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Check Cashing: Mismatched Payee and Endorsement

I am a business owner. An authorized signer on my business checking account wrote a $70,000 check to herself, signed it, and endorsed it without my permission and/or authorization. She took the check to the bank and had the bank cash it.

However, the signed endorsement on the back was not the same as the "Pay To the Order Of" line. She used a nickname on the front (Pay To Line) and her full legal name on the back (Endorsement). I have scoured the UCC and any other resources I can think of to see if I have any recourse. Since it was not signed properly, was it legal for the bank to cash this check?


You must have experienced a lot of surprise, frustration and anger when you learned about that check! You might want to double check this response with an attorney, but if the check listed a nickname and a full name is used in an endorsement, if the endorsement is that of the individual named as payee, it's a sufficient endorsement even if it doesn't use exactly the same words/names.

The bank did not err in honoring the check, unless there is other background information that you haven't included in your question that might lead to a different conclusion. It appears you are limited to attempting to recover from the individual who seems to have plundered your account.

Published on BankingQuestions.com 6/19/07