Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Re: cashed checks

The cashed check is not a contract, though it may be evidence of a contract. It is a receipt, but not necessarily for the specific item stated in the memo section of the check.

If I give my landlord a $950 check for my monthly rent and note in the memo section "For 2007 Lexus" and he deposits the check, I certainly am not going to be able to establish that the check was to purchase the landlord's new car, no matter what it says on the face of the check. All it proves is that I gave the landlord $950.

David K. Staub, an Illinois business attorney