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Question: I know not many banks do it anymore, but we check the obituaries every day. We've been in business over 100 years here in the northeast, and it's just our practice. We had a daughter come in and clean out her mother's safe deposit box one day before we'd had a chance to check the obituary column, and it wasn't until after she left the bank that we found out her mother was dead - it was in the newspaper we hadn't read yet. Can we be held liable for the contents of the box?
Answer: My first question was if the reading of the obituaries was part of the policy and/or job description of anyone in the bank. It is not. Reading them was just a habit/practice done as a casual part of reading the local paper. It was not assigned to anyone in particular. Under the circumstances here, there was no knowledge of the mother's demise before entry was made by the daughter, so the bank should be "off the hook", so to speak. It could have been different if checking the obits was assigned and designated to be completed "before start of business" on a business day. If you are checking the obituary column every day, better check your policies and procedures. Don't add extra liability to yourself. You have enough already!
Copyright © 1998 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 8, No. 4, 4/98
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