Louisiana Court Protects Bank From Liability For Unauthorized Debits Arising From Its Customer's Dishonest Employee

LexisNexis (May 24, 2017, 1:48 PM EDT) -- In an interesting decision from Louisiana, the court has dismissed the claim of a bank customer whose deposit account was drained by its dishonest employee.  The fraudster obtained bogus credit cards, which it used to purchase a wide variety of goods, and then made credit card payments by transferring funds from its employer's deposit account via "debit memos" which appeared on the monthly statements. Although the employer sought to avoid the UCC by limiting itself to common-law claims of rescission, negligence and fraud, the court ruled that all these transfers were governed by the 60-day reporting deadline imposed by the deposit agreement and the one-year deadline imposed by UCC 4-406(f).  The fraud went on for six years before it was finally discovered and reported to the bank.  The big takeaway from the Louisiana case is the power of the "displacement" principle in this type of deposit account litigation....