The Court of Rome has ordered a bank to pay damages to a former account holder for breaching its obligations under a bill of exchange pledge. 5 October 2026 – Posted in: News – Tags: ,

On 4 September 2026, the 16th Civil Section of the Court of Rome granted a motion filed under Article 702-bis of the Code of Civil Procedure. The motion was filed by an individual who brought a case against his former bank, seeking compensation for damages exceeding 1 million euros resulting from the bank’s breach of its obligations under a bill of exchange pledge agreement.

The dispute stems from the bank’s failure to return to the account holder two promissory notes that he had pledged to the intermediary as additional security for his debt, the amount of which was far less than the face value of the securities.

Instead of being returned to the pledgor by the bank once his debt had been paid off, these promissory notes were delivered directly to the parties that had issued them – who were, in turn, the account holder’s debtors under the bills of exchange – thereby irreversibly jeopardising his claims to payment.

The rules governing ordinary pledges of negotiable instruments require the bank, as the pledgee, to not dispose of the instruments without the consent of the grantor and to return them once they are no longer serving as collateral, unless otherwise agreed in writing (which is not the case here).

Since the securities were returned to the issuers by the bank in violation of its duty of safekeeping and obligation to return, the bank was held liable for a serious breach of contract under Article 1218 of the Civil Code, as well as for a tort under Article 2043 of the Civil Code for violation of the principle of neminem laedere.

The Court noted that possession of the original instrument of credit is a necessary condition for exercising the rights embodied therein, as reaffirmed by the Court of Cassation in Judgment No. 5780 of 24 February 2023. The defendant’s conduct caused the former account holder to suffer damages, consisting of the loss of the opportunity to collect the value of the securities upon maturity, or to assert the rights arising from the bills of exchange against the issuers in court should they become insolvent.

The account holder was successfully represented by Augusto Vacca & Partners in the lawsuit, with partners Silvia Sulli and Roberta Fonte leading the case.