re: contractor cashed checked at quick cash place

This is an interesting situation. Although it would take some research on my part to get right down to it, my quick take for purposes of this question is that you are not liable to a third party check cashing business. They certainly have a case against the contractor, since he furnished them the check and there is what lawyers call "privity of contract" between them, meaning, they are the parties to the deal, not you.

Besides, the check cashing place assumes a risk when they accept third party checks, and they charge fees accordingly. I bet your contractor got 80-90 cents on the dollar. The check cashing business would have had him sign something, and get a copy of his ID, so they know whom they are supposed to go after, assuming the ID is real. Either way, it's between the contractor and them.

Considering you luckily discovered the fraud and called the check in, the check cashing business could have discovered this, by calling your bank to verify funds before accepting the check themselves, unless he cashed it that same Saturday and they tried to deposit it on Monday when it was too late. Again, this is a risk they assume in their business and they are aware that a good number of bad checks will come across their desk.

What they are trying to do with you is see if they can scare you into paying them, on the off chance it will work. They have nothing to lose.

I suggest you hire someone to do the research and put together a solid letter citing the statutes and case law to the check cashing place and explain to them that their dispute is with the contractor and that further efforts to communicate with you will be deemed harassment and that you will seek whatever appropriate legal remedies are available (that's what the research is for to fill in those blanks) to you.

Doing this may also head them off at the pass when they think of suing you. This type of letter puts a reality check on things. I hope this helps!