MORGANTOWN — A lawsuit by a construction company claims $3,409,520.39 in checks from clients were wrongly accepted by BB&T.
ABB Construction LLC, which does business as Accelerated Construction Services, and Biafora Holding Limited Liability Company LLC filed the suit against Truist Bank, which acquired Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T) through mergers and acquisitions.
Accelerated does not have an account at BB&T and the checks, of which 27 are attached as exhibits, are not endorsed by the company, the suit states. None of the check endorsements are clearly readable as a name. The largest check is for $543,600 from Cranberry Real Estate to Accelerated Construction Services.
BB&T violated West Virginia law and numerous internal controls, protocols, rules, and best practices in accepting checks for deposit and crediting checks to customer’s accounts, according to the suit.
It claims there were at least seven violations of BB&T internal protocols when each of the checks meant for Accelerated was accepted and there were 189 total violations.
“In other words, BB&T had 189 opportunities to catch their mistake and prevent the harm to the plaintiffs, but failed each time,” the suit states.
Multiple clients of Accelerated are also named as defendants in the suit including Little Village LLC, Cranberry Real Estate, Mount Morris Gospel Tabernacle, Tuscan Sun Holdings, and Caribba Foods, doing business as Crab Shack.
According to the suit, none of the clients notified their banks there was fraudulent endorsements on checks they issued. It states the clients can request their bank refund the money BB&T allowed transferred from their checks and have it directed to Accelerated.
In addition to the $3,409,520.39 the suit claims BB&T wrongfully took, the suit seeks $20.5 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, interests, and attorney’s fees.
Truist Bank filed a standard first response in which it denies the allegations or states there is not enough information to speak on them and offers several defenses.
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