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Beit Midrash
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- P'ninat Mishpat
Ruling: Should beit din hear the case, given the rule that we do not extract payment from orphans who are under bar mitzva unless testimony was accepted during the father’s lifetime and the time had not come to have paid (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 108:3)? A check is a clear sign that the obligation has not been paid, and writing one is a form of giving believability that this is the case. On the other hand, maybe this is like a will, which the Shulchan Aruch says needs to be confirmed in front of the inheritors, for which a minor does not count. Beit din can hear the case for two reasons: 1) Beit din appointed a guardian to represent def. 2) If the children gain if the debt is paid earlier or lose if it is delayed, a case can be held, and here beit din has reason to be afraid that pl will stalk def until the matter is resolved.
Authenticating the checks’ signatures can be done by comparing the signature to other checks the deceased signed. Here the matter is stronger since the signatures are found on checks possessed only by the deceased.
As opposed to a loan contract, which mentions that the sum of money is an obligation, a check can be for a present as well. A present given by check is not binding until the check is cashed, as a check is only an instruction to the bank to transfer money until told otherwise. While the deceased’s obligations can be paid from property he left to def, the promise of a present cannot. On the other hand, it would be illogical for the deceased to have given such a large gift to someone not closely connected to him. In fact, the sources that allow one to claim that something was done for free apply only when one explicitly makes such a claim or in regard to cases where the scenario makes sense.
Usually we look at a signature as admission of the one who signed that that which is written above is true. However, in this case, the deceased signed a check without a monetary sum. On the other hand, since banks accept such checks when they are filled in later, there is an element of admission that whatever the recipient writes is correct. [The sources on this matter are beyond our scope.] However, that is a more cogent claim during the deceased’s lifetime, but after his death, when no one can contradict pl if he fabricates a high sum, it is hard to convince us that deceased owed him so much money.
Beit din employed a compromise of paying $10,000 instead of the checks’ face values.
P'ninat Mishpat (835)
Various Rabbis
152 - A Sales Contract Signed by Only One Spouse
153 - Accepting Open Checks Signed by Someone Now Deceased
154 - Compensating for an Overpriced Car
Load More
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
