Ats Ohio, Inc. v. Shively, Unpublished Decision (9-2-1999)
Ats Ohio, Inc. v. Shively, Unpublished Decision (9-2-1999)
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
Appellants ATS Ohio, Inc. ("ATS") and Vigilant Insurance Company ("Vigilant") are appealing the decision of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas that granted summary judgment on behalf of Appellee Bank One, N.A. ("Bank One"). The following facts give rise to this appeal. Between September 1990 and April 1996, ATS's former controller, Brian Shively, embezzled over $200,000 from ATS's checking account with Bank One. Shively used the money he embezzled from ATS to pay on a revolving credit account he had with Bank One. Shively embezzled the funds by writing corporate checks payable to Bank One and coded as payments for federal tax deposits. Shively would sign the checks, obtain a second authorized signature from ATS's general manager and deliver the checks to Bank One with instructions, based on "payment coupons", to credit the proceeds of ATS's checks to his personal lines of credit, not to ATS's federal tax accounts. Near the end of April 1996, Barbara Palmer, a cost accountant for ATS, found evidence indicating Shively stole from petty cash and misused his expense account. Shively subsequently admitted a problem and left ATS. ATS notified Vigilant Insurance Company, its fidelity insurance carrier, of a possible claim and began investigating. Palmer thereafter discovered Shively's scheme with ATS's tax deposit checks. In June 1996, ATS and Vigilant filed a complaint against Shively. In December 1996, after further discovery and ATS's request that Bank One reimburse its account in the amount of $132,750, ATS filed an amended complaint joining Bank One as a defendant. On November 13, 1997, ATS filed a motion for partial summary judgment requesting judgment in the amount of $197,500 against Bank One. Bank One filed a cross-motion for summary judgment on December 19, 1997. On December 24, 1997, ATS and Vigilant served a motion for partial summary judgment against Shively to recover $303,033.33. On May 28, 1998, the trial court granted Bank One's cross-motion for summary judgment and denied ATS and Vigilant's motion for partial summary judgment against Bank One. On June 29, 1998, ATS and Vigilant filed a motion requesting reconsideration of its decision granting Bank One's cross-motion for summary judgment or in the alternative, make the judgment a final appealable order. The trial court overruled the motion on November 25, 1998. On January 21, 1999, Bank One voluntarily dismissed its contingent cross-claim against Shively, without prejudice, and the trial court signed an agreed final judgment dismissing ATS and Vigilant's claims against Shively, with prejudice, pursuant to the December 1998 compromise settlement agreement. ATS and Vigilant timely filed their notice of appeal and set forth the following assignments of error for our consideration:I. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO HOLD THE UNIFORM FIDUCIARY ACT AND THE SYLLABUS OF THE SUPREME COURT'S 1990 OPINION IN MASTER CHEMICAL CORP. V. INKROTT, RATHER THAN THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, STATE THE CONTROLLING LAW GOVERNING BANK ONE'S LIABILITY FOR MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.
II. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY HOLDING THE UNIFORM FIDUCIARY ACT AND THE SYLLABUS OF THE SUPREME COURT'S 1990 OPINION IN MASTER CHEMICAL CORP. V. INKROTT DO NOT STATE THE CONTROLLING LAW GOVERNING BANK ONE'S LIABILITY FOR MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS WITH TWO SIGNATURES TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.
III. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY HOLDING THE ENACTMENT OF R.C.
1303.60 (A) OF THE 1994 AMENDMENTS TO THE UCC WAS A DE FACTO (SIC) REPEAL OF R.C.1339.09 OF THE UNIFORM FIDUCIARY ACT AND THE SYLLABUS OF THE SUPREME COURT'S 1990 OPINION IN MASTER CHEMICAL CORP. V. INKROTT.IV. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO HOLD BANK ONE IS LIABLE AS A MATTER OF LAW UNDER THE SECOND PARAGRAPH OF R.C.
1339.09 FOR MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.V. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO HOLD BANK ONE IS LIABLE AS A MATTER OF LAW UNDER THE "BAD FAITH" EXCEPTION OF R.C.
1339.09 FOR MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.VI. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO HOLD BANK ONE IS LIABLE AS A MATTER OF LAW UNDER THE "ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF BREACH OF THE FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION" EXCEPTION OF R.C.
1339.09 AND R.C.1303.37 (B)(4)(a) FOR MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS AFTER AUGUST 19, 1994 TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.VII. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY HOLDING BANK ONE DID NOT OBTAIN ANY UNJUST FINANCIAL BENEFIT FROM MISAPPLYING FEDERAL TAX DEPOSIT CHECKS TO A DISHONEST EMPLOYEE'S PERSONAL DEBTS OWED TO BANK ONE.
VIII. THE COMMON PLEAS COURT ERRED BY HOLDING ATS OHIO'S EQUITABLE CLAIM FOR "MONEY HAD AND RECEIVED" DOES NOT RAISE GENUINE ISSUES OF DISPUTED MATERIAL FACT REQUIRING A TRIAL FOR RESOLUTION.
Summary Judgment Standard
Summary judgment proceedings present the appellate court with the unique opportunity of reviewing the evidence in the same manner as the trial court. Smiddy v. The Wedding Party, Inc. (1987),
Pursuant to the above rule, a trial court may not enter summary judgment if it appears a material fact is genuinely disputed. The party moving for summary judgment bears the initial burden of informing the trial court of the basis for its motion and identifying those portions of the record that demonstrates the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. The moving party may not make a conclusory assertion that the non-moving party has no evidence to prove its case. The moving party must specifically point to some evidence which demonstrates the non-moving party cannot support its claim. If the moving party satisfies this requirement, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to set forth specific facts demonstrating there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. Vahila v. Hall (1997),
Appellants also maintain that an amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code in 1994, which added R.C.
* * * (4) If an instrument is issued by the represented person or by the fiduciary of the represented person to the taker as payee, the taker has notice of the breach of fiduciary duty if any of the following apply:
* * *
(a) The instrument is taken in payment of or as security for a debt known by the taker to be the personal debt of the fiduciary.
Appellants maintain R.C.
We agree with the trial court's conclusion that the Inkrott decision is inapplicable to the case sub judice. The Ohio Supreme Court decided Inkrott in 1990, prior to the 1994 amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code. Further, in Inkrott, plaintiffs sued for wrongful payment of checks deposited. However, in the matter currently before the court, ATS sued for conversion. Finally, Inkrott differs factually from the present case. In Inkrott, Master Chemical's controller took checks, made payable to the Toledo Trust Company, altered the amounts and deposited them into an account he established in an assumed name. Inkrott at 23, 24. The Ohio Supreme Court agreed with the court of appeals' conclusion that the checks were not properly payable because Toledo Trust Company did not pay the proceeds to the payee, but found that Toledo Trust Company and Master Chemical had, by contract, altered their legal obligations. Id. at 24. The Ohio Supreme Court held that the Toledo Trust Company was liable for failing to pay the check to the named payee, citing the rule that checks made payable to the bank are not bearer paper and a bank treating such a check as bearer paper does so at its own peril. Id. at 25. In the case sub judice, the checks Bank One received were payable to Bank One and were in fact paid to Bank One. For this reason, ATS did not bring a claim for wrongful payment of the checks as the checks were properly paid. Instead, ATS filed a claim for conversion. We find the trial court properly concluded that ATS cannot maintain a cause of action for conversion pursuant to R.C.
We also find the trial court did not hold that R.C.
The trial court did not find that R.C.
If a check is drawn upon his principal's account by a fiduciary who is empowered to do so, the bank may pay such check without being liable to the principal, unless the bank pays the check with actual knowledge that the fiduciary is committing a breach of his obligation as fiduciary in drawing such check or with knowledge of such facts that its action in paying the check amounts to bad faith. If such check is payable to the drawee bank and is delivered to it in payment of or as security for a personal debt of the fiduciary to it, the bank is liable to the principal if the fiduciary in fact commits a breach of his obligation as fiduciary in drawing or delivering the check.
(Emphasis added.)
Based on the language of the above statute, we find the second paragraph of R.C.
* * *
There are occasions where an innocent party may be liable for restitution to a defrauded party. [Citations omitted.] In such a case, the innocent party is liable for restitution only if he was actually enriched and only if there has been no change of circumstances making it inequitable to require restitution. [Citations omitted.] One of the basic principles applicable to this area of the law is that a defendant is liable only to the extent of the enrichment. [Citations omitted.] Id. at 766-767. We find Bank One was not enriched by the ATS checks applied to Shively's revolving credit account. Shively reborrowed everything he paid into the account. Instead, the benefit in this case flowed to Shively, his family and other creditors. When the recipient of stolen funds no longer has possession of those funds through the action of the wrongdoer, the change in circumstances will bar any restitution recovery. Stang at 767. Therefore, absent a financial benefit to Bank One, we find the trial court properly granted Bank One summary judgment on ATS and Vigilant's claim for money had and received. Appellants' Seventh and Eighth Assignments of Error are overruled. Based on the above, we find the trial court properly granted Bank One's cross-motion for summary judgment.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County, Ohio, is hereby affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.
By: Wise, P.J. Gwin, J., and Hoffman, J., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.