Pan American Airways, Inc. v. Continental National Bank

2 Fla. Supp. 2d 148
CourtCircuit Court for the Judicial Circuits of Florida
DecidedJanuary 18, 1983
DocketCase No. 82-1044 (24)
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Fla. Supp. 2d 148 (Pan American Airways, Inc. v. Continental National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Circuit Court for the Judicial Circuits of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pan American Airways, Inc. v. Continental National Bank, 2 Fla. Supp. 2d 148 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1983).

Opinion

EDWARD S. KLEIN, Circuit Judge.

This Cause was heard on November 3, 1982 upon the motion of defendant, CONTINENTAL NATIONAL BANK OF MIAMI for summary judgment upon the claims asserted against by plaintiff, PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC. Based upon the pleadings, depositions, affidavits, memoranda and argument of counsel, the Court finds and holds as follows:

1. This action is brought upon the ten count Amended Complaint of plaintiff, PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, INC. (“PAN AM”), against defendants, EDUARDO RUBENSTEIN LERNER d/b/a ROADW. INT. WHOLS. and CONTINENTAL NATIONAL BANK OF MIAMI (“CONTINENTAL”).

2. The four counts against CONTINENTAL include Count I for breach of warranty under Section 674.207(1) of the Florida Statutes; Count II for breach of warranty under Section 674.207(2), Fla. Stat. (1981); Count III for fraudulent representations as to warranties; and Count IX asserting breach of warranty under Section 674.207(1) and (2) against both Defendants.

3. The action arose from a series of transactions in which two travel agencies, Tri-City Travel and Mavis Travel purportedly issued miscellaneous charge orders (“MCO’s”) drawn on PAN AM in favor of RODW. INT. WHOLS. These items were placed for collection by RODEWAY for credit to its account with CONTINENTAL during a period beginning in January, 1981 and lasting through August of that year. CONTINENTAL presented each item for payment to PAN AM and, upon receipt of the proceeds, and released the funds to RODEWAY by crediting its accounts.

4. Both travel agencies had been cancelled before even the first of these MCO’s were presented to PAN AM. Travel agencies like Tri-City and Mavis receive their validating plates and blank ticket stock from the Air Traffic conference, an association of which PAN AM is a member and which processes and polices the issuance of any payment for airline tickets and MCO’s. On October 24, 1981, ATC had cancelled the agency of Tri-City for failure to remit proceeds for the tickets it had [150]*150issued. The ATC cancelled Mavis a few months subsequently for the same failure of payment.

5. Even though PAN AM had been notified of the cancellation of both agencies, it paid the MCO’s upon presentment by CONTINENTAL.

6. From these facts and the theories urged in the pleadings, PAN AM claims that CONTINENTAL has breached warranties of presentment imposed upon CONTINENTAL pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code, adopted in this State and found in Chapter 671 through 679 of the Florida Statutes. Further, by representing that the warranty obligations were, in fact, satisfied, CONTINENTAL purportedly committed a fraud. Based upon consideration of the pleadings, affidavits and the depositions in this action and the case law defining these warranties, the Court concludes that Plaintiff’s claims must fail as a matter of law.

7. A primary basis for recovery urged by PAN AM is that CONTINENTAL breached its warranty of “good title” set forth under Section 674.207(1) of the Florida Statutes. Courts construing “good title” in this context of commercial paper have uniformly adopted a limited construction of .its scope:

The weight of authority among cases and comentators supports a specialized construction of the term “good title” as it is used in this context [Section 4-207], limiting its reference to the validity of a chain of necessary endorsements (citing cases) . . . [T]his limitation of the scope of the good title warranty is derived from the official comments to the U.C.C., the content given the good title concept under the uniform Negotiable Instruments Law (NIL) (the pre-UCC body of law governing negotiable instruments), and the structure of Code provisions distributing losses caused by forgeries in dishonest employees.

Sun ‘N Sand, Inc. v. United California Bank, 21 Cal. 3d 671, 148 Cal. Rptr. 329, 582 P.2d 920, 930 (1978). This court agrees with the conclusion of courts throughout this country, that “good title simply means that the drafts bear no forged endorsements or signature.” Union Bank of Benton, Arkansas v. First National Bank in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, 621 F.2d 790, 794 (5th Cir. 1980). See also North Carolina National Bank v. Hammond, 298 N.C. 703, 260 S.E.2d 617, 624 (1979); Payroll Check Cashing v. New Palestine Bank, 401 N.E.2d 752, 756 (Ind. Ct. App. 1980). Federal Insurance Co. v. Groveland State Bank, 37 N.Y.2d 252, 333 N.E.2d 344 (Ct. App. 1975).

8. In the present case, PAN AM does not maintain that anyone has forged the endosement of the payee, ROADWAY. In fact, the instruments [151]*151show no endorsement by ROADWAY. It is admitted by PAN AM that ROADWAY, the named payee, did indeed receive the proceeds of PAN AM’s payment on the instruments. This Court therefore must conclude that because there is no allegation or evidence of a forged endorsement, there can be no breach of warranty of “good title.”

9. PAN AM has also asserted a breach of Section 674.207(2) of the Florida Statutes. At the outset, the Court states its conclusion that this warranty does not exist in favor of payor such as PAN AM. An examination of the language of (1) and (2) of Section 674.207 reflects that while the latter warranty does run in favor of a “payor bank or other payor” the latter warranty exists only in favor of a “transferee.” The manifest distinction in the useage of this language compels the conclusion that a payor is not a beneficiary of the subsection two warranties existing in favor of a transferee.

10. This distinction in language is consistent with over 200 years of jurisprudence sharply differentiating the warranties available to payors from those existing in favor of other transferees. Based on the doctrine of Price v. Neal, 3 Burr. 1345, 97 Eng. Rep. 871 (K.B. 1762) principles of risk of loss allocation require a payor, such as PAN AM, to know the genuineness, authenticity and authority of its own documents and signature. As a result, if the payor who is the drawer pays over a forged drawer signature, he cannot recover for a mistaken payment once the document has been accepted. United States v. National Exchange Bank of Baltimore, Maryland, 270 U.S. 527 (1926). This rule is contrasted with the circumstances of a forged endorsement in which the name of the payee rather than the original drawer is forged after the item is drawn. In the latter circumstances, the payor is not in the position to verify the endorser’s signature, and, hence, is not in the better position to prevent a loss. The Court believes that this doctrine is fair and justly apportions the risk of loss in the cases of forgeries or unauthorized signatures. There is no reason why Florida should not join the universally accepted doctrine holding payors accountable to know their own documents and signatures. National Metropolitan Bank v. United States, 323 U.S. 454 (1945); Sabatino v. Curtiss National Bank of Miami Springs,

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2 Fla. Supp. 2d 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pan-american-airways-inc-v-continental-national-bank-flacirct-1983.