Spouses Cabamongan opened a joint and/or foreign currency time deposit in favor of their two children with Citibank. On a material date, a person who claimed to be Carmelita sought the pretermination of the account. She presented identification cards to ascertain her identity to the then account officer. When she left with the money, she left an identification card. The account officer then called up the address. The spouses and their family knew of the incident. They were presently residing in the US and there was a prior incident wherein they got robbed in their house with the jewelry box and cards stolen. Spouses made several demands for the return of the amount but Citibank refused to do so.
HELD:
Citibank was negligent. First, the “depositor” didn’t present the Certificate of Deposit. Second, from the internal memorandum issued by the Account Officer, he admitted to the fact that the specimen signature was different from the one who misrepresented herself as Carmelita. Third, the bank kept in its records pictures of its depositors. It is inconceivable how the bank was duped by an impostor.
