FAIRMONT – A Fairmont law firm is accusing a bank of improperly handing its money.
Funkhouser & Smith filed its complaint January 10 in Marion Circuit Court against Huntington National Bank and Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.
According to the complaint, the law firm maintained several bank accounts with the defendants, including a real estate trust account, which is one of the subjects of the complaint.
The firm says it first opened accounts with the bank in January 2019, a few months before the firm began operations.
The firm claims the bank violated federal law and regulations in the management of this account, which ultimately cost the plaintiff $187,500. The firm says it was representing what it thought was a legitimate client and transaction through most of 2022.
“In the course of this representation, the client mailed a check in the amount of $198,000 made payable to the plaintiff from an account owned by Aviva, which purported to be maintained at the Bank of Montreal,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff deposited this check into its real estate trust account maintained by defendants on or about December 27, 2022. Said account contained money belonging to both the plaintiff as well as the plaintiff’s clients.”
On January 3, 2023, the firm said its statement showed a “miscellaneous credit” added to the account for $198,000. It says there were no designations on the statement that the deposit was pending or any indication the bank still was reviewing the legitimacy of the check.
On January 9, 2023, the firm says it wired the sum of $187,500 from the account to First Citizens Bank in Pasadena, California. The next day, the bank withdrew $198,000 from the account and listed “Foreign Item Processing Return” under the description of the transation.
On January 18, 2023, the law firm received a letter from the bank indicating the check had been returned because it was an altered or fictitious item. The bank also had taken a $15 service fee charged by the foreign bank.
On the same day and next day, the law firm says it contacted the bank requesting it put a stop on the wire to the Pasadena bank, but the money already had been received and withdrawn or transferred by the owner of the account.
The law firm accuses the bank of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of the Uniform Commercial Code and breach of contract. It seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
The firm is being represented by John R. Funkhouser and Ashley J. Smith of the firm. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Matthew S. Delligatti.
Marion Circuit Court case number 25-C-9