Virginia Code 8.4-402: Bank’s liability to customer for wrongful dishonor; time of determining insufficiency of account
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, a payor bank wrongfully dishonors an item if it dishonors an item that is properly payable, but a bank may dishonor an item that would create an overdraft unless it has agreed to pay the overdraft.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 8.4-402
- Account: means any deposit or credit account with a bank including demand, time savings passbook, share draft, or like account, other than an account evidenced by a certificate of deposit;
(2) "Afternoon" means the period of a day between noon and midnight;
(3) "Banking day" means the part of a day on which a bank is open to the public for carrying on substantially all of its banking functions, but shall not include Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday;
(4) "Clearing house" means an association of banks or other payors regularly clearing items;
(5) "Customer" means a person having an account with a bank or for whom a bank has agreed to collect items, including a bank that maintains an account at another bank;
(6) "Documentary draft" means any negotiable or nonnegotiable draft with accompanying documents, securities or other papers to be delivered against honor of the draft; or a draft to be presented for acceptance or payment if specified documents, certificated securities (§ Virginia Code 8.4-104
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
(b) A payor bank is liable to its customer for damages proximately caused by the wrongful dishonor of an item. Liability is limited to actual damages proved and may include damages for an arrest or prosecution of the customer or other consequential damages. Whether any consequential damages are proximately caused by the wrongful dishonor is a question of fact to be determined in each case.
(c) A payor bank’s determination of the customer’s account balance on which a decision to dishonor for insufficiency of available funds is based may be made at any time between the time the item is received by the payor bank and the time that the payor bank returns the item or gives notice in lieu of return, and no more than one determination need be made. If, at the election of the payor bank, a subsequent balance determination is made for the purpose of reevaluating the bank’s decision to dishonor the item, the account balance at the time is determinative of whether a dishonor for insufficiency of available funds is wrongful.
Code 1950, § 6-71; 1964, c. 219; 1992, c. 693.