riverman wrote:
If a merchant loses a check, is the customer responsible to reissue
another one when the merchant requests it? Or is it the customer's
good luck?

Assume that the customer and merchant have some bad blood; maybe the
merchant refused to accept something the customer wanted to return,
and that this lost check turns out to be an opportunity for the
customer to get some just desserts. Can the customer say "ha! I gave
you a valid check, my responsbility ended there. You lost it, you eat
it."

--riverman

(of course, this is hypothetical, and anything that is said here is
merely hypothetical and not really legal advice...)

IANAL. However, I will offer my opinion.

You don't owe him anything - you paid, I assume you have a receipt. His
loss of your check is not your problem. And given that the vendor lost
whatever goodwill he might have earned with you in the deal, you should feel
no obligation. However, I would offer him a deal, just out of the kindness
of my heart - potentially earning yourself some goodwil for future use
(assuming you want that). First I would ask him to pay your check
cancellation fee at your bank. That check is still out there somewhere and
either your vendor or whoever finds it might still cash it. Cutting a
second check has the potential of causing you to be doubly charged. The
vendor should see the logic of that. If he won't cover the cancellation
fee, just walk. The vendor has screwed the pooch. Instead of offering a
second check, offer the return of the merchandise (what you wanted to do in
the first place). If the vendor is at all logical he should see that this
is a fair deal. All he's out is the check cancellation fee which is not
unreasonable given they he's at fault for losing the check. You end up with
zero cost (except for your time), potentially some goodwill, and no moral or
ethical pain. Your good karma will be repaid with eternal happiness (or a
ham sandwich, which we all know is even better).
--
Stan Gula
http://gula.org/roffswaps