Spacemakers of America, Inc. sued SunTrust Bank after the bank processed approximately 65 checks that had been forged by the company’s bookkeeper. The trial court granted the bank’s motion for summary judgment on Spacemakers’ claims for negligence, conversion, and unauthorized payment of forged items. Spacemakers appeals, claiming the trial court erred when it misapplied the law, granted summary judgment on its tort claims, and found the bank was not negligent as a matter of law. Because summary judgment was properly granted in this case, we affirm. In reviewing a grant or denial of summary judgment, this Court conducts a de novo review of the evidence. To prevail at summary judgment under OCGA § 9-11-56 c, the moving party must demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant, warrant judgment as a matter of law. Footnote omitted. Baker v. Housing Auth. of Waynesboro , 268 Ga. App. 122 601 SE2d 350 2004. The record in this case shows the following undisputed facts: Jenny Triplett applied with Spacemakers for a bookkeeping position in November 1999. Triplett listed no prior employment on her application, and the application did not inquire about her criminal history. Prior to hiring Triplett, employees of Spacemakers did not ask her about her criminal history or conduct a criminal background check. Had it done so, Spacemakers would have learned that Triplett was on probation from a 1997 conviction for 13 counts of forgery in the first degree, as well as from convictions for theft by taking and theft by deception in March 1999, just eight months before she applied for the Spacemakers job. All of these convictions were the result of Triplett forging the checks of previous employers. Spacemakers hired Triplett as a bookkeeper on December 1, 1999, delegating to her the sole responsibility for maintaining the company’s checkbook, reconciling it with the monthly bank statements, and preparing financial reports. According to Dennis Rose, Spacemakers’ president, Triplett also handled the company’s accounts payable and regularly presented him with invoices from vendors and payroll records for employees. Rose stated that he spent several hours reviewing the vendor invoices each month before giving Triplett specific directions about which ones should be paid. After Triplett wrote the checks, she gave them to Rose so he could sign them. No other Spacemakers’ employee, however, reviewed the monthly bank statements or looked at the company’s checkbook register to ensure that Triplett wrote only authorized checks on the company’s account. Further, Rose admitted that no other employee checked the accuracy of Triplett’s financial reports and that he simply relied on Triplett’s representations regarding how much money was in the bank account at any given time.
On January 3, 2000, just weeks after starting her job at Spacemakers, Triplett forged Rose’s signature on a check for $3,000. She made the check payable to her husband’s company, “Triple M Entertainment Group,” which was not a vendor for Spacemakers. By the end of her first full month of employment, Triplett had forged five more checks totaling $22,320.30, all payable to Triple M. Then, over the next nine months, Triplett forged 59 more checks totaling approximately $475,000. Triplett made all of these checks payable to Triple M. Most of the checks were for amounts between $5,000 and $10,000, and only two of the checks were for an amount over $20,000: a check for $24,500 dated September 1, 2000, and a check for $30,670 dated October 5, 2000. There is no evidence that anyone at Spacemakers other than Triplett reviewed the company’s bank statements between January and October 2000 or that Spacemakers ever notified SunTrust that there had been any unauthorized transactions during that period.1
