AboutJim Meadows Expertise I can respond to most questions concerning consumer and business relationships with US financial institutions. My expertise touches on deposit and loan issues and particularly on strategies to navigate through bank policies personell and practices. I have a degree in Economics, attended law school, Graduate Shool of Banking, and Commercial Lending and Compliance Schools.
Experience I have twenty years experience as a bank CEO. Most of those years were spent operating a bank focused primarly on serving consumer/retail needs. I helped pioneer deposit and loan products for low/moderate income individuals. I currently serve on multiple bank boards and am Chairman of a Commercial Bank in Atlanta.
Question Hello,
I live in Atlanta, and several years ago, some cash in my safe deposit box "mysteriously" disappeared. My mother uses the same bank, and now much of her jewelry, which has high monetary value as well as sentimental value, has disappeared from her box (not the same box). The bank denies any responsibility and claims that it is not possible for this to happen, which of course is ridiculous, especially given the high turnover of employees that I've witnessed at this bank. I have researched and found that in fact this has been known to happen before. What direction would you take legally, and do you think (subject to the facts, of course) there is potential to recover by suing the bank? Thanks SO much for your generosity and taking the time to respond!!
Answer Cindy, this would be a tough and expensive law suit but you are right in that it has and can happen: most often by family members or "friends" of the box holder with the lack of effort on bank personal to properly identify those who access the box. Make sure that you examine the signature cards carefully. If you discover a signature record not your and can prove you were elsewhere you have some standing against the bank.
However based on what you have told me so far you would have small odds prevailing in a law suit. Only through "discovery" after a suit is filed could you hope to find additional support for your suit. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Jim
