Wright v. Citizen's Bank of East Tennessee

640 F. App'x 401
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 8, 2016
Docket15-5406
StatusUnpublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 640 F. App'x 401 (Wright v. Citizen's Bank of East Tennessee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. Citizen's Bank of East Tennessee, 640 F. App'x 401 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge.

Cheryl and Terry Wright appeal the grant of summary judgment to Citizens Bank of East Tennessee (“Citizens”) 1 in this action arising from the bank’s failure to correctly and timely execute Mrs. Wright’s instructions to issue a same-day wire transfer to prevent the sale of stock the Wrights held in a margin account. Citizens made a mistake in issuing the wire transfer, causing the wire transfer not to be completed until the next morning, with the result that some of the Wrights’ stock was sold to satisfy the margin call. Finding no error, we AFFIRM.

I.

In 2006, Terry Wright sought to establish a new banking relationship in Hawkins County, Tennessee, where he lived with his wife, Cheryl Wright. One of his primary concerns was that the bank would be able to perform wire transfers because the Wrights maintained various accounts in other institutions that would require wire transfers in the event of a margin call. As part of his research, Mr. Wright contacted Citizens and spoke with Brent Price, a vice president. Price informed Mr. Wright that Citizens had trained, experienced personnel who could perform wire transfers in accordance with the Wrights’ needs, and had no restrictions or limitations as to its ability to accept, process, or complete wire transfers. After this discussion, the Wrights established a banking relationship with Citizens.

In 2008, the Wrights maintained a margin account with Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown (“Deutsche Bank”), which allowed the Wrights to borrow money against the value of the stock in that account. Deutsche Bank used Pershing, LLC, (“Pershing”) as a stock clearinghouse brokerage company. If the portfolio’s value dropped below a certain ratio compared to the margin-loan amount, the Wrights were required to transfer money into the account to raise it above the threshold ratio. If the Wrights failed to do so by the deadline given, Pershing would sell some of the Wrights’ stock and apply the proceeds to reduce the margin loan in order to maintain the required loan-to-equity ratio in the account. This is referred to as a margin call.

On October 3, 2008, Mr. Wright received an email from Deutsche Bank stating that there was a margin call on the Wrights’ account for $9167.08, which had to be paid by October 9, 2008. On October 9, Mrs. Wright went to Citizens’ branch in Rogers-ville, Tennessee, to initiate a wire transfer from the Wrights’ checking account to their margin account to cover the margin call. Mrs. Wright told the teller, Kristy Bruner, that she wanted to make a wire transfer and handed Bruner a sheet of paper containing Deutsche Bank’s wiring instructions, saying nothing else about the wire transfer. Bruner filled out a wire-transfer form, using the instructions provided by Mrs, Wright. Mrs. Wright glanced at the completed form, which she maintains Bruner did not ask her to review for accuracy, signed it, thanked Bruner, and left. The wire-transfer form states the following:

The undersigned agrees that this wire transfer is irrevocable and that [the] *403 sole obligation of [Citizens] is to exercise ordinary care in processing this wire transfer and that it is not responsible for any losses or delays which occur as a result of any party’s involvement in processing this wire transfer.

(R. 28-2: C. Wright Dep. Ex. 1, PID 418.) Bruner had, however, made an error in entering the beneficiary’s account number and therefore the wire transfer did not go through that day and the funds were returned to Citizens. 2

The next morning, upon discovering the error and conferring with head teller Starr Manis, Bruner used white out on the wire-transfer form Mrs. Wright had signed the day before, fixed the beneficiary account number, and resent the wire transfer. The second wire attempt was successful. The Wrights assert they did not authorize anyone from Citizens to send the wire transfer on October 10, although they also never informed Citizens that it could not send the wire transfer if it was not completed on October 9.

Mr. Wright was informed by his broker on October 10 that the wire transfer had not been received. When he called Citizens to inquire about the funds, a Citizens representative apologized to Mr. Wright for the error and told him the bank had wired the money that morning. By that time, the Wrights’ stock had already been sold. Pershing sold between $50,000 and $80,000 worth of stock because the stock had further decreased in value from the time the Wrights had received the initial margin-call notice.

The Wrights contend that their finances diminished as a consequence of the margin call: they faced an additional margin call, lost assets through stock sales, were subject to unexpected capital-gains tax, were forced to sell valuable assets for less than they were worth, and were denied refinancing of their mortgage with Citizens. Seeking at least $3 million in damages, 3 the Wrights filed this action alleging negligence based on the October 9 and October 10 wire transfers (Count I); negligent and/or intentional misrepresentation based on Price’s statements regarding Citizens’ employees’ training and abilities (Count II); violation of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1693 (“EFTA”) (Count III); fraud based on the October 10 wire transfer (Count IV); and punitive damages (Count V). The district court granted summary judgment on all the Wrights’ claims and they appeal.

II.

This court reviews de novo a district court’s order granting summary judgment. Rudisill v. Ford Motor Co., 709 F.3d 595, 600 (6th Cir.2013). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there -is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(a). In determining whether the district court’s grant of summary judgment was proper, the court “must view all evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Kleiber v. Honda of Am. Mfg., Inc., 485 F.3d 862, 868 (6th *404 Cir.2007) (citing Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)). We review questions of law, including the interpretation of state law, de novo. Salve Regina Coll. v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991).

A. Count III

The district court held that the Wrights’ EFTA claim was barred by the statute of limitations. Citizens also, argues that the EFTA does not apply to the Wrights’ claims.

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Bluebook (online)
640 F. App'x 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-citizens-bank-of-east-tennessee-ca6-2016.