Utah Code § 70A-3-405

Employer's responsibility for fraudulent indorsement by employee
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(1) In this section:
(a) "Employee" includes an independent contractor and employee of an independent contractor
retained by the employer.
(b) "Fraudulent indorsement" means in the case of an instrument payable to the employer, a
forged indorsement purporting to be that of the employer, or in the case of an instrument with
respect to which the employer is the issuer, a forged indorsement purporting to be that of the
person identified as payee.
(c)
(i) "Responsibility" with respect to instruments means authority to sign or indorse instruments
on behalf of the employer, to process instruments received by the employer for bookkeeping
purposes, for deposit to an account, or for other disposition, to prepare or process
instruments for issue in the name of the employer, to supply information determining the
names or addresses of payees of instruments to be issued in the name of the employer,
to control the disposition of instruments to be issued in the name of the employer, or to act
otherwise with respect to instruments in a responsible capacity.
(ii) "Responsibility" does not include authority that merely allows an employee to have access to
instruments or blank or incomplete instrument forms that are being stored or transported or
are part of incoming or outgoing mail, or similar access.
(2) For the purpose of determining the rights and liabilities of a person who, in good faith, pays
an instrument or takes it for value or for collection, if an employer entrusted an employee with
responsibility with respect to the instrument and the employee or a person acting in concert
with the employee makes a fraudulent indorsement of the instrument, the indorsement is
effective as the indorsement of the person to whom the instrument is payable if it is made in the
name of that person. If the person paying the instrument or taking it for value or for collection
fails to exercise ordinary care in paying or taking the instrument and that failure substantially
contributes to loss resulting from the fraud, the person bearing the loss may recover from
the person failing to exercise ordinary care to the extent the failure to exercise ordinary care
contributed to the loss.
(3) Under Subsection (2), an indorsement is made in the name of the person to whom an
instrument is payable if it is made in a name substantially similar to the name of that person, or
the instrument, whether or not indorsed, is deposited in a depositary bank to an account in a
name substantially similar to the name of that person.

Repealed and Re-enacted by Chapter 237, 1993 General Session

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