Summer 2003-14 No stop payment of cashiers checks
Number 52
Summer 2003
from our archives-1999
No stop payment of cashier’s checks
Cashier’s checks are not subject to stop payment orders. Sainz Gonzalez v. Banco Santander-Puerto Rico, 932 F.2d 999 (1st Cir. 1991).
Juan Saboya deposited to his account a cashier’s check for $26,250 drawn by Old Stone Bank of Providence, Rhode Island. Two days later, Dionisio Sainz presented Saboya’s personal check for $16,100, which Banco Santander honored by giving Sainz its own cashier’s check, with which Sainz purchased a certificate of deposit in Banco Guipuzcoano, Spain. A week had passed when Santander learned that the Old Stone Bank check was a forgery, and stopped payment of the one it had given to Sainz. Banco Guipuzcoano cancelled the CD, and Sainz sued Santander.
The court noted that in Herrera v. First Nat. City Bank, 103 D.P.R. 724 (1975), the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico treated cashier’s checks as the equivalent of cash for deposit “hold” purposes, and emphasized that Sainz could have required that Santander pay the Saboya check in cash.
Santander was ordered to honor its cashier’s check and pay compensatory damages.
© 2003 Goldman Antonetti