Tenant Can't Stop Payment on Rent Check

(Decision submitted by landlord, Kenneth Matthews.) Facts: Landlord sued tenant's bank in small claims court for stopping payment on a certified check made out to landlord by tenant. The bank had stopped payment because it got a stop payment order from tenant before the check was presented for payment. The check was for tenant's first month's rent and security deposit. But tenant decided not to move in when when she went to the apartment and found signs of vermin infestation. She went to her bank and signed a sworn statement saying that the check should be stopped because it was destroyed, lost, or in the wrong hands. Court: Landlord wins. By law, banks can't stop payment on certified checks, except maybe where certification of the check was obtained by fraud or theft. This means fraud by tenant, who wrote the check---not fraud by landlord, as tenant argued. The bank also claimed that tenant was entitled to stop the check due to breach of the warranty of habitability, but there was insufficient proof of this, and it wasn't an acceptable legal reason to stop payment on the certified check.

Matthews v. Chemical Bank: Index No. 889/93 (7/12/93) (Civ. Ct. NY; Abdus-Salaam, J) [4-page document]