Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COURT OF APPEALS
Facts:
Petitioner was a prominent businessman who, because of different business
commitments, entrusted to his then secretary the handling of his credit cards
and checkbooks. For a material period of time, the secretary was able to
encash and deposit in her personal account money from the account of
petitioner. Upon knowledge of her acts, she was fired immediately and
criminal actions were filed against her. Thereafter, petitioner requested the bank
to restore its money but the bank refused to do so.
Issue: whether or not petitioner has a cause of action against private respondent
HELD:
The petitioner doesn’t have a course of action against the bank. To be entitled
to damages, petitioner has the burden of proving negligence on the part of the bank
for failure to detect the discrepancy in the signatures on the checks. It is incumbent
upon petitioner to establish the fact of forgery. Curiously though, petitioner failed to
supply additional signature specimens as requested by the NBI. The bank was not
also remiss in performance of its duties, it practices due diligence in encashing
checks. The bank didn’t have any hint of the modus operandi of Eugenio as she
was a regular customer, designated by the petitioner himself to transact on his
behalf.
It was petitioner who was negligent in this case. He failed to examine his bank
statements and this was the proximate cause of his own damage. Because of
this negligence, he is precluded from setting up the defense of forgery with regard the
checks.
Issue: Whether or not Far East Bank is liable to reimburse Samsung for cashing out
the forged check, which was drawn from the account of Samsung
Held: Far East Bank is liable for reimbursement. Sec. 23 of the Negotiable Instrument
Law states that a forged signature makes the instrument “wholly inoperative”. If
payment is made the drawee (Far East) cannot charge it to the drawer’s account
(Samsung). The fact that the forgery is clever is immaterial. The forged signature may
so closely resemble the genuine as to defy detection by the depositor himself. And
yet, if the bank pays the check, it is paying out with its own money and not of the
depositor’s. This rule of liability can be stated briefly in these words: “A bank is
bound to know its depositor’s signature.” The accusation of negligence on the part of
Samsung was not clearly proven. Absence of proof to the contrary, the presumption is
that the ordinary course of business was followed.