_______________________________________________
HOUSE
BILL 1400
_______________________________________________
Passed
Legislature - 1997 Regular Session
State of Washington 55th
Legislature 1997 Regular Session
By
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.
