Brooks v. Transamerica Financial Advisors

57 So. 3d 1153, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 135, 2011 WL 378843
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 2, 2011
DocketNo. 45,833-CW
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 57 So. 3d 1153 (Brooks v. Transamerica Financial Advisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brooks v. Transamerica Financial Advisors, 57 So. 3d 1153, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 135, 2011 WL 378843 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

STEWART, J.

hWe granted writs in this matter to review the trial court’s denial of a motion for summary judgment by the defendant, Pershing, LLC Delaware (“Pershing”). At issue is whether Pershing is a “bank” under Chapter 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“U.C.C.”), La. R.S. 10:4-101 et seq., such that the failure of the plaintiff, Debbie Jo Brooks (“Brooks”), to provide notice of unauthorized signatures on certain checks precludes her claim against Pershing to recover funds wrongly withdrawn from her brokerage account by her former partner, Martha Jill Tingstrom (“Ting-strom”). Because the evidence offered by Pershing in support of summary judgment establishes that it was engaged in the business of banking and is therefore a bank as defined by La. R.S. 10:4-105(1) and because Brooks has failed to show that there is a genuine issue for trial, we find that Pershing is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law dismissing Brooks’ claim against it.

FACTS

Brooks and Tingstrom began living together in 1994. In 1999, Brooks allowed Tingstrom to take over handling her finances. For five years Brooks did not look at any statements concerning her various accounts. But on December 19, 2004, Brooks got the mail while Tingstrom was away and opened a statement from Hibernia Bank. The statement balance was [1155]*1155much lower than Brooks had expected, and she realized that Tingstrom had been taking money from her Hibernia checking account. Brooks discovered sometime later that Tingstrom had also taken $85,500 from her brokerage account with Trans-america Financial Advisors (“Trans-america”) by forging Brooks’ name on six checks. Brooks had a ^Resource Checking account in connection with her Trans-america brokerage account which allowed her to write checks on the funds in her brokerage account. The first unauthorized check was dated February 19, 2003, and the last was dated March 10, 2004.

Brooks filed suit against Transamerica and Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. (“Boston Safe”), on November 21, 2005. The petition stated that the Resource Checking account was with Transamerica and that Boston Safe was the bank with the authority to honor checks drawn on the account. Brooks alleged that the defendants paid the unauthorized checks without obtaining proper identification and approval from her, the account holder.

On March 5, 2007, Brooks amended her petition to add Pershing as a defendant. The amended petition incorporated by reference the allegations of the original petition but did not explain how Pershing was involved. The amended petition listed and included as an attachment copies of the following six checks allegedly forged by Tingstrom:

1. No. 5093, dated February 19, 2003, for $16,000.
2. No. 5096, dated April 17, 2003, for $11,000.
3. No. 5098, dated June 22, 2003, for $3,500.
4. No. 5103, dated November 13, 2003, for $26,000.
5. No. 5106, dated January 31, 2004, for $3,000.
6. No. 5107, dated March 10, 2004, for $26,000.

Asserting that Brooks had failed to notify it of her loss as required by the U.C.C. and as a result her claims were perempted or prescribed, Pershing filed a motion for summary judgment. Boston Safe did the same.

Pershing supported its motion with Brooks’ deposition, an affidavit of Dominick Buonocore, a Director of Pershing, and pleadings filed by Brooks |ain related matters.1 Brooks’ deposition established that she allowed Tingstrom to handle her finances for five years, during which time Brooks did not reconcile or look at any of her financial statements. Brooks began handling her own finances after discovering that Tingstrom had defrauded her, but she could not say when she looked at a statement for her Transamerica brokerage account or learned that unauthorized withdrawals had been made from that account.

According to Buonocore’s affidavit, Pershing is a clearing agent for Trans-america and “provides account custody, clearing, execution of trades and account statement compilation and dissemination for Transamerica’s clients.” The “Fully Disclosed Clearing Agreement” between Pershing and Transamerica was an exhibit to the affidavit. Buonocore explained that Resource Checking is a product provided by Pershing to Transamerica’s customers to give them the ability to write checks against their brokerage accounts. Pursuant to an “Asset Management Account Services Agreement,” which was also an [1156]*1156exhibit to the affidavit, Pershing retained Boston Safe to manage the retail banking aspects of the Resource Checking accounts for those Transamerica clients who opted to have such accounts. Pershing created and mailed to the account holders monthly statements showing both brokerage transactions and check activity. Statements showing the checks that are the subject of this suit were mailed to Brooks at her home address for the months of February 2003, March 2003, April|42003, May 2003, June 2003, November 2003, January 2004, February 2004, and March 2004. Copies of the monthly statements and the unauthorized checks were attached to Buonocore’s affidavit. Finally, Buonocore attested that Pershing did not receive any notification about the unauthorized checks until it was served with Brooks’ petition in March 2007.

Opposing summary judgment, Brooks argued that no evidence established a depositary relationship between herself and Pershing as would exist between a bank and its customer.

Pershing responded by supplementing its motion with copies of a Customer Account Transfer Form and a Resource Checking Application both purportedly signed by Brooks.

After hearing arguments on November 11, 2008, the trial court requested additional briefing. To further clarify the relationships among the three defendants, Pershing supplemented its motion with the affidavit of Brian Swinehart, a Vice-President at Pershing, who was familiar with its procedures and the business records related to this matter.

Swinehart explained that Transamerica, Boston Safe, and Pershing each performed functions with regard to the Brooks’ brokerage account and the Resource Checking account. Swinehart identified Trans-america as an “introducing broker” and Pershing as a “clearing broker.” He explained that Pershing acts as the custodian for Transamerica’s customers’ accounts and that when Brooks opened the Resource Checking account, the Disclosure Statement disclosed Pershing as the clearing broker. As in Buonocore’s affidavit, Swinehart described Resource Checking as a free service offered |Bby Pershing to allow customers to write checks against money held in their brokerage accounts. Swinehart further explained that Pershing creates the Resource Checking account number and sends it with the customer’s name to Boston Safe, which Pershing retains to act as the bank for the check writing transactions made by customers with Resource Checking. Upon presentment of checks for payment, Boston Safe requests payment from Pershing, who ascertains whether there are sufficient funds in the customer’s brokerage account to cover the check, and if so, withdraws the amount of the check and deposits it with Boston Safe.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 So. 3d 1153, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 135, 2011 WL 378843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-transamerica-financial-advisors-lactapp-2011.