Opinion ID: 776368
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A stop payment request on a bank check is an application or commitment.

Text: 25 This, then, leads us to the final question we must consider: Whether a false statement made to influence a bank to stop payment of a bank check relates to an application, commitment, or one of the other transactions enumerated in 18 U.S.C. § 1014. We hold that it does. 26 The bank is the drawer of a bank check or a cashier's check. 3 U.C.C. § 3-104(g)-(h). Unlike a personal check drawn by a depositor on his own account, bank checks and cashier's checks carry the promise of the bank itself. See 2 James J. White & Robert S. Summers, Uniform Commercial Code 390 (4th ed.1995); see also United States v. Riley, 550 F.2d 233, 235 (5th Cir.1977) (The cashier's check is a commitment by the bank to deliver cash to the payee.). 27 When a customer requests a bank to stop payment of a bank check or a cashier's check, the customer is asking the bank to break the bank's own ... contract under Uniform Commercial Code § 3-414 or § 3-412 — namely, its promise to a holder of the check that the instrument will be paid. 4 2 White & Summers, supra, at 390. It follows that a statement made to induce a bank to dishonor a bank check seeks to influence the bank's commitment to a holder of the bank check. 28 Likewise, a stop payment request, whether made orally or in writing, is an application to the bank to dishonor the check when it is presented. Under Uniform Commercial Code § 4-403, 5 a customer does not have the right to stop payment of a bank check. Because a bank check is not drawn on the customer's account but rather on the bank's own account, the bank is not required to impair its credit or incur liability by refusing payment for the convenience of the customer. U.C.C. § 4-403 Official Comment 4. The best the customer can do is ask. A customer's request that a bank stop payment of a check drawn by the bank is an application which the bank has the right to accept or reject. A false statement made to influence a bank's action on such a request falls within the purview of 18 U.S.C. § 1014.