Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. v. Variable Annuity Life Insurance

McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

In a world of instantaneous electronic fund transfers and online financial transactions, one would think that the old problems of disappearing checks, uncertain mail deliveries, and unknown thieves — long the staple of law school hypotheticals— would cease to have much practical significance. In this case, however, Defendant, the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (“VALIC”), opted to do it the old-fashioned way: It sent two checks via the postal service to its customer’s broker in Houston, Texas. True to form, an unknown thief intercepted one of the checks and…