Westport National Bank and its parent company, Connecticut Community Bank, were not liable for the losses of investors in Bernard Madoff’s vast Ponzi scheme in its role as a custodial bank, a jury found on Wednesday, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. Separately, the bank agreed to pay $7.5 million to 240 investors in a related case, a lawyer for the bank said. A federal jury in Hartford, Conn., had finished hearing eight days of evidence last month in a case before Judge Vanessa L. Bryant of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. The case had consolidated three similar lawsuits against the bank. Two of those cases settled before the jury began its deliberations. After the other cases settled, the jury did evaluate the bank’s custodial duties in a case brought by two Florida investors, but sent a mixed message. After 14 hours of deliberation, the jury said that the bank was not a fiduciary, and thus owed no fiduciary duty to two elderly Florida investors, Audrey Short and Faye Albert.
