On July 7, 2023, Justice Chan of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in White Oak Commercial Fin., LLC v. EIA Inc., 2023 NY Slip Op. 32342(U), holding that an account holder does not have standing to object to a subpoena to its bank for bank records, explaining:
The court first addresses the threshold issue of Orent’s standing to challenge the Schwab Subpoena. Generally speaking, a person other than one to whom a subpoena is directed has standing to move to quash the subpoena where he or she has a proprietary interest in the subject documents or where they involve privileged communications. However, the First Department has recognized that bank customers lack standing to quash a subpoena directed at a bank that seeks records from those customers’ accounts. Indeed, as explained by the First Department in Norkin v Hoey, bank customers have no proprietary interest in the records kept by the banks with which they do business because those records are the property of the bank and bank customers do not have a sufficient expectation of privacy in such records to confer upon them the standing necessary to challenge a subpoena seeking those records.
Here, Orent has not made a showing of proprietary interest in the records sought by the Schwab Subpoena necessary to overcome the holdings in AQ Asset Management and Norkin. In the absence of such a showing, the court concludes that Orent lacks standing to challenge the Schwab Subpoena.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).