Experi-Metal, Inc. v. Comerica Bank

Experi-Metal, Inc. (Experi-Metal) (plaintiff) signed an agreement with Comerica Bank (Comerica) (defendant) to send payment orders or receive funds transfers using Comerica’s TM Connect Web wire-transfer system. Experi-Metal designated Keith Maslowski as an authorized user to initiate transfers using this service. To verify online-banking transactions, Comerica used a security procedure known as secure-token technology, in which a user entered a user identification (ID), a confidential PIN, and a randomly generated code. Experi-Metal later failed to notify Comerica that Maslowski should be removed as an authorized user. Maslowski received an email from a third party claiming to be Comerica and directing him to provide his user ID and password, which he did. Forty-seven wire transfers were quickly initiated from Experi-Metal’s account. After several hours of this activity, Comerica notified Experi-Metal of the transfers, and Experi-Metal directed Comerica to recall all wires out of Experi-Metal’s account and to stop all future wire transfers from the account. Most of the transfer activity was stopped, but 46 additional wire transfers were initiated before the activity was stopped completely. Comerica recalled all but $560,000 of the transfers, and this amount was charged to Experi-Metal’s account. Experi-Metal sued Comerica. Comerica moved for summary judgment.