Jericho Baptist Church Ministries, Inc., Jericho DC v. Bank of America, N.A.

This case presents the Court with an opportunity to review the fundamental, important, and recurring issue as to whether expert testimony is required in a banking case where the bank’s mishandling of a business account is open and obvious. Specifically, the question presented is: Did the Fourth Circuit err in affirming a district court’s ruling that a banking expert was required to establish the bank’s ordinary standard of care in a negligence and breach­of­contract case, when the bank had actual knowledge of ongoing litigation concerning between different factions of a business for control over the business’s monies and accounts, and the bank disbursed account funds to one faction while simultaneously denying the other faction any right of access to the account?