Countermanding Payment of a Cheque

A legal obligation envisages performance and is extinguished when the required performance is duly made. Monetary obligations must normally be discharged by the payment of the appropriate sum of money, that is to say, by means of legal tender. It is trite that a cheque is not legal tender and that a creditor, to whom a money debt is owing, may insist on strict compliance with the contract and demand payment by means of legal tender, that is, cash. However, the creditor may agree to accept a cheque in payment of the debt. Indeed, it is a principle of our law that a debtor is only entitled to pay by cheque if his creditor expressly or impliedly agrees to accept a cheque in payment of the debt.