While working as an executive assistant to David Ducote, Michelle Freytag fraudulently obtained a credit card in Ducote’s name from Whitney National Bank in New Orleans, Louisiana. Freytag told Whitney to pay the credit card balances with funds from Ducote’s bank account. The bank included a “debit memo” for each payment with the monthly account statements sent to Ducote. But Ducote never contacted the bank about any unauthorized items. Freytag’s scheme was not discovered until, more than five years later, the bank contacted Ducote to ask about some of the charges to the credit card. [Ducote v. Whitney National Bank, 212 So.3d 729 (La.App. 5 Cir. 2017)] (See The Bank’s Duty to Honor Checks.) 

(a) Does a bank customer in Ducote’s position have an ethical duty to examine his or her account statements? Discuss.

(b) Is the bank ethically obligated to recredit Ducote’s account? Explain.