A landmark ruling by the Jos Division of the Court of Appeal has held that the failure of a commercial bank to pay a customer through the ATM when the customer has enough money in the account is a breach of duty of care and contract. 

As a result of this ruling, the customer is entitled to damages.

The Court of Appeal in the case of MOSES JWAN v. ECOBANK*(2021) through Justice Balkisu Bello Aliyu held that the “ATM card issued by a bank being akin to a cheque, must be honoured on request once there is enough funds in the customer’s account, and failure to do that means the bank is in breach of duty of care owed to its customer.”

The facts of the case disclosed how Moses G. Jwan used his Ecobank debit card in an ATM belonging to the United Bank for Africa to withdraw N10,000. The machine did not dispense the cash he requested despite notifying Mr Jwan that the transaction was successful and his account was debited. 

Mr Jwan complained to the officers of both banks, but Ecobank claimed that their records showed that the transaction was successful. 

Mr Jwan then sued both banks at the Plateau State High Court, claiming N10,000 as the amount debited from his account and special damages of N120,000 as the amount he had incurred pursuing his claims. 

Mr Jwan also claimed N500,000 from both banks for their negligence.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal awarded Mr Jwan N500,000 as general damages against Ecobank for failure to pay its customer N10,000 through the bank’s ATM.