Question & Answer

Question: We had a lady come in about six months ago and tell us she had gotten her statement and some checks had been stolen from her car that she didn't know about, and her signature was forged. She said she had no idea who the payee was or who could have stolen the checks. We paid her the $1,200 claim for forged maker's signature on the checks, and took the loss.

Now she's in again. This time she says the checks were stolen out of her dresser drawer in her bedroom by her daughter's boyfriend, who subsequently also stole their car and has disappeared. She has another $1,100 claim. Any suggestions?

Answer: You have two things on your hands-a forgery claim and a public relations problem.Under the new Uniform Commercial Code, if you wanted to take a hard line on this, you might venture the opinion that there was negligence on the part of the customer-i.e., the checks were stored in a place where the boyfriend was sure to find them instead of being locked away in a safe place. She knows who stole them and who negotiated them. She did not inform you in time for you to take precautionary action. Therefore, your customer's claim is against the boyfriend. Presumably, she has already informed the police of the theft of the car and the checks.

On the other hand, she may have really thought the checks were safe in the dresser drawer. (By the way-information passed around by inmates of prisons is to check the bedroom drawers and under the mattress first for valuables-most people keep them there.) However, she may have been able to inform you in time for you to protect yourself by closing the account if the checkbook had been better stored.

How long a period of time are we talking about? A week? Over a statement period? Could she have alerted you sooner to the theft?

How are the signatures? Are they good-or really bad? Were the checks negotiated at one of your branches? If it's a really bad signature and you negotiated the check, it puts you in a less favorable position. If it's a pretty good signature, it might make you suspect collusion.

After considering all the possibilities, you may decide to "split the difference", especially since it's the second claim in six months, and pay half the claim. It would be up to your customer to catch up with the boyfriend for the rest.

You may take hard-line and disclaim all responsibility under the new UCC guidelines, if you feel justified. Then you take the chance of your customer bringing suit against you.

You may choose to assume full liability, and pay the whole claim.

Consider all possibilities, and all resulting actions on the part of your customer.

Whichever you decide to do, we feel it would be prudent to suggest she open her new account elsewhere.

Copyright © 1998 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 8, No. 8, 7/98