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Chase Bank wants out of theft lawsuit involving Linda Kovachik
YOUNGSTOWN
JPMorgan Chase Bank is asking to be dismissed from an elderly Canfield woman’s lawsuit, which accuses the bank of negligently failing to halt the reported theft of the Canfield woman’s assets by Linda Kovachik of Boardman.
“Chase Bank had no duty to investigate or inquire regarding the actions of Ms. Kovachik,” who had power of attorney over the Canfield woman, wrote James C. Carpenter and Vincent I. Holzhall of Columbus, the bank’s lawyers.
Carpenter and Holzhall moved Friday for dismissal of the bank from the civil lawsuit, filed Aug. 8, which is before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Kovachik, 69, of Flagler Lane, who was once an aide to U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit and has until Oct. 12 to respond to it.
Atty. Corey J. Grimm of Boardman filed the complaint, which seeks at least $150,000 in damages on behalf of the 79-year-old Canfield woman, who the suit says, has diminished mental capacity.
In a separate criminal case, Kovachik is free on $35,000 bond after pleading innocent to a theft charge and four counts of forgery contained in an Aug. 19 county grand jury indictment.
In that case, Kovachik is charged with stealing $150,000 or more in cash, bonds and jewelry from the Canfield woman, over whom Kovachik obtained financial power of attorney Oct. 1, 2013.
The 79-year-old victim had multiple Chase Bank accounts and a safe deposit box at the bank’s Canfield branch.
In December 2013, Kovachik and the Canfield woman visited the safe deposit box, with Kovachik seeking to cash between $20,000 and $30,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds, according to the civil complaint.
A private client banker confronted Kovachik and the Canfield woman, telling the Canfield woman she should get a bank loan, instead of cashing in the bonds, the lawsuit said.
The private banker told the bank’s corporate security department that she believed Kovachik was talking advantage of the Canfield woman, the complaint said.
Thereafter, that banker reported seeing Kovachik enter the bank alone to make withdrawals from an account held by the Canfield woman and remove items from the safe deposit box, the suit said.
The Canfield woman didn’t discover the theft until March 2016, when the criminal probe began, the civil complaint says.
Chase’s dismissal motion didn’t address the private banker’s reported warning to bank security.
The bank’s motion says the safe deposit box lease agreement allows box access to the box holder or the holder’s legally appointed representative.
However, the agreement says the bank “exercises no supervision over the box, nor over examination or removal of any of the property” contained within it.
“Chase Bank is not liable for monitoring the acts of a legally appointed personal representative, including, but not limited to, when that representative removes items from a safe deposit box,” the bank lawyers added.