L&M Home Health Corporation (L&M) had a checking account with Wells Fargo Bank. L&M engaged Gentner and Company, Inc. (Gentner) to provide consulting services, and paid Gentner for services rendered with a check drawn on its Wells Fargo account in the amount of $60,000, dated September 23, 2010. Eleven days later, on October 4, 2010, L&M orally instructed Wells Fargo to stop payment on the check. Eleven days after that, on October 15, 2010, Gentner presented the L&M check to Wells Fargo for payment. On the same date the teller issued a cashier's check, payable to Gentner, in the amount of $60,000. On November 5, 2010, Wells Fargo placed a ‘‘stop payment order'' on the cashier's check. On January 15, 2011, Gentner deposited the cashier's check at another bank, but it was not honored and was returned stamped ‘‘Payment Stopped.''
Gentner sues Wells Fargo for wrongful dishonor of the cashier's check. Is Gentner a holder in due course of the check? Discuss. 18. Over a ten-year period, Christine Mayfield worked for Watson Coatings, Inc.-first as an accountant, then as the company controller, and finally as the company treasurer. Mayfield had authority to write checks on funds in Watson's corporate checking account. Watson placed no restrictions or dollar limitations regarding Mayfield's authority to sign checks. Mayfield was solely responsible for reconciling the company checkbook register with the bank statements. Although Watson received monthly bank statements with cancelled checks, Carol Watson, one of Watson's owners, delivered the unopened bank statements to Mayfield but never reviewed the bank statements or reconciled the checking account during Mayfield's tenure at Watson. Mayfield's husband, an American Express account holder, added Mayfield's name to his account in 2002. From August 2007 through October 2011, Mayfield wrote approximately forty-five to forty-seven checks (totaling more than $745,000) on Watson's corporate checking account payable to American Express for her or her husband's personal debt. Neither Mayfield's name nor her husband's name was printed on any of the checks. Each of the checks was made payable to the order of American Express and for credit to the American Express account of Mayfield's husband. American Express credited the Mayfield account for each of the checks. Watson informed American Express of Mayfield's fraud after Mayfield's employment with Watson ended. Can Watson recover the funds from American Express? Explain.