New Jersey Title Insurance v. Caputo

723 A.2d 994, 318 N.J. Super. 311, 37 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1227, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 79
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedFebruary 19, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 723 A.2d 994 (New Jersey Title Insurance v. Caputo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New Jersey Title Insurance v. Caputo, 723 A.2d 994, 318 N.J. Super. 311, 37 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1227, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 79 (N.J. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

BAIME, P.J.A.D.

Joseph Caputo, a lawyer, embezzled loan funds that had been deposited in his attorney trust account at National State Bank (National Bank).1 The loan funds had been earmarked for the payment of mortgages on properties purchased by Caputo’s clients. New Jersey Title Insurance Company (New Jersey Title) paid the mortgages and sued National Bank, contending that the bank had acted in bad faith by permitting Caputo to withdraw funds in cash or by certified check payable to himself from his attorney trust account. The Law Division granted National Bank’s motion for summary judgment. New Jersey Title appeals. We affirm.

I.

The salient facts are not in dispute. Caputo maintained two accounts with the Summit branch of National Bank, an “attorney trust account” and an “attorney business account.” A substantial portion of Caputo’s legal practice involved real estate closings. New Jersey Title designated Caputo as a closing agent and issued “closing protection letters” protecting mortgage lenders against any misappropriation of funds by the lawyer. Caputo received loan funds from the buyers’ mortgage lenders and deposited them in his attorney trust account. These monies were to be used to satisfy the sellers’ mortgages on the properties purchased by Caputo’s clients. Instead, over a three month period, Caputo issued fifty-eight checks totaling $291,350 payable to himself and drawn on his attorney trust account. Copies of the checks appear [314]*314in the appendix to New Jersey Title’s brief. Unfortunately, these copies are largely illegible. However, in the bottom “memo” portion of the checks, Caputo generally wrote “fees” or “costs.”

Much of the record pertains to Caputo’s practices in misappropriating his clients’ funds. Caputo would have National Bank either certify or cash the checks. The proceeds would be used for gambling, principally at Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino. When Caputo chose not to bring cash to Atlantic City, his practice was to transmit, by facsimile, copies of the certified checks to the casino. On occasion, the casino would make inquiry as to the validity of the certified check. Such an inquiry would be forwarded to a teller who would confirm that the check had been certified. It was not necessary to confirm the account balance because it was incumbent on the bank to honor certified checks absent exceptional circumstances. In his deposition, Caputo testified that in order to avoid suspicion, he would draw multiple checks in amounts of $2,500 or less.

Veronica Kane was the manager of the Summit branch of National Bank and Catherine Martin the assistant manager. Both individuals knew generally that Caputo gambled at casinos in Atlantic City. Caputo once told Martin that he had received a large settlement and intended to drive to Atlantic City “to see if [he] could win.” Kane also recalled a similar conversation with Caputo. Because Caputo’s checks were drawn in relatively large amounts, either Kane or Martin was required to approve them. Kane and Martin knew that an attorney trust account consisted largely of clients’ funds. However, they did not know that an attorney cannot ethically cash attorney trust account checks and use the proceeds for personal benefit. As noted in the proceedings below, it was assumed that fees could be paid out of the attorney trust account whether or not deposited in the attorney business account.

As time passed, both Kane and Martin became “suspicious” of Caputo’s activities. However, contrary to New Jersey Title’s contention, these suspicions did not concern the possibility that [315]*315Caputo was misappropriating clients’ funds. Instead, Kane and Martin were concerned that Caputo was attempting to evade Internal Revenue Service reporting regulations by drawing multiple checks. They also questioned Caputo’s failure to open “sub-accounts” for his clients in the attorney trust account and his numerous withdrawals of cash using Atlantic City MAC machines, which caused substantial overdrafts in the attorney business account. These considerations led Kane and Martin to close Caputo’s attorney business account shortly before the lawyer’s defalcations came to light.

On January 21,1994, New Jersey Title filed a verified complaint and order to show cause against National Bank and Caputo. On the same date, the Law Division enjoined the bank from disbursing any funds from Caputo’s attorney trust account. The order was received by National Bank on January 24, 1994. We add that contrary to New Jersey Title’s factual statement in its brief, National Bank faithfully complied with the restraining order in all respects. New Jersey Title’s complaint was later amended to include Taj Mahal as a defendant.

A voluntary dismissal was subsequently entered with respect to Taj Mahal. A default judgment was entered against Caputo, who was convicted of embezzlement and disbarred. In re Caputo, 135 N.J. 106, 638 A.2d 805 (1994). The Law Division initially denied National Bank’s motion for summary judgment, but subsequently granted the bank’s renewed application. In her oral opinion, Judge Russell concluded that National Bank was immune from liability under the Uniform Fiduciaries Law (N.J.S.A. 3B:14-52 to 65) because it did not have “actual knowledge” of Caputo’s breach of duty and did not act in “bad faith.” It is against this factual backdrop that we examine the issues presented.

II.

We begin our analysis with the Uniform Fiduciaries Law. N.J.S.A. 3B:14-55 provides in pertinent part:

If a check ... is drawn by a fiduciary as such or in the name of his principal by a fiduciary empowered to draw the instrument in the name of his principal, payable to the fiduciary personally, ... and is thereafter transferred by the fiduciary, [316]*316whether in payment of a personal debt of the fiduciary or otherwise, the transferee is not bound to inquire whether the fiduciary is committing a breach of his obligation as fiduciary ... and is not chargeable with notice that the fiduciary is committing a breach of his obligation as fiduciary unless he takes the instrument with actual knowledge of the breach or with knowledge of facts that his action in taking the instrument amounts to bad, faith.
[Ibid, (emphasis added).]

The Uniform Fiduciaries Law does not contain a definition of “bad faith.” However, N.J.S.A 3B:14-53(e) states that “[a] thing is done ‘in good faith’ ... when it is in fact done honestly, whether it be done negligently or not.” Ibid.

The Uniform Fiduciaries Law was enacted in 1981. L. 1981, c. 405. The predecessor statute, the Uniform Fiduciaries Act (L. 1927, c. 30), similarly rendered a bank immune from liability in honoring a fiduciary’s check “unless the bank pa[id] the check with actual knowledge that the fiduciary [was] committing a breach of his obligation as fiduciary in drawing the check or with knowledge of such facts that its action in paying the check amount[ed] to bad faith.” N.J.S.A. 3A:41-7 (repealed 1981). Like the Uniform Fiduciaries Law, the Uniform Fiduciaries Act gave no definition of “bad faith.”

In New Amsterdam Cas. Co. v. National Newark & Essex Banking Co., 117 N.J. Eq. 264, 175 A. 609 (1934), aff'd, 119 N.J. Eq. 540, 182 A. 824 (E.

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New Jersey Title Insurance v. Caputo
748 A.2d 507 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 2000)

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723 A.2d 994, 318 N.J. Super. 311, 37 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1227, 1999 N.J. Super. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-jersey-title-insurance-v-caputo-njsuperctappdiv-1999.