Taylor v. NationsBank, N.A.

776 A.2d 645, 365 Md. 166, 2001 Md. LEXIS 463
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 17, 2001
Docket139, Sept. Term, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by292 cases

This text of 776 A.2d 645 (Taylor v. NationsBank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. NationsBank, N.A., 776 A.2d 645, 365 Md. 166, 2001 Md. LEXIS 463 (Md. 2001).

Opinion

BELL, Chief Judge.

In this case, we are asked to decide whether a banking institution’s disclosure of the name and unlisted telephone number of one of its depositors, which, under the circumstances, had the effect of identifying that depositor’s checking account number to another depositor, with knowledge of their respective identities, constitutes a violation of Maryland Code (1980, 1998 Replacement Volume), §§ 1-301-1-305 of the Financial Institutions Article, the depositor’s contract with the banking institution and the common law. Garfield Taylor (the “petitioner”), filed an action against NationsBank, N.A. 1 (the “respondent”), alleging breach of contract, breach of privacy and breach of legally guaranteed confidentiality, 2 premised on one of the respondent’s agents having identified his private *170 checking account by disclosing the petitioner’s name and by giving his unlisted phone number to one of the petitioner’s coworkers. The Circuit Court for Baltimore City granted the respondent’s motion for summary judgment, and the Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding, as to the breach of contract action that the disclosure was a violation of neither the petitioner’s right to privacy nor his contract with the respondent. Taylor v. NationsBank, 128 Md.App. 414, 419-22, 738 A.2d 893, 896-98 (1999). Having granted the petitioner’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari, 357 Md. 481, 745 A.2d 436 (2000), we shall reverse the judgment of the intermediate appellate court.

I.

The petitioner and Walter Scott, both employees of the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”), with checking accounts at the respondent banking institution, signed up with their employer to have their paychecks deposited directly into their checking accounts. Although they both received pay advice stubs, the account number on Mr. Scott’s pay advice stub, as it was subsequently discovered, was not his account number. Moreover, Mr. Scott learned that his pay had not been deposited to his account, prompting him to call the respondent. During the conversation with a service representative, he learned both that the account number on the pay advice stub was not his and that his paycheck had been deposited into that account. The customer service representative identified the account into which the funds were deposited, and so informed Mr. Scott, as one belonging to the petitioner. After a discussion of what could be done to protect Mr. Scott’s money-it was a Saturday and, thus, the earliest the respondent could correct the error was Monday, the customer service representative gave Mr. Scott the petitioner’s unlisted home telephone number, suggesting that he might call the petitioner and explain the situation. Mr. Scott did call the petitioner at home and, in a short conversation, conveyed his concerns to the petitioner.

*171 Alleging that, as a “private person by nature” the ensuing unexpected conversation “caused him a great deal of mental anguish and mental pain, and a severe shock to his nervous system,” the petitioner filed suit against the respondent in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Both parties moved for summary judgment. Following a hearing, the trial court granted the respondent’s motion and denied the petitioners’, concluding, “I don’t believe that under the undisputed facts presented by this case that it presents viable causes of action .... The case is hereby dismissed.”

As indicated, the judgment was affirmed by the intermediate appellate court. 3 With regard to the breach of contract count, the court held that the depositor agreements which the petitioner signed were not controlling and that the trial court correctly granted summary judgment. 128 Md.App. at 418, 738 A.2d at 896. Focusing on the disclosure of the petitioner’s unlisted phone number, it concluded that “[a]n unlisted telephone number ... hardly qualifies as account information,” the concern of the depositor’s agreements. The Court of Special Appeals also rejected the petitioner’s argument that Suburban Trust Co. v. Waller, 44 Md.App. 335, 408 A.2d 758 (1979) controlled the resolution of the case. Noting that Waller makes clear that disclosure of a depositor’s name and telephone number to another customer is improper only in the absence “ ‘of the express or implied consent of the depositor,’ ” 128 Md.App. at 420, 738 A.2d at 896 (quoting Waller, 44 Md.App. at 344, 408 A.2d at 764), and that the depositor agreement in this case exempted the respondent from responsibility for the release of information to a third person when the third person has acquired, and is in possession of, the depositor’s account number, id., the court determined that “it is uncontradicted that Walter Scott, through no fault of NationsBank, possessed appellant’s account number not from NationsBank, but from reading his payment advice stub.” Id. at *172 420, 738 A.2d at 896-97. Once again, the court focused on the disclosure of the unlisted phone number, pointing out that Waller did not address the legality of divulging that kind of information. Id.

Relying upon Pemberton v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 66 Md.App. 133, 166, 502 A.2d 1101, 1118 (1986) and Professor Prosser’s seminal article describing the tort, William L. Prosser, Privacy, 48 Cal.L.Rev. 383, 393-396 (1960), the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the trial court’s grant of the respondent’s motion for summary judgment with regard to the count of the complaint alleging invasion of privacy. Id. at 420-422, 738 A.2d at 896-98. Thus, aware that, for an action for invasion of privacy to be maintained, there must be public disclosure of a private matter, the court explained:

“In other words, the plaintiff must be able to show more that just a desire to keep a particular fact private, but that the matter revealed must be a personal matter that would be highly offensive for a reasonable person to have disclosed to others.”

Id. at 420, 738 A.2d at 897. As to whether, in this case, a private matter had been disclosed, it reasoned:

“Here, the supposedly private fact, the unlisted telephone number, is hardly the kind of matter that a reasonable person would suffer mental distress upon learning , that it had been revealed to one other person, in this case, a coworker, who used it by calling to request that his earned wages, which had been mistakenly deposited in the appellant’s account, not be withdrawn over the weekend. The particular number, the fact of its being unlisted or anything else about a telephone number, does not achieve the level of a private fact that, if revealed, could cause a reasonable person the kind of mental distress that resembles the distress suffered by victims of defamation. In order to be actionable, the disclosure must be about private facts that would be highly offensive and objectionable to a person of ordinary sensibilities.

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Bluebook (online)
776 A.2d 645, 365 Md. 166, 2001 Md. LEXIS 463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-nationsbank-na-md-2001.