SECTIONS 952-954 - California Statutes

FINANCIAL CODE

SECTION 952-954

952. Notice to any bank of an adverse claim (the person making the
adverse claim being hereinafter called "adverse claimant") to a
deposit standing on its books to the credit of or to personal
property held for the account of any person shall be disregarded, and
the bank, notwithstanding the notice, shall honor the checks, notes,
or other instruments requiring payment of money by or for the
account of the person to whose credit the account stands and on
demand shall deliver that property to, or on the order of, the person
for whose account the property is held, without any liability on the
part of the bank; subject, however, to the exceptions provided in
subdivisions (a) and (b):
(a) If an adverse claimant delivers to the bank at the office at
which the deposit is carried or at which the property is held an
affidavit of the adverse claimant stating that of the adverse
claimant's own knowledge the person to whose credit the deposit
stands or for whose account the property is held is a fiduciary for
the adverse claimant and that the adverse claimant has reason to
believe the fiduciary is about to misappropriate the deposit or the
property, and stating the facts on which the claim of fiduciary
relationship and the belief are founded, the bank shall refuse
payment of the deposit and shall refuse to deliver the property for a
period of not more than three court days (including the day of
delivery) from the date that the bank received the adverse claimant's
affidavit, without liability on its part and without liability for
the sufficiency or truth of the facts alleged in the affidavit.
(b) If at any time, either before, after, or in the absence of the
filing of an affidavit by the adverse claimant, the adverse claimant
procures and serves upon the bank at the office at which the deposit
is carried or at which the property is held a restraining order,
injunction, or other appropriate order against the bank from a court
of competent jurisdiction in an action in which the adverse claimant
and all persons in whose names the deposit stands or for whose
account the property is held are parties, the bank shall comply with
the order or injunction, without liability on its part.
(c) This section shall be applicable even though the name of the
person appearing on the bank's books to whose credit the deposit
stands or for whose account the property is held is modified by a
qualifying or descriptive term such as "agent", "trustee", or other
word or phrase indicating that the person may not be the owner in his
or her own right of the deposit or property.
(d) Nothing in the California Multiple-Party Accounts Law
contained in Part 2 (commencing with Section 5100) of Division 5 of
the Probate Code limits the applicability of this section.

953. When the depositor of a commercial or savings account has
authorized any person to make withdrawals from the account, the bank,
in the absence of written notice otherwise, may assume that any
check, receipt, or order of withdrawal drawn by such person in the
authorized form or manner, including checks drawn to his personal
order and withdrawal orders payable to him personally, was drawn for
a purpose authorized by the depositor and within the scope of the
authority conferred upon such person.

954. A bank need not recognize or give any effect to (1) any claim
to a deposit of cash or securities standing on its books to the
credit of, or held by it for the account of, any corporation, firm or
association in occupied territory or (2) any advice, statute, rule
or regulation purporting to cancel or to give notice of the
cancellation of the authority of any person at the time appearing on
the books of such bank as authorized to withdraw or otherwise dispose
of cash or securities of such corporation, firm or association,
unless such bank is required so to do by appropriate process procured
against it in a court of competent jurisdiction in the United States
in a cause therein instituted by or in the name of such corporation,
firm or association, or unless the person making such claim or
giving such advice or invoking such statute, rule or regulation, as
the case may be, shall execute to such bank, in form and with
sureties acceptable to it, a bond indemnifying it from any and all
liability, loss, damage, costs and expenses for and on account of
recognizing or giving any effect to such claim, advice, statute, rule
or regulation.
For the purposes of this section (1) the term "occupied territory"
shall mean territory occupied by a dominant authority asserting
governmental, military or police powers of any kind in such
territory, but not recognized by the United States as the de jure
government of such territory, and (2) the term "corporation, firm or
association in occupied territory" shall mean a corporation, firm or
association which has, or at any time has had, a place of business in
territory which has at any time been occupied territory.
The provisions of this section shall be effective only in cases
where (1) such claim or advice purports or appears to have been sent
from or is reasonably believed to have been sent pursuant to orders
originating in, such occupied territory during the period of
occupation, or (2) such statute, rule or regulation appears to have
emanated from such dominant authority and purports to be or to have
been in force in such occupied territory during the period of
occupation.
This section applies to claims, advices, statutes, rules or
regulations given or invoked either before or after the effective
date of this section.