Have to report this while it is fresh.
Do you think you can demand your cash from your bank account and get it? Think again.
While we give our money to the banks for “safekeeping”, there is no guarantee we can get our money out when we want it. I proved that yesterday in New Hanover County Superior Court, Case #20CvS660, Sullivan v. First Citizens Bank and Trust. Simply stated, the facts are that: I have my 90-year-old mother’s Power of Attorney (POA); I am her attorney in fact, authorized to act in her stead on everything including, but not limited to, her financial assets; Two years ago, I opened 3 CD accounts, one money market and one IRA with First Citizens Bank, based upon the authority of the signed and notarized POA agreement; and, one year ago, one CD matured along with the IRA.
Because of the “pandemic”, the economic climate appeared very uncertain, so my mother, brother and I decided to pull most of the money out of the CD in for “safekeeping” under our personal control , deposit a significant amount of it into her operating account for here medical and nursing home expenses and rollover the IRA. After I discussed it with my customer care officer at the bank, the cash was “ordered”; and I was pick up the cash one week later. The branch manager called me and told me the cash “order” had not been placed timely, so it would be another week. When the time came to pick up the cash, the branch manager told me they would not be giving me the cash but would issue a cashier’s check instead. I explained that the cashier’s check was no good to me and asked if the bank would cash the check for me. The answer was “No”, because she said the bank was not comfortable giving me that much cash from my mother’s accounts. She suggested I deposit the checks with another bank and try to get my cash that way (Hypocrite!). When I asked with how much cash the bank would be comfortable, she told me “None”.
I then told her she was leaving me no recourse but to sue the bank. With that, she told me the bank was “severing” relations with me and would be issuing me cashier’s checks for all five accounts. I objected, but to no avail. The bank did, however, retain the IRA account, no doubt to protect itself from the exposure dumping the IRA would cause due to the inherent IRS liability thereby created for my mother.
After writing the CEO of the company, Mr. Frank Holding, apparently the patriarch of the family-owned bank, and being told, “we will not reconsider our decision in this matter”, I filed my complaint to perfect the claim. The bank’s Deposit Agreement states clearly that, as my mother’s agent, I am authorized to withdraw “funds” from her account. The legal definition of the term “Funds” is “cash on hand” in Bouvier’s Law Dictionary. While a cashier’s check is convenient for the transfer of “funds”, one cannot “spend” a cashier’s check. So, I filed my lawsuit on behalf of my mother.
Yesterday, a hearing was held in Superior Court on the bank’s motion for summary judgment. Their argument was that there was no basis for a claim, and that the bank was under no obligation to allow anyone to withdraw any amount of cash from their bank. The judge agreed, allowed the motion and dismissed my case “with prejudice”, meaning I cannot re-file the complaint under any circumstances. Evidently, it turns out that in Newspeak “funds” no longer includes “cash”.
If you are smart, you will start getting all your bank accounts emptied in cash, for “safekeeping” in these “trying and uncertain times”. Just thought you would like to know. If the people knew that they could not withdraw cash from their bank accounts, I suspect there would be no personal bank accounts.
We should have listened to Mr. Henry Ford a long time ago when he said, “If the American people understood the banking system I this country, there would be a revolution tomorrow.”
Never trust bankers, lawyers, teachers, preachers, LEO’s or doctors.
DS