Powers v. American Express Financial Advisors, Inc.

238 F.3d 414 (4th Cir. 2000)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P and D'Ambrosia started a romantic union in 1983 and jointly purchased a house. At that time, D'Ambrosia was an accountant for a corporation called Signal Perfection, Ltd. (Signal). P and D'Ambrosia had a number of joint bank accounts, and, in mid-July, 1994, they entered into a mutual fund investment relationship with D. Their holdings were in joint-and-survivor form, pursuant to the Investment Application they filled out when making their first investment. It is undisputed that all of the deposits were made by D'Ambrosia and none of the income or losses was reported by P. The account was intended to provide some sort of reimbursement to P for her domestic services and was also intended, should both she and D'Ambrosia die, ultimately to go to her mother. The bliss did not last. D was given an oral request by D'Ambrosia himself to 'freeze' the investments, apparently to assure P that the assets would remain untouched until they could agree on their disposition. D'Ambrosia sent American Express a communication requesting redemption of the investments and wire transfer of the proceeds to a joint bank account he had with P in Frederick. The communication was a letter addressed to d, dated September 26, 1997, and bearing what purported to be the signatures of D'Ambrosia and P and the notary seal and signature of one Otis K. Comstock, a notary public in and for Carroll County, Maryland, releasing the freeze and directing transfer of the proceeds to Prudential (another financial services agency). Jeffrey Helms of D compared the signature on the September 26 letter with an exemplar of P's signature and verified the signature as hers. D'Ambrosia had forged P's signature to that document.