Quicken Mortgage v. Bank of America, N.A. CA4/3

INTRODUCTION

An essential element of the causes of action for fraud and negligent misrepresentation is justifiable reliance; that is, the circumstances were such as to have made it reasonable for the plaintiff to accept the representation as true without conducting an independent investigation. It is axiomatic that a plaintiff cannot reasonably rely on a representation if the plaintiff knows or has information that the representation is false. Applying these principles, we affirm a judgment of nonsuit against Quicken Mortgage Corporation (Quicken Mortgage) and Bahram Dadvar in their lawsuit against Bank of America, N.A. (Bank of America). Bahram Dadvar alleged that in reliance on a letter from Bank of America, he, on behalf of Quicken Mortgage, entered into a joint venture agreement with a company owned by Sirous Razipour. Dadvar contended the letter, which purported to confirm various accounts held by Razipour at Bank of America, vastly overstated the balance of a certificate of deposit. When the relationship between Dadvar and Razipour collapsed, for reasons unrelated to the balance of that certificate of deposit, Quicken Mortgage and Dadvar sued Bank of America for fraud and…