, Defendant could have reasonably foreseen the harm to Plaintiff caused by its failure to verify the identity of the imposter. Therefore, judgement for Plaintiff in this appeal will be entered and the case will be remanded for trial.
Defendant provided the means for fraud to be committed in PlaintiffÆs name, and therefore owed a duty to Plaintiff to take reasonable steps to verify the identity of the person opening the account. The arrest of an individual in whose name checks are fraudulently written is foreseeable. If Defendant did not take commercially reasonable steps to verify the identification of the imposter in opening the account, it was reasonably foreseeable that the account would be used to commit fraud. It was also reasonably foreseeable that the person in whose name the fraud was committed would be arrested and forced to spend time in jail.
Therefore, Defendant could be found liable under the tort of negligence for its breach of duty to Plaintiff causing her harm.
Zimmer v. Peters, Arizona Court of Appeals. 1993.
This appeal stems from a summary judgement entered for the defendant, George Peters, in the underlying case. The facts of the underlying case allege that Plaintiff, Nancy Zimmer, was injured after falling from a golf cart driven by Defendant. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant was driving the cart at a high speed and made a sharp left turn causing her to fall and sustain injury to her head.
Defendant, during discovery, took PlaintiffÆs deposition and that of several doctors who examined her. He argued, based on these depositions, that Plaintiff was not competent to testify as to facts surrounding the accident due to the fact that her memory had been impaired by the accident. He relied heavily on the testimony of one doctor particularly, Dr. Hadden, who testified that Plaintiff was unable to recount circumstances leading to her injury and was incompetent to recount how the injury occu...