Facts

Plaintiff, Lynn's Heavy Duty Towing Inc. realized that $29,400 in payments was missing from its records. The vendors whose payments were missing all notified the plaintiff that their checks had cleared at their respective banks. The plaintiff concluded that an independent contractor, Sean Thompson, had unauthorized access to the billing office and had stolen the missing checks. The plaintiff then discovered that several of the checks had been cashed at Clark's Liquor. The plaintiff filed suit against Thompson, Clark's Liquor, and Maida Nadim Maida and Medaa M. Medaa, Clark's proprietors, for conspiracy, conversion and fraud.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiff claimed that Thompson had stolen checks made out to plaintiff over the course of 2.5 years, and had cashed them at Clark's Liquor. It suggested that Thompson had made a copy of the key to the billing office in order to steal the checks, and that the pattern of continually cashing the checks at Clark's indicated that Maida and Medaa were involved in the scheme. It introduced copies of the checks into evidence and pointed out that none of the checks had the correct signature of plaintiff's authorizing agent on them.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
Maida and Medaa denied liability for failing to identify the checks as potentially stolen. They claimed that they thought they received the checks from an authorized agent and followed their standard check cashing procedure with each check. They claimed that the plaintiff was contributorily negligent for taking so long to discover the checks were being stolen and cashed and for failing to change his locks once he knew his key had been compromised.

Damages

The plaintiff sought to recover the $29,400 stolen.

Result

The jury found Thompson, Maida and Medaa liable for conversion, apportioning 50 percent of the liability to Thompson and 50 percent to Maida and Medaa. As to negligence, the jury found Thompson, Maida and Medaa 75 percent responsible, and plaintiff 25 percent responsible. The plaintiff was given the option of electing one of the remedies and chose the conversion remedy. Maida and Medaa were ordered to pay the plaintiff $14,700.

Other Information

The plaintiff also brought suit against Bank of America, for negligence, because the plaintiff alleged the bank should have determined that an agent of the company did not sign the checks presented. The bank maintained that it was not liable for honoring the checks because the statute of limitations under the uniform commercial code was 90 days, which had long since elapsed. The bank was dismissed as a defendant prior to trial. Defendants Maida and Medaa have satisfied the judgment against them in full. Sean Thompson's whereabouts were unknown and he was not represented by counsel.

Deliberation

one day.

Poll

12-0

Length

three days