Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...drawer's bank account and the check is deemed revocable by the drawer until it is paid."). Other indications of possession and control are found in chapter 674, Florida Statutes (2002), which pertains to bank deposits and collections. Specifically, section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (2002), deals *635 with the "customer's right to stop payment" and provides in part: A customer or any person authorized to draw on the account if there is more than one person may stop payment of any item drawn o...

...issue a stop payment order and takes reasonable steps to do so after the time the writ is served. [3] Of course, if a check has not yet been written, the duty to retain is easily fulfilled. However, even if the check has been written and delivered, section 674.403(1) provides the owner of the account with the right to stop payment on the check if the bank is afforded a "reasonable opportunity to act." As previously stated, it is not until the check has been presented for payment to the payor's...

...the ability to control the funds in the account, the payee has not yet obtained possession or control of the funds. Construing the provisions of the garnishment statute together with the related provisions of Florida's U.C.C., specifically sections 674.403 and 673.4081, we hold that funds remain in the garnishee's possession and control, even though a check has been written and delivered to the payee, if the check has not been presented for payment....

...See § 673.3121(2), Fla. Stat. (2002). [12] Only after this time has expired may the bank pay the check to someone other than the original payee. See id. [13] Conversely, a stop payment order can be executed on a personal check on the same day. See § 674.403(1), Fla....

...Guarino indorsed the check and cashed it with Any Kind. See § 673.2041(1) (defining "indorsement"). Any Kind immediately made the funds available to Guarino, less its fee. Talcott stopped payment on the check with his bank, so the check was returned to Any Kind. See § 674.403(1) (regarding a customer's right to stop payment)....

...The Bank contends that it was entitled to a directed verdict on its claim and Schuler's counterclaim. It says that, as a matter of law, it could rightfully make payment despite the stop-payment order since the order failed to describe the check with certainty as required by Section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (1977), and was, therefore, neither valid nor binding....

...of any item payable for his account but the order must be received at such time and in such manner as to afford the bank a reasonable opportunity to act on it prior to any action by the bank with respect to the item... ." The code provision, unlike Section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (1977), does not separately address how the check is to be described, that question being subsumed in the broader phrase that the stop-payment order must be made "in such manner as to afford the bank a reasonable...

...Game & Fresh Water Fish Commission, 354 So.2d 362 (Fla. 1977). Certainty is defined as freedom from any doubt; a sure thing, belief in which is based on thorough examination of all evidence. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 220 (1979). Thus, the requirement of "certainty" found in Section 674.403(1) does not permit us to say "close enough" and judicially make "certainty" the equivalent of "reasonable accuracy" or judicially muddle the clear and unequivocal meaning of the word by adding the antecedent "reasonable." [5] We must instead conclude that our legislature in enacting Section 674.403(1) intended to place a greater burden on the depositor in describing the check in a stop-payment order than that which existed at common law and that which exists in the Uniform Commercial Code....

...Union Trust Co. of the District of Columbia, 12 U.C.C.R.S. 527 (D.C.Sup.Ct. 1973) ($250 check described as $235 on stop-payment order was not specifically described as required by D.C. statute). In arriving at these conclusions, we do not overlook the fact that Section 674.403(1) *637 contains the Code language that the order must be served upon and received by the bank "in such manner as to afford the bank a reasonable opportunity to act on it." By including both this language and the antecedent certainty...

...[2] The original complaint contained a count for malicious prosecution which the trial court dismissed as premature. See Neil v. South Florida Auto Painters, 397 So.2d 1160 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); Blue v. Weinstein, 381 So.2d 308 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). [3] Section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (1977), governing stop-payment orders, reads: "(1) A customer, or any customer if there is more than one, or any person authorized to sign checks or make withdrawals on or from an account, may stop payment of any...

...We affirm the $13,000.00 judgment against the bank, but we reverse the dismissal of the complaint against Genesis. [1] Atlantic brought suit against the bank because the bank failed to stop payment on a $13,000.00 check drawn by Atlantic on its account payable to Genesis. The stop payment order was oral, contrary to section 674.403(1), [2] but the bank does not appeal the determination that it wrongfully failed to stop payment....

...NOTES [1] The dismissal of the third party complaint against Genesis, the third party defendant, could have been appealed under Fla.R.App.P. 9.130(a)(3)(C)(i). However, the bank did not lose its right to appeal the dismissal as a part of the final judgment. Fla.R.App.P. 9.130(g). [2] § 674.403(1), Fla....

...may stop payment on any item payable, for or drawn against such customer's or customers' account but the same shall not be effective and the bank may disregard the same unless the order is in writing... ." See Florida Nat. Bank at Coral Gables v. Dental, 210 So.2d 241 (Fla. 3d DCA 1968). [3] § 674.403(3), Fla....

...roperty that the debtor possessed." In re Raborn, 470 F.3d at 1323 (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). Under Florida law, the Debtors could have attempted to stop payment on the checks prior to filing the bankruptcy petition. Fla. Stat. § 674.403(1); Arnold, Matheny, & Eagan, 982 So.2d at 634-35....

...omer when it issues a cashier's check...."); Stringfellow v. First American Nat. Bank, 878 S.W.2d 940 (Tenn.1994); First R.R. Community Federal Credit Union v. Columbia County Bank, 849 F.Supp. 780 (M.D.Fla.1994); see also Official Code Comment 4 to § 674.403 Fla....

PER CURIAM. In the underlying action, PartsBase.com, Inc. (drawer) filed a one count complaint against SouthTrust Bank (Bank) under section 674.403, Florida Statutes (2000) for damages arising from the payment of a check after the drawer had delivered a stop-payment order....

...[e.s.]” Florida’s adoption of Article 4, Section 403 of the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.), imposes on all Florida banks the obligation to accept stop-payment orders from their customers, and provides a remedy to a customer if a check is paid over a valid stop-payment order. See § 674.403(1), Fla....

...The Bank’s liability, however, is limited, in that: “[t]he Bank may be liable to its customer for the actual loss incurred by the customer resulting from the wrongful payment of an item contrary to a valid and binding stop-payment order ....” [e.s.] § 674.403(3), Fla....

...Atlantic Telec, Inc., 389 So.2d 1032, 1033 (Fla. 5th DCA1980) (“Simply because a bank pays a check over a stop payment order does not entitle the customer to recover damages against the bank-”). The customer has the burden of establishing the fact and amount of the loss. Id.; § 674.403(3), Fla....

...older of the item with respect to the transaction out of which the item arose.” [e.s.] § 674.407, Fla. Stat. (2000); see also E. PeteRS, A Negotiable InstRuments PRIMER 79 (1974) (“The trade-off for requiring banks to accept, stop orders under [§ 674.403(1) ] was the limitation of their liability under [§ 674.403(3) ] and § 674.407].”)....

...customer, the plaintiff, of this refusal to honor the stop-payment order. Later, the defendant bank paid on the check after sufficient funds were deposited *113 to cover same and, in effect, treated the prior stop-payment order as a nullity. Second, Section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (1985), clearly gives a bank customer the right to stop payment on "any item payable" from the customer's account, subject to certain written formalities not relevant here....

...overdrawn check and thereafter charge the customer's account under Section 674.401(1), Florida Statutes (1985). It follows, then, that a bank customer has a right to interfere with this bank discretion and to stop payment on an overdrawn check under Section 674.403(1), Florida Statutes (1985)....