Joint Bank Account

[arobert3]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TN
My fiance opened a joint account with his ex-girlfriend over 2.5 years ago at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC. Soon after they moved to Memphis together for a new job he was taking. She ended up leaving and going back to her parents house in WV after only 2 months in Memphis. It was a mutual break-up and he maintained the joint account. She never used the account after she left and he did not owe her any money from the account because she was not working while in Memphis so she had no monies of her own in the joint account. All activity on this account has since been made in Memphis, TN and in HIS name. All deposits and transactions have been in HIS name.
Since we have been together (2 years in August), I have been telling him to close the account and he did not feel the need. He bought a new house in Feb of this year and when he got the certified check from his BOA joint account, he asked to close the account and they told him he could not close it without her signature. He should've withdrew all the money and opened a new one but he didn't. He then filed his tax return and got the federal stimulus tax credit for being a first time homebuyer...$8K which was direct deposited to his joint account!!
On May 30, he and I went to the casinos and he withdrew the maximum amount of money from the ATM machine. The next day he got an alert from BOA for irregular activity and stated that his account was flagged and he needed to call and verify the transactions to get the account off hold status. He did not have time on June 1 or 2 to call and verify these transactions.
On June 2, his ex-gf went into the BOA in Myers Park, NC and withdrew every penny ($5K) and closed the account...without his signature.
On June 3, he called the bank to verify the transactions and the bank told him that the hold or flag had been removed from his account and did not mention anything of the account being emptied and closed the day before by his ex.
On June 4, he logged on to his BOA account online and still could not view his checking account information. So he called BOA again and they stated that this account had been emptied and closed on June 2 by his ex.
We both realize that we cannot press charges against her to have her arrested since she was on the account, but can we take her to civil court if we can prove that NONE of the money in that account was ever hers?
Is the bank liable at all? The bank has refused to take any blame at all in this matter and just apologized for the inconvienience. We researched the banks service agreements and if you open a joint account at the bank live, all parties on the account must sign to close the account but if you opened the account online, then only one signature is required. This joint account was opened inside a bank by a teller.

[ecmst12]

He needs to sue her in small claims court. And he should have listened to you and closed the account, or at least stopped using it, years ago!

[Wirelessany1]

Originally Posted by ecmst12

He needs to sue her in small claims court. And he should have listened to you and closed the account, or at least stopped using it, years ago!

I would just like to add that the bank bears no responsibility for his laziness in taking care of business.

[CourtClerk]

Just one more addition:

We don't have a cause of action. We can't take her to court for anything. We can't prove anything because we are not a party to this potential case. He is.

[arobert3]

Originally Posted by ecmst12

He needs to sue her in small claims court. And he should have listened to you and closed the account, or at least stopped using it, years ago!

Sorry, not sure how to use this site yet but just wanted to say that I appreciate all the replies so far. I believe his plan at this point is to take her to small claims court. Even if it yields no return, it will be worth it to not be a victim and do nothing.

[Dogmatique]

Originally Posted by arobert3

Sorry, not sure how to use this site yet but just wanted to say that I appreciate all the replies so far. I believe his plan at this point is to take her to small claims court. Even if it yields no return, it will be worth it to not be a victim and do nothing.

In all fairness he's the victim only of his own lack of action, y'know? (That's not saying she was right in doing what she did - but he enabled the entire situation)

[arobert3]

I agree...and I think he has learned that and that is why is determined to take some sort of action now that he has been through this. Unfortuantely, he is just a really trusting person who believes that all people are good! Those are generally the type of people that getting taken advantage of.