Dishonoured cheque - writer deceased

kizzyf

A friend of mine is the Executor of his uncle's estate. The man died with very little after being conned out of a lot of money and he was suffering from dementia. Anyway a person has now brought an action against the estate saying that somebody purchased an item from him using a cheque written by the deceased that subsequently bounced. Nobody was aware of him having given this cheque and there is no logical reason for him wanting to give it but as I have said he was not thinking logically and was very confused in the last years of his life. The deceased had previously made a complaint to the Gardaí about the person who used the cheque as he thought he was stealing from him and bullying him into giving over money to him but he withdrew the complaint before he died as he felt he wouldn't be able to get any money back and was in fear of the other person.

What I want to know is can the person bringing the action succeed and on what grounds?

Thanks.

seamus

The solicitor should be able to assist him with this. It should be fairly straightforward - the person claiming should be able to prove that the deceased purchased an item from him and therefore there is an unpaid debt against the deceased's estate.

A copy of the invoice/receipt, as well as the bounced cheque showing the same amount would be sufficient, IMO.

It may be possible to release the debt by returning the item. The solicitor will know.

kizzyf

Thanks Seamus. The main issue is that the item was not received by the deceased person who wrote the cheque but by a third party.