D. Night Safe Depositories

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Profession: LSM, B.A., LL.B., M.A., D.Phil., D.D., F.R.S.C. Of the Bars of Ontario and Nova Scotia Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
• Pages: 400-401

Page 400

Night safe depositories are normally used by businesses, especially small businesses, at the end of each business day, to ensure the safekeeping of money and paper payment items received during the course of that business day, which the depositor wishes to have deposited into accounts with the bank on the next business day. The depository consists of a locked chute into which locked wallets or other sealed packages may be put from a letter-box-like aperture on the outside wall of a bank branch. The packets slide into a locked bin and are cleared by bank employees in the morning. This service is also regulated by a specific contract, which provides for such matters as access by keys or pass codes; the contents of the packages deposited; required lists of the property deposited; and the liabilities of the two parties in the operation of this service. American case law holds that a bank should be treated as a bailee for reward from the moment of deposit by the customer, even though the bank is unaware of any actual deposit until the locked bin is opened each morning.²³

This seems self-evident, because banks hold out this service for a fee and should anticipate that bailment of valuables will be made in accordance with the contract by a customer.

In Royal Bank of Canada v. Reynolds,²⁴the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal held that a deposit was completed only when the contents of a package deposited were verified and accepted by the bank. Prior to that time, the bank was a bailee and liable for funds stolen between the

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time a package was deposited and...