Meyer v. Christie

Alan Meyer and John Pratt (plaintiffs) formed a joint venture with David Christie and Alexander Glenn (defendants) for the development of certain property. Meyer had previously taken out a loan from Security Savings (defendant) to support one of his other business ventures. Christie sought to take out a loan from Security Savings for purposes of the parties’ joint venture, but Security Savings denied the loan request on the stated ground that Meyer’s previous loan was in default. Further, James Duff (defendant), a former Security Savings employee, related to Christie that the president of Security Savings had told Duff that Meyer had made fraudulent misrepresentations to the bank and was having financial difficulties. The privacy policy of Security Savings prohibited it from disclosing this information to a third party. After Christie heard this information from Duff, he terminated his joint venture with Meyer. Meyer sued Security Savings for breach of the terms of the bank’s privacy policy in connection with his loan. Meyer alleged that Security Savings asked for his confidential financial information as part of the loan process, and that he divulged that information in reliance on the bank’s policy to keep such information confidential. Security Savings filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that its privacy policy did not constitute a binding contract.