(a) An adverse claim to the contents of a safe deposit box, or to property held in safekeeping, is not sufficient to require the lessor to deny access to its lessee unless:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 45-2-906

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Deposit: means a deposit of money, bonds or other things of value, creating a debtor-creditor relationship. See Tennessee Code 45-1-103
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Fiduciary: means trustee, agent, executor, administrator, committee, guardian or conservator for a minor or other incompetent person, receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, assignee for creditors or any holders of a similar position of trust. See Tennessee Code 45-2-901
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Lessee: means a person contracting with a lessor for the use of a safe deposit box. See Tennessee Code 45-2-901
  • Lessor: means a bank or subsidiary corporation of a bank renting safe deposit facilities, and includes a safe deposit company organized and operating under the jurisdiction of the department solely for the purpose of leasing safe deposit facilities. See Tennessee Code 45-2-901
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, firm, trust, estate, partnership, joint venture, or association. See Tennessee Code 45-1-103
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Reason to know: means that, upon the information available, a person of ordinary intelligence in the particular business, or of the superior intelligence or experience that the person in question may have, would infer that the fact in question exists or that there is such a substantial chance of its existence that, if exercising reasonable care with reference to the matter in question, conduct would be predicated upon the assumption of its possible existence. See Tennessee Code 45-1-103
  • Safe deposit box: means a safe deposit box, vault, or other safe deposit receptacle maintained by a lessor and the rules relating thereto apply to property or documents kept in safekeeping in the bank's vault. See Tennessee Code 45-2-901
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The lessor is directed to do so by order of a court of competent jurisdiction; or
(2) The safe deposit box is leased or the property is held in the name of the lessee with the addition of words indicating that the contents or property are held in a fiduciary capacity, and the adverse claim is supported by a written statement of facts disclosing that it is made by or on behalf of a beneficiary and that there is reason to know that the fiduciary will misappropriate the trust property.
(b) A claim is also an adverse claim where one (1) of several lessees claims, contrary to the terms of the lease, an exclusive right of access, or where one (1) or more persons claim a right of access as agents or officers of a lessee to the exclusion of others as agents or officers, or where it is claimed that a lessee is the same person as one using another name.
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