AMERICAN NAT. BANK & TRUST CO. OF BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY v. Hartford Acc. & Ind. Co.
| Decision Date | 11 June 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 1384.,1384. |
| Citation | 313 F. Supp. 1279 |
| Parties | AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY OF BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY, Plaintiff, v. HARTFORD ACCIDENT AND INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Kentucky |
Milliken & Milliken, by G. D. Milliken, Jr., Bowling Green, Ky., for plaintiff.
Bell, Orr & Reynolds, by Jerry L. Moore, Bowling Green, Ky., for defendant.
This case, having been properly removed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in accordance with 28 U.S.C. section 1441(a), is before the court on motions by the plaintiff and defendant for summary judgment pursuant to rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
A brief résumé of the facts from which this litigation arises is as follows. Occasionally banks suffer a shortage of currency and are unable to meet their practical needs. When such a deficit occurs it is apparently the custom of banks in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as well as others throughout the country, to call upon neighboring banks within their community and arrange an exchange of the necessary currency for a cashier's check of an equal sum. On March 27, 1969, a person, whose identity is unknown, telephoned the plaintiff, the American National Bank and Trust Company of Bowling Green, and asked to speak to Mrs. Obie Bates, the chief teller. The caller representing himself to be a spokesman for the Citizens National Bank of Bowling Green, told Mrs. Bates that the armored car service had failed to leave a sufficient amount of currency on its last delivery and that the Citizens Bank was in need of $20,000 in denominations of tens and twenties. The caller further said that a part time employee would deliver a cashier's check for $20,000 as soon as possible if the American National Bank could spare that amount of currency. Mrs. Bates, who normally handled such transactions, agreed to accommodate the unidentified caller and assured him the check would be cashed. A young man, purporting to be a courier from the Citizens National Bank, arrived shortly thereafter, contacted Mrs. Bates, tendered the check, and walked out with $20,000. The following day when the cashier's check was presented in due course to the Citizens National Bank by the plaintiff it was discovered that it was only valid to the extent of $20.00. The plaintiff, having been hoodwinked, initiated this action against its insurer and defendant, Hartfort Accident and Indemnity Company, to recover $19,980 on its Bankers Blanket Bond which indemnified the plaintiff against certain specified losses. Among the compensable losses were those which occurred by robbery, burglary, common law or statutory larceny, theft or false pretenses. Explicitly excluded from coverage by the policy were those losses effectuated by forgery. The plaintiff contends that the loss which occurred on March 27, 1969, was precipitated by false pretenses or larceny, while the defendant pleads that it was the result of forgery and consequently not compensable under the terms of the indemnity bond.
There appears from the pleadings, affidavits, admissions and deposition within the record before the court to be no genuine issue as to any of the material facts. The case is therefore, properly a matter for summary judgment according to part (c) of rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
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AMERICAN NAT. BANK & T. CO. v. Hartford Acc. & Ind. Co.
...for the Western District of Kentucky involving a dispute over the insurance coverage of a Banker's Blanket Bond. The District Court, 313 F.Supp. 1279, granted summary judgment in favor of the American National Bank and Trust Company of Bowling Green, Kentucky, hereinafter referred to as the......