Espresso Roma Corp. v. Bank of America, N.A.
Court of Appeals for the First District of California
124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 549 (2002)
David Boyd (plaintiff), running several related businesses, employed bookkeeper Joseph Montanez, who began forging checks for personal use in October 1997 and intercepted the bank statements before anyone else could review them; the forgeries, ultimately totaling over $330,000, went undiscovered until May 1999. After discovering the fraud, the businesses sued Bank of America (defendant) to recover the losses; the trial court granted the Bank summary judgment, and the businesses appealed.
Whether, under the UCC, an account holder is precluded from recovering against a bank for unauthorized payments on multiple checks forged by the same person if the account holder failed to notify the bank within 30 days after the first such forgery appeared on a monthly bank statement.