DOUG GOODMAN v. COMMERCIAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY - Articles

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DOUG GOODMAN v. COMMERCIAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Jun 26, 2023

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: William Lewis Jenkins Jr., JENKINS, DEDMON, AND HAYES LAW GROUP LLP, Dyersburg, Tennessee, for Appellant.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Walter Preston Battle, IV, BAKER DONELSON, BEARMAN, CALDWELL & BERKOWITZ, PC, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: William Lewis Jenkins Jr., JENKINS, DEDMON, AND HAYES LAW GROUP LLP, Dyersburg, Tennessee, for Appellant.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Walter Preston Battle, IV, BAKER DONELSON, BEARMAN, CALDWELL & BERKOWITZ, PC, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Judge(s): KETHLEDGE, READLER, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee at Jackson

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Under Tennessee’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code, when is a bank entitled to a remedy (here, restitution) from a payee for mistakenly paying a negotiable instrument (here, a check)? And when does a payee take a check in “good faith” and “for value,” enabling the payee to defend against a payor bank’s claim for restitution? Those questions are posed here, as they were before the district court. At summary judgment, the district court held that two checks cashed at Commercial Bank and Trust were paid to Doug Goodman by “mistake” within the meaning of Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-3-418(b), and that Goodman could not demonstrate that he took the checks in good faith and for value, see id. § 47-3-418(c), entitling the Bank to restitution. We agree and thus affirm.

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