Gossels v. Fleet National Bank

876 N.E.2d 872, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 797, 63 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 771, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 917
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedAugust 22, 2007
DocketNo. 05-P-1796
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 876 N.E.2d 872 (Gossels v. Fleet National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gossels v. Fleet National Bank, 876 N.E.2d 872, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 797, 63 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 771, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 917 (Mass. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

Celinas, J.

The plaintiff C. Peter R. Gossels filed a complaint in the Boston Municipal Court against the defendant Fleet National Bank2 (Fleet), claiming breach of contract, conversion, and violation of G. L. c. 93A, arising from Fleet’s processing of a check, drawn in a foreign currency, that Gossels presented to Fleet. He later amended the complaint to add a fourth count essentially alleging that Fleet failed to follow the provisions of G. L. c. 106, § 3-107. Following a bench trial, the trial judge found that Fleet was liable for negligent misrepresentation,3 resulting in damages of $6,861.68. The trial judge explicitly found for Fleet on the G. L. c. 93A claim. The judge ruled that Fleet’s check collection practices were in compliance with G. L. c. 106, § 3-107. The judge made no mention of the breach of contract or conversion counts in her memorandum of decision. Judgment entered for Gossels on the breach of contract count [799]*799(but only “insofar as it alleges [negligent [misrepresentation”), and for Fleet on the remaining counts.

On appeal, the Appellate Division of the Boston Municipal Court affirmed. Both Gossels and Fleet appeal to this court.

The facts as found by the trial judge are uncontested. Gossels received a check from the German government for 85,071.19 euros, drawn on Dresdner Bank of Germany.4 On October 15, 1999, he took the check to a branch of Fleet at 75 State Street in Boston and presented it to the international teller. Gossels, an account holder at Fleet, did not request that the euros be exchanged for dollars.

At this point, the international teller failed to inform Gossels either that Fleet could pay Gossels only in dollars, or that Fleet paid international checks at a “retail exchange rate” several percentage points lower than the interbank “spot rate” for foreign currency. Had Gossels known this information, he would have taken the check to another bank.5

As Gossels started to endorse the check, the international teller also incorrectly instructed Gossels not to endorse the check, stating that no endorsement was required for checks drawn on a foreign bank.

The teller then took the check and gave Gossels a preprinted receipt, which we see, from the copy in the record appendix, was entitled “Foreign/Domestic Non Cash Collection Receipt”; in so doing, the teller did not check either of two mutually exclusive options on the form, the first box indicating that “provisional credit” would be given to Gossels, the other indicating that the check was accepted for “collection only.” The judge found that if Fleet had given Gossels provisional credit for the check, then the funds in dollars would have been credited [800]*800to Gossels on or shortly after October 15, 1999.6 If the check was accepted for collection only, that would have resulted in a delay of credit pending Fleet’s receipt of payment by the drawee bank of the amount of the check.7

From the record appendix, we also note that the receipt handed to Gossels, which Gossels signed and dated, contained the following statement: “I understand that Fleet Bank is acting as an agent for collection on my behalf according to the terms spelled out on the verso.” The reverse side of the receipt provided, among other things, that “Fleet National Bank will act in good faith and exercise reasonable care to collect the check(s) or other financial documents.” The reverse side of the receipt also stated that “[fjoreign bank fees and Fleet service charges are deducted from proceeds.”

Fleet maintains for teller instruction a manual of foreign check collection practices. The manual instructed tellers to inform the customer that receipt of payment by a customer for a foreign check would take four to six weeks, and that an exchange rate would be applied, based on the date of Fleet’s receipt of the funds from the foreign bank. Moreover, the manual instructed tellers to advise the customer of the approximate date on which the exchange rate would be determined. The international teller in this case failed to provide Gossels with any of this information.

Fleet, as collecting bank, sent the check to its global collection department, which sent it with a collection letter dated October 20, 1999, to Fleet’s foreign correspondent bank in Germany, Deutsche Bank. On November 1, 1999, Gossels received a notice from Fleet that the check had been returned unpaid because it lacked an endorsement.8 Gossels immediately [801]*801walked to the Fleet branch at 75 State Street in Boston and told the manager that the international teller had instructed him not to endorse the check. The manager asked Gossels to endorse the check, credited his account for $38.25 in lost interest,9 and waived the $30.00 fee that Fleet had charged Gossels for failing to endorse the check. After Fleet and Deutsche Bank repeated the collection process with the check, which now bore Gossels’s endorsement, Dresdner Bank debited the funds from the appropriate account and sent 85,071.19 euros to Deutsche Bank, which (apparently on December 14 or 15, 1999) credited 84,971.19 euros to Fleet’s account at Deutsche Bank (100 euros having been deducted as a collection fee).

On December 15, 1999, Gossels received notice from Fleet that it had credited his account with check proceeds in the amount of $81,754.77, which was based on the December 15, 1999, retail exchange rate offered by Fleet for 84,971.19 euros. The same number of euros would have been worth $88,616.45 based on the October 15, 1999, retail exchange rate offered by Fleet, or $92,023.80 based on the October 15, 1999, spot rate offered by Dresdner Bank.10

After further communication, and a complaint to the Massachusetts Attorney General, on September 22, 2000, Gossels sent Fleet a thirty-day demand letter under G. L. c. 93A, § 9(3). Fleet did not respond.

Gossels then initiated the suit that is the subject of this appeal.

Contract claim. We first address Gossels’s argument that the trial judge erred in failing to find that Fleet was in breach of its contract with him with respect to the check.

[802]*802Gossels appears to base his contract claim on the terms set forth in the preprinted receipt he was given by the bank’s teller, in particular, that the bank would act in good faith in collecting the check. The bank’s obligations in handling Gossels’s check arose pursuant to the terms of the Uniform Commercial Code (code)11 applicable to the transaction, which provided that Fleet became Gossels’s agent when he passed the check to Fleet, and Fleet accepted the check, for collection. See G. L. c. 106, § 4-201 (a). The receipt the bank gave to Gossels when it accepted the check for collection confirmed that relationship, by declaring that the bank was “an agent for collection on [Gossels’s] behalf,” and reiterating the requisite duty of care. Nothing in the evidence suggests that either party had a contrary intent. “Unless a contrary intent clearly appears and before the time that a settlement given by a collecting bank for an item is or becomes final, the bank, with respect to the item, is an agent or subagent of the owner of the item .... This provision applies regardless of the form of indorsement or lack of indorsement. . . .” Ibid.

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Bluebook (online)
876 N.E.2d 872, 69 Mass. App. Ct. 797, 63 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 771, 2007 Mass. App. LEXIS 917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gossels-v-fleet-national-bank-massappct-2007.