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Father Forged Son's Checks: Recourse?
My 23 year old son had a checking account. No other name was on the account. He didn't drive and didn't have access to a car, so my ex-husband took my son's checks and deposited them into his account. He forged checks on the account of almost $7,000 over a three year period. My son never wrote a check on the account. He did not authorize his father to take money out of his account. I have the cancelled checks with his signature on them.
Is the bank responsible for allowing my son's father to write these checks on his account about which he had no knowledge? Do we have any recourse to get his money back?
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 The culprit in your story isn't the bank. It's your ex-husband who stole the money.
Your son had a responsibility to oversee his account, to examine monthly statements, to compare bank records with his. It was his responsibility to catch the fact that someone was stealing from him, and his responsibility to contact the bank about the problem. He can still make his claim on the bank, but he should be aware that the bank has the law on its side. The law protects the bank from liability for "same wrongdoer" cases. The best way to explain how the law works is to use an example.
Suppose that the first forged check showed up on your son's 1/31/2004 bank statement. The law expects your son to examine the statement promptly, but it allows a 30-day window for him to review the statement, compare it with his records, and contact the bank to identify the unauthorized check. If another unauthorized check is paid within that 30 day period, the bank will be liable for both checks and any other forged checks paid in that period, and that liability won't go away, but any checks forged by the same wrongdoer after the end of that 30 day period will not be the bank's responsibility, because the bank would have been able to prevent those payments if your son had made a timely notification. If your son wants to pursue a recovery, he'll have to go after the actual thief.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 12/03/08
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