§ 4—406. Customer’s duty to discover and report unauthorized signature or alteration
(a) Upon the request of a customer, the bank shall return to a customer items shown as
paid on a statement of accounts, or copies thereof. If the customer does not request
that the items, or copies thereof, be returned, the bank shall provide information
in the statement of account sufficient to allow the customer to reasonably identify
the items that have been paid. The statement of account provides sufficient information
if the item is described by item number, amount, and date of payment.
(b) If the items are not returned to the customer, the person retaining the items shall
either retain the items or, if the items are destroyed, maintain the capacity to furnish
legible copies of the items until the expiration of seven years after receipt of the
items. A customer may request an item from the bank that paid the item, and that bank
must provide in a reasonable time either the item or, if the item has been destroyed
or is not otherwise obtainable, a legible copy of the item.
(c) If a bank sends or makes available a statement of account or items pursuant to subsection
(a) of this section, the customer must exercise reasonable promptness in examining
the statement or the items to determine whether any payment was not authorized because
of an alteration of an item or because a purported signature by or on behalf of the
customer was not authorized. If, based on the statement or items provided, the customer
should reasonably have discovered the unauthorized payment, the customer must promptly
notify the bank of the relevant facts.
(d) If the bank proves that the customer failed, with respect to an item, to comply with
the duties imposed on the customer by subsection (c) of this section, the customer
is precluded from asserting against the bank:
(1) the customer’s unauthorized signature or any alteration on the item, if the bank also
proves that it suffered a loss by reason of the failure; and
(2) the customer’s unauthorized signature or alteration by the same wrongdoer on any other
item paid in good faith by the bank if the payment was made before the bank received
notice from the customer of the unauthorized signature or alteration and after the
customer had been afforded a reasonable period of time, not exceeding 30 days, in
which to examine the item or statement of account and notify the bank.
(e) If subsection (d) of this section applies and the customer proves that the bank failed
to exercise ordinary care in paying the item and that the failure substantially contributed
to loss, the loss is allocated between the customer precluded and the bank asserting
the preclusion according to the extent to which the failure of the customer to comply
with subsection (c) of this section and the failure of the bank to exercise ordinary
care contributed to the loss. If the customer proves that the bank did not pay the
item in good faith, the preclusion under subsection (d) of this section does not apply.
(f) Without regard to care or lack of care of either the customer or the bank, a customer
who does not within one year after the statement or items are made available to the
customer (subsection (a)) discover and report the customer’s unauthorized signature
on or any alteration on the item is precluded from asserting against the bank the
unauthorized signature or the alteration. If there is a preclusion under this subsection,
the payor bank may not recover for breach of warranty under section 4—208 of this title with respect to the unauthorized signature or alteration to which the preclusion
applies. (Added 1993, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), § 13, eff. Jan. 1, 1995.)