Phil & Kathy’s Inc. v. Safra National Bank
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
595 F. Supp. 2d 330 (2009)
- Written by Samantha Arena, JD
Facts
On July 2, 2003, Phil & Kathy’s, Inc. (P&K) (plaintiff) submitted a payment order to Harris Trust and Savings Bank (Harris), requesting Harris to wire $1.5 million from P&K’s account to Safra National Bank (Safra) (defendant). The order directed Safra to deposit the money into an account owned by Banco Do Brasil, but misidentified the account name, rendering payment impossible. Harris notified P&K of the issue the following day, and Banco Do Brasil recommended that the beneficiary account on the payment order be changed to Blue Vale (Blue). P&K then submitted a second order, directing payment of $1.5 million to Blue. Over the next few days, Harris sent numerous write transfers to Safra, requesting to amend the first order to substitute Blue as the beneficiary. However, Safra processed the second order and credited Blue’s account on July 7, which was the next business day due to a holiday. Based on Harris’s wire transfers requesting amendment of the first order, Safra then credited Blue’s account another $1.5 million on July 9, within five business days of the first order. P&K filed suit against Safra, seeking recovery of the $1.5 million paid on the first order, and contending that the first order was cancelled by operation of law due to the misidentified beneficiary. Safra filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the order had been amended and that its execution was therefore proper.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Sand, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.