Freese v. Regions Bank, N.A.

644 S.E.2d 549, 284 Ga. App. 717, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1165, 62 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 437, 2007 Ga. App. LEXIS 398
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 30, 2007
DocketA06A2154
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 644 S.E.2d 549 (Freese v. Regions Bank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Freese v. Regions Bank, N.A., 644 S.E.2d 549, 284 Ga. App. 717, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1165, 62 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 437, 2007 Ga. App. LEXIS 398 (Ga. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

ANDREWS, Presiding Judge.

Harry Freese appeals the grant of summary judgment to Regions Bank, N.A. (Regions) after the bank refused to reimburse him for certain fraudulent checks drawn on Freese’s corporate account because Freese failed to give notice within the 30-day period provided for in the Customer Agreement. Because the trial court correctly held that OCGA § 11-4-103 (a) allows the parties to change the provision in OCGA § 11-4-406 (f) from 60 to 30 days without regard to lack of due care by either party, we affirm.

The record shows that in April 2003, Freese opened a corporate checking account with Regions, signed a signature card, and, per its terms, acknowledged that he agreed to the conditions of the Customer Agreement. The Customer Agreement held in pertinent part that, “[t]he statement shall be conclusively deemed to be correct unless we are notified by you in writing within thirty (30) days after the closing date of the statement.”

In October 2003, Freese apparently timely notified the bank that several checks on the statement ending September 30, 2003, were fraudulent. Regions reimbursed Freese’s account for those checks. In November, Freese discovered several other unauthorized checks on the September statement, but Regions refused to reimburse him for those checks, which totaled $59,890.96, because Freese did not notify the bank that he disputed them until after the 30-day notice period.

Freese sued, contending that Regions failed to exercise ordinary care in cashing the checks. Regions moved for summary judgment because of Freese’s failure to report the forgeries within the contractual 30-day period. The trial court granted the motion, and Freese appeals.

Summary judgment is proper when the evidence, construed in the nonmovant’s favor, shows that no issue of material fact remains and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. A defendant may prevail on summary judgment “by showing the court that the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue [718]*718on at least one essential element of plaintiffs case.” Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491 (405 SE2d 474) (1991).

In granting Regions’ summary judgment motion, the trial court held that:

It is well-established that a contractual agreement merely shortening the time period requiring notice of a forged item does not disclaim liability and run afoul of [OCGA § 11-4-103 (a)].... Further, the Court disagrees with [Freese’s] contention that Regions must provide evidence that it exercised ordinary care in processing the transactions at issue before summary judgment can be awarded. The notice provision contained in the Customer Agreement expressly provides that Regions will not be liable for its payment of forged checks if [Freese] fails to provide timely notice. Accordingly, Regions’ contractual notice is akin to OCGA § 11-4-406 (f), which operates similarly to a statute of limitations to bar claims without regard to care or lack of care of either the customer or the bank.

Freese argues on appeal that the trial court erred in finding that OCGA § 11-4-103 (a) allows a bank to contractually shorten the 60-day period established in OCGA § 11-4-406 (f) per its Customer Agreement, notwithstanding allegations of negligence. OCGA § 11-4-406 (f) provides that:

without regard to care or lack of care of either the customer or the bank, a customer who does not within 60 days after the statement or items are made available to the customer (subsection (a) of this Code section) discover and report the customer’s unauthorized signature on or any alteration on the face of the item or who does not within one year from that time discover and report any unauthorized indorsement or alteration on the back of the item is precluded from asserting against the bank the unauthorized signature, indorsement, or alteration.

We have held that absence of timely notice under this Code section is absolute in protecting the bank and precluding any right of recovery by the customer, even if the bank is negligent. See Bank of Thomas County v. Dekle, 119 Ga. App. 753, 756 (168 SE2d 834) (1969) overruled on other grounds, Decatur Fed. S & L Assn. v. Litsky, 207 Ga. App. 752 (429 SE2d 300) (1993).

OCGA§ 11-4-103 (a) provides:

[719]*719The effect of the provisions of this article may be varied by agreement, but the parties to the agreement cannot disclaim a bank’s responsibility for its lack of good faith or failure to exercise ordinary care or limit the measure of damages for the lack or failure. However, the parties may determine by agreement the standards by which the bank’s responsibility is to be measured if those standards are not manifestly unreasonable.

In this case, the parties are not disclaiming the bank’s responsibility to exercise ordinary care, but are determining the standards by which that responsibility is to be measured. American Airlines Employees Fed. Credit Union v. Martin, 29 SW3d 86 (Tex. 2000), analyzed this issue as follows:

Some courts have observed that shortened notice periods are only enforceable if there is no evidence that the bank has failed to exercise ordinary care. Those courts reason that a shortened notice period in effect disclaims the bank’s responsibility to exercise ordinary care, if the bank in fact has not exercised care. We decline to follow this reasoning because it confuses the concept of the bank’s ongoing duty to exercise ordinary care in paying items from a customer’s account with the concept that the bank can only be charged with liability for a specific period of time. Moreover, the Deposit Agreement does not excuse the Credit Union from its ongoing duties to exercise ordinary care and pay only authorized items. So long as the customer complies with the corresponding duty to discover and report within the relevant time period—whether it is one year, sixty days, or something else — the bank can be held liable for any failure to exercise due care. And shortening the notice period does not disclaim the bank’s liability for negligence in the future, inasmuch as the time period for notice as to on-going transactions starts over again each time the bank makes a new statement and items available to the customer.

(Footnote omitted.) Id. at 97.

Likewise, in Nat. Title Ins. Corp. Agency v. First Union Nat. Bank, 559 SE2d 668 (Va. 2002), the Supreme Court of Virginia, interpreting this same statute, held that:

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Freese v. Regions Bank, N.A.
644 S.E.2d 549 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
644 S.E.2d 549, 284 Ga. App. 717, 2007 Fulton County D. Rep. 1165, 62 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 437, 2007 Ga. App. LEXIS 398, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freese-v-regions-bank-na-gactapp-2007.