CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

 

                        HOUSE BILL 1400

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        55th Legislature

                      1997 Regular Session

Passed by the House February 21, 1997

  Yeas 95   Nays 0

 

 

 

Speaker of the

      House of Representatives

 

Passed by the Senate April 7, 1997

  Yeas 47   Nays 0

             CERTIFICATE

 

I, Timothy A. Martin, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 1400  as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.

 

 

 

President of the Senate

                          Chief Clerk

 

 

Approved Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.  

                                FILED

          

 

 

Governor of the State of Washington

                   Secretary of State

                  State of Washington


          _______________________________________________

 

                          HOUSE BILL 1400

          _______________________________________________

 

             Passed Legislature - 1997 Regular Session

 

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Benson, L. Thomas, Wolfe, Zellinsky, Sheahan and Appelwick

 

Read first time 01/24/97.  Referred to Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance.

 

 

Removing a termination date in the bank statement rule.


    AN ACT Relating to the bank statement rule; and amending RCW 62A.4-406.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

 

    Sec. 1.  RCW 62A.4‑406 and 1995 c 107 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    (a) A bank that sends or makes available to a customer a statement of account showing payment of items for the account shall either return or make available to the customer the items paid, copies of the items paid, or provide information in the statement of account sufficient to allow the customer reasonably to identify the items paid.  ((Until January 1, 1998,)) The statement of account provides sufficient information if the item is described by item number, amount, and date of payment.  If the bank does not return the items paid or copies of the items paid, it shall provide in the statement of account the telephone number that the customer may call to request an item or copy of an item pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.

    (b) If the items are not returned to the customer, the person retaining the items shall either retain the items or, if the items are destroyed, maintain the capacity to furnish legible copies of the items until the expiration of seven years after receipt of the items.  A customer may request an item from the bank that paid the item, and that bank must provide in a reasonable time either the item or, if the item has been destroyed or is not otherwise obtainable, a legible copy of the item.  A bank shall provide, upon request and without charge to the customer, at least two items or copies of items with respect to each statement of account sent to the customer.  A bank may charge fees for additional items or copies of items in accordance with RCW 30.22.230.  Requests for ten items or less shall be processed and completed within ten business days.

    (c) If a bank sends or makes available a statement of account or items pursuant to subsection (a), the customer must exercise reasonable promptness in examining the statement or the items to determine whether any payment was not authorized because of an alteration of an item or because a purported signature by or on behalf of the customer was not authorized.  If, based on the statement or items provided, the customer should reasonably have discovered the unauthorized payment, the customer must promptly notify the bank of the relevant facts.

    (d) If the bank proves that the customer, failed with respect to an item, to comply with the duties imposed on the customer by subsection (c) the customer is precluded from asserting against the bank:

    (1) The customer's unauthorized signature or any alteration on the item, if the bank also proves that it suffered a loss by reason of the failure; and

    (2) The customer's unauthorized signature or alteration by the same wrong-doer on any other item paid in good faith by the bank if the payment was made before the bank received notice from the customer of the unauthorized signature or alteration and after the customer had been afforded a reasonable period of time, not exceeding thirty days, in which to examine the item or statement of account and notify the bank.

    (e) If subsection (d) applies and the customer proves that the bank failed to exercise ordinary care in paying the item and that the failure substantially contributed to loss, the loss is allocated between the customer precluded and the bank asserting the preclusion according to the extent to which the failure of the customer to comply with subsection (c) and the failure of the bank to exercise ordinary care contributed to the loss.  If the customer proves that the bank did not pay the item in good faith, the preclusion under subsection (d) does not apply.

    (f) Without regard to care or lack of care of either the customer or the bank, a natural person whose account is primarily for personal, family, or household purposes who does not within one year, and any other customer who does not within sixty days, from the time the statement and items are made available to the customer (subsection (a)) discover and report the customer's unauthorized signature or any alteration on the face or back of the item or does not within one year from that time discover and report any unauthorized indorsement is precluded from asserting against the bank such unauthorized signature or indorsement or such alteration.  If there is a preclusion under this subsection, the payor bank may not recover for breach of warranty under RCW 62A.4-208 with respect to the unauthorized signature or alteration to which the preclusion applies.

 


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