Consumer Banking and Payments Law: 4.4.3.5.3 The negligence defense
The negligence rule provides that “[a] person whose failure to exercise ordinary care120 substantially contributes to an alteration of an instrument or to the making of a forged signature on an instrument is precluded from asserting the alteration or the forgery against a person who, in good faith, pays the instrument or takes it for value or for collection.”121 If the victim of the forgery or alteration is negligent by this standard, the victim may be barred from bringing a conversion action ba