First National City Bank v. Compania de Aguaceros, SA
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
398 F.2d 779 (1968)
- Written by David Bloom, JD
Facts
Compania de Aguaceros, SA (Aguaceros) (plaintiff) had a bank account with First National City Bank (First National) (defendant). Aguaceros sued First National for wrongfully cashing nine forged checks at a bank branch in Panama. First National defended the suit by relying on a Panamanian statute, Article 989 of the Panama Commercial Code, that required depositors to challenge account balance statements within a certain period of time. Specifically, pursuant to that statute, banks were required to give current account statements to customers eight days or sooner after the end of each quarter, and account holders had five days thereafter to contest the balance. First National argued that it was not liable for cashing the forged checks, because Aguaceros had failed to dispute the account balance within the statutorily prescribed five-day period. At trial, the judge initially found that the statute’s language was ambiguous. After hearing testimony from expert witnesses, the judge interpreted the statute in favor of Aguaceros and found that statute was not peremptory, meaning that noncompliance with the five-day notice period could be rebutted by the depositor. The trial court awarded Aguaceros money damages. First National appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Goldberg, J.)
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