West Virginia Code 46-4-405 – Death or incompetence of customer
(a) A payor or collecting bank's authority to accept, pay or collect an item or to account for proceeds of its collection, if otherwise effective, is not rendered ineffective by incompetence of a customer of either bank existing at the time the item is issued or its collection is undertaken if the bank does not know of an adjudication of incompetence. Neither death nor incompetence of a customer revokes the authority to accept, pay, collect or account until the bank knows of the fact of death or of an adjudication of incompetence and has reasonable opportunity to act on it.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 46-4-405
- 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. See West Virginia Code 46-4-104
- 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. See West Virginia Code 46-4-104
- Item: means an instrument or a promise or order to pay money handled by a bank for collection or payment. See West Virginia Code 46-4-104
(b) Even with knowledge a bank may for ten days after the date of death pay or certify checks drawn on or before that date unless ordered to stop payment by a person claiming an interest in the account.