Arciniega v. Bank of San Bernardino

Opinion

McDANIEL, J. *

Leticia Arciniega (plaintiff) once operated a check-cashing business, styled as Community Financial Services, and in connection therewith maintained a commercial bank account with Bank of San Bernardino, N. A. (defendant). In October of 1986, plaintiff and defendant, along with other merchants in San Bernardino, were the victims of a bogus check passing scam perpetrated by El Faro Construction Co. (El Faro).

The scam worked like this. El Faro opened a checking account with defendant. Over a period of time, there were issued to purported employees of El Faro what appeared…