DENVER (KDVR) — A well-known Colorado real estate investor is suing one of the largest banks in the country on claims of discrimination and breach of contract.
Christopher Narin said she was profiled at a branch in Denver resulting in the manager calling the police on her, even putting employees in a safe. The bank adamantly disputes Narin’s claims.
Whether you are breaking into the Denver housing market or commuting past the billboards on Colorado Boulevard, Christopher Narin is a familiar face to many in the metro area as a broker and investor. However, real estate is not why she’s sitting down with the FOX31 Problem Solvers.
“I feel like the story is just — it’s not anything that I anticipated,” Narin said.
‘I never thought I would leave that branch in fear, and I did’
This story starts 5 miles down the same road as her billboard at a Chase Bank branch on Colorado Boulevard.
“I did bank with Chase for a while for over a decade, and now things have changed,” Narin said.
Narin looks back to November 2021, the date of a Denver police incident report about an interaction prompting a court case, first filed in state district court and now moved over to federal court.
“I never thought I would leave that branch in fear, and I did,” Narin said.
Narin told FOX31 she stopped at the Chase drive-through that day before heading to a client meeting.
“At that time, I just deposited funds that I was using to purchase another property,” Narin said.
The $80,000 deposit seemed to be taking a bit longer than what Narin said she had experienced before with that kind of money.
“It was 20 minutes, so I rang the bell and pressed the button, and the woman came on and I said, hey, you know, I’m just checking on my deposit,” Narin said. “Her response — it wasn’t just like a normal response. It was a quip.”
Narin told FOX31 the bank manager’s response in the drive-through drove her to head inside to try to figure out what was happening.
“And she’s like, ‘You’re rude and disrespectful,’” Narin said. “I said, you know what? You’re actually rude. Go ahead and give me my funds from the branch and, you know, I’ll bank elsewhere. I’ve banked here for 10 years without issue until this event. So then she called 911.”
Narin told FOX31 that the bank manager called 911 and directed all of her employees into the safe at the bank.
“I thought to myself, this is now a very dangerous situation that she created,” Narin said. “You were behind 8 inches of Plexiglas, and all I have is my purse and I’m making a deposit. I have no weapon on me. I thought, what is this woman doing? But creating a really unsafe environment for everyone, the employees, myself, even herself. You don’t know how the police are going to respond to a situation. And now the employees are in the safe, and people are in fear of what?”
Chase Bank moves to dismiss lawsuit
According to the Denver Police Department incident detail report, the caller claimed a customer was threatening staff, with no weapons seen, and saying: “They don’t know who they are messing with and willing to light up this place” — words Narin said never came out of her mouth.
The FOX31 Problem Solvers requested body camera video of the police response, but the department said it did not exist. The report shows a request to cancel before police arrived.
“If you were truly in fear of your safety and the safety of your employees, you would have pressed charges,” Narin said.
Narin is now taking legal action, with Chase’s latest response in the courts: a motion to dismiss.
According to the motion filed by Chase: “Plaintiff simply alleges her check deposits took too long and that she was African American. Everything else is an assumption that cannot save the Complaint.”
The motion to dismiss also claims: “Instead, she was not satisfied with her service and assumed it was because of her race.”
The next turn of events after that in-person interaction is what Narin’s lawsuit surrounds. Narin said she immediately called customer service after the event, aiming to speak to corporate about what happened and her funds in that account.
“Between the date of the incident at the Branch Location and early December, 2021, Plaintiff repeatedly contacted Defendants to report the incident and the branch manager’s behavior to upper-level management, as well as resolve whether or not she would continue banking with Chase,” the complaint states. “During those conversations, Plaintiff repeatedly expressed her longtime relationship with Defendants, the volume of funds and transactions Plaintiff completes with Defendants, and the need for access to funds to close on another property.”
Narin received a letter from Chase dated Dec. 2, but she said it did not end up in her mailbox until Dec. 4 or Dec. 5.
The letter stated that her accounts were closed due to “inappropriate conduct with our employees.” It gave a timeline for mailing a check with the rest of her funds within 10 business days after the accounts were closed.
“I have earnest money on the line,” Narin said. “I’m under contract on a property that I’m under market value on this deal, and it is extremely important to me.”
Lawsuit claims breach of contract against Chase
Narin said she ended up missing out on the deal because she could not get the money back from Chase in time — something she said she tried to prevent by contacting Chase about the deal over and over again before the date she needed it.
“Our focus is more on the contract — we have a breach of contract case,” said Narin’s attorney, Neil Sullenberger. “Everybody who opens an account at Chase basically agrees to the terms of a deposit account agreement. There’s also a duty of good faith and fair dealing within every contract in Colorado.”
Chase’s motion to dismiss the case claims that even if Narin moved to close her account because of the complaint, “Chase has a contractual right to end its relationship with a customer.”
“Plaintiff not only agreed Chase could do exactly what she alleges Chase did, but also requested it,” the motion continues. “Her final claim for tortious interference rests on the frivolous assertion that Chase both knew she needed her Account open to close on a home purchase and closed the account (at her request) to disrupt the deal.”
As she waits for a judge’s ruling on this motion, Narin hopes her lawsuit can prevent this situation for another customer.
“Equity and inclusion really matters,” Narin said. “And it matters in this day and age in 2024. And that’s all we’re looking for.”
FOX31 reached out to Chase for a statement and to request video from that event and received the following response: “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We also take seriously the safety of our employees — especially when they feel abused and threatened in the branch. In this case, we dispute the factual allegations.”
