When writing voided checks (e.g. for direct deposit), I have a tendency to write silly things in the other spaces.
I was pondering - if you wrote what appeared to be an actual check (date, amount, and signature are all good), but the payee line contained “Pay to the order of : Your Mom”, what would be the legal status of the check? In the context of check law, who would the “Your” relate to? The initial recipient of the check? The bearer? The bank teller who the check is presented to? If I wrote such a check and gave it to you, and you gave it to your mother, who cashes it, does she have to turn the money over to HER mother?
IANAL and I don’t know if there is any such thing as “check law” but I think that in general a person’s name or company name is expected there. It is likely that a bank would not accept it at all since it is not made out to a legal entity. Once I got a check made out to the name of my band, which is not established in any way as a company, and my bank would not take it. They said the only way they would accept it was if I were depositing it to a business account that matched the band name on the check.
There is, but lawyers call it “Negotiable Instrument” law. Here’s a cite to a potentially relevant section of the Uniform Commercial Code. Note that while each state has enacted some version of the UCC, there are differences from state to state on some issues.
That’s just silly. You can always register yourself “doing business as” any name you like, which has been brought up here before in threads about celebrities/artists who go by stage names (i.e. Madonna, Carrot Top), and then cash the checks. I’ve also cashed checks made out to “Cash” before with no problem.
You *can *register yourself, but **CookingWithGas ** hadn’t done that. All the bank told him was he’d need a business account with the band’s name on it. Doesn’t seem at all silly to me or to contradict anything you said.
IME many times the bank will not even look at the “Pay to the order of” line and simply deposit the check. I seem to remember reading (maybe here) about someone who switched evnvelopes and accidentally mailed their mortgage check to one of the utility companies. The utility cashed the check with no problem, and refused to do anything about it when the error was discovered, so the person came up short on their mortgage that month, but had a large credit balance wih the utility.
My dad recently retired as the VP of a bank, and they had a situation almost identical to this one.
A customer came in with a check that a friend had made out to “Yo’ Mama”. Well, he thought “Okay, my mama’s going to get this money.” But when he told the teller “I have a check made out to yo mama”, the teller filled out a deposit slip with HIS OWN mother’s name on it.
After an animated discussion, the bank manager on duty was called over and the check explained. The manager said “That’s great. My mama will love this.” And he took the check and slammed it in the cash drawer.
By now, all the tellers and half the customers were weighing in on the issue, security was called, and the VP (my dad) was called in from his day off (it was a Saturday morning).
He imposed martial law, the bank was locked down, and the customer, the first teller and the manager were allowed to calmly explain.
After all this, my dad took the check out of the cash drawer, looked the customer in the eye, and calmly asked"Who is the check made out to?"
“Yo’ Mama.”
“Great! She could really use the money!” He signed the back of the check with HIS mother’s name, scooped the cash out of the drawer and strode quickly out of the bank.
Gran didn’t want to take the money at first, but she compromised when we kids said she could buy us ice cream with some of it. We ended up all getting taken out to dinner that night, and Gran said each of us kids could take a friend.
You didn’t say what jurisdiction you’re in. It always depends, you see.
In New Zealand, the cheque will have “Pay to the order of:_____ or Bearer” printed on it. If you don’t write on it “A/c payee only”, the bank can pay to whoever presents the cheque.
It used to be you wrote “Not Negotiable” but the banks altered that as it was confusing whether that meant the cheque had to be deposited in an account or if it was cancelled.