Advance Dental CARE INC. v Suntrust BANK PDF

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Advance Dental Care Inc. v Suntrust Bank Student Name: Michael Rouzer Statement of Facts: Michelle Rampersad was an employee of Advanced Dental. During a period of more than three years in fall of 2007, Rampersad took approximately 185 insurance reimbursement checks for Advanced Dental and endorsed them for herself and depositing them with Suntrust Bank. The checks totaled more than $400,000. Procedural History: Advanced Dental sued Suntrust Bank for violating two provisions of the Maryland version of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) dealing with negligence and conversion. They also stated a claim of negligence pursuant of the Maryland common law. In the opinion that follows the court considers whether Advance Dental’s common law negligence claim has been displaced by the statutory UCC conversion claim. Issues: The Court must determine whether the Maryland UCC (The UCC conversion provision) displaces common law negligence when a payee seeks to recover from a depository bank that accepted unauthorized and fraudulently endorsed checks. Holding: The court finds that the defendant’s claim is true and that the UCC has overlap with commonlaw negligence and therefore the motion to dismiss this is granted Reasoning: Courts are very careful to avoid finding a conflict between the different types of law unless the conflict is clear.     

In precedent, courts have found that common-law negligence cases can only continue in the absence of an adequate UCC remedy It is indisputable that UCC has a remedy  conversion o Advanced dental has filed a claim with this UCC remedy as well UCC conversion provision defines conversion as “payment with respect to an instrument for a person not entitled to enforce the instrument or receive payment” Advanced Dental has cited the same conduct for both negligence and conversion claim  UCC conversion subsumes common law negligence claims Common law negligence is insufficiently distinct from UCC conversion

Result/Application: Court grants defendant’s motion to dismiss and Advanced Dental is only allowed to sue for the UCC claim....