Confidential
Settlement – $735,000Judge
Court
Santa Clara Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Julia B. Strickland
(Steptoe LLP)
Lisa M. Simonetti
(Vedder Price PC)
Experts
Plaintiff
William C. Sarsfield
(technical)
Pamala Camille
(technical)
Jonathan Mueller
(medical)
David S. Moore
(technical)
Defendant
Jeffrey A. Rigsby
(technical)
Facts
Decedent, an 80-year-old childless widow, was a customer of defendant bank. After the decedent's death the executor of her estate found that monies were missing. She checked with decedent's bank and learned that the decedent had withdrawn $300,000 on Sept. 15, 1992 in the form of an association check payable to another bank (defendant second bank). According to defendant second bank, the check was never deposited in the decedent's account there. Decedent's bank either could not or would not produce a copy of the back side of the check to determine where the proceeds had gone, but did state that the check had been cashed on Sept. 17, 1992. With that infomation, defendant second bank traced the check to one of its branches, where it had been deposited into the account of the teller/assistant manager (bank employee) of decedent's bank. After a suit for elder abuse was filed, plaintiff learned through discovery that defendant bank employee had withdrawn $6,000 and $4,204.07 in cash from the decedent's accounts. Plaintiff also discovered that defendant bank employee had withdrawn $71,923.32 and $25,246.68 from the decedent's accounts in the form of association checks, one payable to defendant second bank and the other payable to decedent. These checks were later allegedly redeposited into decedent's account. Subsequent inspection revealed that both checks were redeposited into two fictitious accounts at decedent's bank opened by defendant bank employee in her capacity as new accounts manager. Signature cards for either account allegedly could not be located. From these two accounts, all of the funds were withdrawn and traced to accounts held by defendant bank employee at other banks. Plaintiffs claimed the decedent apparently knew her money was disappearing, but not what was happening. She began making numerous 911 calls and was put in the Stanford Psychiatric Unit twice before her death. The plaintiff brought this action against the decedent's bank, the bank employee, her husband, and the second bank based on elder abuse, fraud, deceit, negligence breach of contract and conspiracy theories of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
According to plaintiff, decedent's bank made an offer of $200,000.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately two years and two months after the case was filed. A mediation was held on Sept. 4, 1996 before Judge Bettinelli of JAMS resulting in settlement with defendant second bank for $35,000. Two mandatory settlement conferences were held on Sept. 17 and 19, 1997, before Judge Flaherty, resulting in settlement. Plaintiff settled with defendant decedent's bank for $700,000 and with defendant bank employee and her husband for their house, which has an equity of between $200,000 and $250,000. EXPERT TESTIMONY: Plaintiff's expert, David Moore, opined that the decedent's signatures on the $71,923.32 check and the $25,246.68 check were forged.
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