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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No.

G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

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BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI


G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 GET

Negotiable Instruments Law, RESOURCE


BUNDLES &

Forgery, Public Interest in


FRESH
CONTENT
NOTIFICATION

Banking Business Sign up for Pinay


JUNE 10, 2019 Jurist Newsletter
Name

FACTS: Email

CASA Montessori International opened a


Current Account with BPI with CASA’s By continuing, you
accept the privacy
President Ms. Lebron as one of its
policy
authorized signatories.
I'M IN!

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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

In 1991, CASA discovered that 9 of its


checks had been encashed by a certain
Sonny D. Santos since 1990 in the total
amount of ₱782,000.00 CATEGORIES

Banking
It turned out that ‘Sonny D. Santos’ with
account at BPI’s Greenbelt Branch [was] Bar Q & A
a ctitious name used by Leonardo T.
Yabut who worked as external auditor of Civil Law

CASA. Yabut voluntarily admitted that he


Constitutional Law
forged the signature of Ms. Lebron and
encashed the checks. Corporation Law

Criminal Law
A Complaint for Collection with Damages
against BPI to reinstate the amount of
Election Law
₱782,500.00 in the current and savings
accounts of  CASA with interest at 6% per Insurance

annum.
Intellectual Property
Law
The RTC rendered a decision in favor of
the CASA. International Law

Labor Law
Modifying the Decision of the RTC, the CA
apportioned the loss between BPI and
Law School
CASA. The appellate court took into
account CASA’s contributory negligence Legal Ethics

that resulted in the undetected forgery.


Mercantile Law

Hence, these Petitions. Political Law

ISSUE: Remedial Law

Special Proceedings
Whether or not CASA is precluded from
setting up forgery as a defense. Taxation

Whether or not BPI was negligent and


therefore liable

POLL
RULING:
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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

Forged Signature Wholly Inoperative


What subjects are y
enrolled in?
Section 23 of the NIL provides:

I am a Bar Reviewee
“Section 23. Forged signature; e ect of.
— When a signature is forged or made
Political/ Constitutional
without the authority of the person
Law & Election Laws)
whose signature it purports to be, it is
wholly inoperative, and no right x x x to
Criminal Law (Special P
enforce payment thereof against any
party thereto, can be acquired through or
Civil Law (Private Int'l L
under such signature, unless the party
against whom it is sought to enforce such
Mercantile Law
right is precluded from setting up the
forgery or want of authority.”
Remedial Law

Under this provision, a forged signature


Taxation
is a real or absolute defense, and a person
whose signature on a negotiable
Labor Law
instrument is forged is deemed to have
never become a party thereto and to have
Legal Ethics
never consented to the contract that
allegedly gave rise to it. Other:

The counterfeiting of any writing, Vote


consisting in the signing of another’s
name with intent to defraud, is forgery. View Results Cro

In the present case, we hold that there


was forgery of the drawer’s signature on
the check.
META

Forgery “cannot be presumed.” It must Register


be established by clear, positive and
convincing evidence. Log in

Entries feed
Having established the forgery of the
drawer’s signature, BPI — the drawee — Comments feed
erred in making payments by virtue
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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

thereof. The forged signatures are wholly WordPress.org


inoperative, and CASA — the drawer
whose authorized signatures do not
appear on the negotiable instruments —
cannot be held liable thereon.

In this jurisdiction, the negligence of the


party invoking forgery is recognized as an
exception to the general rule that a
forged signature is wholly inoperative.
Contrary to BPI’s claim, however, we do
not nd CASA negligent in handling its
nancial a airs. CASA, we stress, is not
precluded from setting up forgery as a
real defense.

Clear Negligence in Allowing Payment


Under a Forged Signature

We have repeatedly emphasized that,


since the banking business is impressed
with public interest, of paramount
importance thereto is the trust and
con dence of the public in general.
Consequently, the highest degree of
diligence is expected, and high standards
of integrity and performance are even
required, of it. By the nature of its
functions, a bank is “under obligation to
treat the accounts of its depositors with
meticulous care, always having in mind
the duciary nature of their
relationship.”

BPI’s negligence consisted in the


omission of that degree of diligence
required of a bank. It cannot now feign
ignorance, for very early on we have
already ruled that a bank is “bound to
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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

know the signatures of its customers; and


if it pays a forged check, it must be
considered as making the payment out of
its own funds, and cannot ordinarily
charge the amount so paid to the account
of the depositor whose name was
forged.”

Loss Borne by Proximate Source of


Negligence

For allowing payment on the checks to a


wrongful and ctitious payee, BPI — the
drawee bank — becomes liable to its
depositor-drawer. It “may not debit the
drawer’s account and is not entitled to
indemni cation from the drawer.” In
both law and equity, when one of two
innocent persons “must su er by the
wrongful act of a third person, the loss
must be borne by the one whose
negligence was the proximate cause of
the loss or who put it into the power of
the third person to perpetrate the
wrong.”

Pursuant to its prime duty to ascertain


well the genuineness of the signatures of
its client-depositors on checks being
encashed, BPI is “expected to use
reasonable business prudence.”
Unfortunately, it failed in that regard.

 JUNE 10, 2019  PINAYJURIST


 BANKING, MERCANTILE LAW

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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

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1/20/2020 BPI vs. CASA MONTESSORI G.R. No. 149454 May 28, 2004 Negotiable Instruments Law, Forgery, Public Interest in Banking Business – PINA…

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