Chase Account Beneficiary Revives Defamation Claim on Appeal

JPMorganChase Bank NA must face a woman’s defamation claim after she was allegedly accused by an employee of using her power of attorney to designate herself as the beneficiary of her mother’s accounts.

The district court erred in excluding Padma Rao’s affidavit, which presents triable issues of fact as to whether a Chase employee was reckless when communicating with the administrator of her mother’s estate, Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi wrote in an opinion for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, partially reviving the case.

Rao was designated the payable on death beneficiary of her mother’s Chase accounts. The ...