Banking & Financial Services: Lender Liability Defense

McDowell Rice’s Banking & Financial Services Group defends lenders against lender liability claims in state and federal courts. We work with lenders (and their liability carriers) to develop early in the process the most efficient and effective approach to successfully defend claims. Our firm has successfully defended aggressive lender liability claims asserted by borrowers and guarantors, including claims for breach of contract, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, tortious interference, negligence, promissory estoppel, and fraudulent and/or negligent misrepresentation. We defend lenders against a wide variety of other claims asserted by shareholders, beneficiaries, and other parties.

Recent Experience and Results:

  • McDowell Rice has obtained summary judgment and other rulings in both Kansas and Missouri in favor of lenders enforcing the Credit Agreement Statutes of Fraud to bar counterclaims by borrowers and guarantors.
  • McDowell Rice recently obtained dismissal in favor of a community bank in a double-derivative shareholder action alleging negligent handling of loans.
  • McDowell Rice recently resolved a dispute between a community bank, acting as the trustee of a 1937 trust, and the trust beneficiaries regarding distributions made over a 15-year period and the application of a charitable deduction.
  • McDowell Rice recently obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of a community bank which had been sued in a shareholder dispute involving one of its borrowers.
  • McDowell Rice obtained a complete dismissal in favor of a community bank with the bank making no payment to the plaintiff in a check forgery and negligence case regarding over $90,000 in forged checks by a former bookkeeper of one of the bank’s clients.