Man demands Dh60 million compensation from UAE bank

An Emirati businessman is demanding Dh60 million from a local bank for causing him financial losses when it refused to encash a Dh10 million cheque he issued as payment for a plot of land.

Court records showed that the man bought the land in Abu Dhabi at Dh24 million and handed the cheque to the seller as part of the payment.

However, when the seller presented the cheque to the bank, he was told that they couldn't encash it as the signature didn't match the one they had in their system. 

The businessman had to take the cheque back and go to the bank, where he got the same explanation. 

The seller then filed a criminal case against the buyer for giving him a bad cheque. However, the case was dismissed since a report from an expert committee showed that the signature on the cheque matched the one in the bank's system.

Demanding compensation for losses and moral damages, the businessman filed a civil lawsuit against the bank for rejecting the cheque despite the fact that he signed it properly and had enough money in his account.

The Emirati said in his lawsuit that he had sold many of his properties at low prices because he wanted to use the money to construct a building on the land he had bought, but nothing happened because he wasn't able to obtain the land due to the payment issue.

He also claimed that his reputation was damaged because a criminal case was filed against him for issuing a cheque that allegedly had wrong signatures.

Both the Abu Dhabi Civil Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court ordered the bank to pay Dh500,000 to the plaintiffs in compensation for the losses and damages.

However, the businessman challenged the ruling and took the case to Abu Dhabi's top court. The final ruling will be issued next month.