Vicky’s sister Irene has been facing great difficulty in trying to deposit the Cashier’s Order she received on behalf of her mother in payment for her sister’s outstanding salary and long service entitlements.
As Vicky was solely responsible for supporting her elderly mother, this situation is very worrisome.
The Cashier’s Order was drawn on the Shanghai Commercial Bank, a small Hong Kong bank (despite the name) that does not seem to have branches in the Philippines. This means that even with power of attorney for her mother, Irene can’t open a bank account into which the Order can be deposited.
Irene, who has been working tirelessly to see this matter resolved, faced similar problems while here in Hong Kong, and was advised by the issuer that she could deposit the Order in the Philippines.
The situation will be addressed fully tomorrow, with enquiries directed at the Philippine Consulate and through it the lawyer of Vicky’s former employers. Further news will be posted here once it becomes available.
Why on earth would someone take a cashier’s order drawn on a small Hong Kong bank back to The Philippines? Or for that matter why did she accept such an instrument in the first place?
Surely the money owed should have been paid in the same form as Vicky was paid in, which, I assume, would either be cash or by transfer into a HK bank account (over which Irene now presumably has control)?
The second last paragraph of the post has been changed in partial reponse to your comment.
The money wasn’t paid in cash because the employers’ lawyer insisted that only Vicky’s mother, as the legally defined closest relative, should be able to access it, even though Irene had power of attorney for her mother in the matter.
Irene’s mother doesn’t have a bank account, and the Tung Chung police currently have the passbook for Vicky’s account, which could not be accessed in any case given that it is now affected by probate
Well OK (although what is power of attorney for if not for cases like this?), but there would still have been better ways. One would have been for the money to have been sent to Vicky’s mother by Western Union; the lawyer can specify the full name of the recipient and the requirement for ID (although frankly there’s a good chance that Vicky’s mother doesn’t have any ID I would guess.)