My daughter ran away. After calming down, I realized she had stolen checks from the middle of my check book. I immediately stopped payment on the ones that were stolen. I began to call check cashing businesses in my area and found that she was trying to cash checks for $2500 that she had forged. The next day I called my bank and they cancelled the account from which the checks were written. I later discovered that a bank in town cashed one of the stolen/forged checks at their drive-thru window. My daughter took the money and she and a friend left the state. Can the bank that cashed the stolen/forged checks come back on me for the money? They are telling the police they want their money! I feel I have protected myself by putting a stop pay on the stolen checks as soon as I discovered they were gone. Please advise!
If you never signed the check, you are not liable on it, period. You did everything you could do to prevent the theft; the other bank didn't. They took the risk in cashing the check, and now they will have to take the loss unless they are able to successfully locate your daughter and recover the funds from her, with or without assistance from the courts. The forged signature operates as the signature of the individual who forged it, not as your signature.
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If you never signed the check, you are not liable on it, period. You did everything you could do to prevent the theft; the other bank didn't. They took the risk in cashing the check, and now they will have to take the loss unless they are able to successfully locate your daughter and recover the funds from her, with or without assistance from the courts. The forged signature operates as the signature of the individual who forged it, not as your signature.
