Another case involving allegations that banks charged excessive overdrafts when it reordered debit transactions from largest to smallest instead of in the order they were received has settled.  The parties notified Judge King in the MDL proceedings pending in the Southern District of Florida that that on July 1, 2012, they executed a Summary Agreement that sets forth the material terms of the Parties’ binding and enforceable agreement to fully, finally and forever resolve, discharge, and release all rights and claims in, or that could have been asserted in, the above referenced actions based on U.S. Bank’s payment of the sum of $55 million (the “Settlement”), without admission of liability by U.S. Bank, subject to preliminary and final approval of the Settlement and dismissal of the actions with prejudice by the Court. The Settlement will be memorialized in a comprehensive written Settlement Agreement and related documents, which the parties will endeavor to file with the Court as part of a motion for preliminary approval within 90 days.  Continue reading “U.S. Bank settles excessive overdraft class action for $55 million”

Earlier on this blog, I reported that Judge King in the MDL proceedings in Florida had certified a nationwide class action against PNC Bank.  Now, PNC Bank has agreed to settle the claims of its customers who contend it charged excessive overdrafts when it changed the method of posting debit transactions to largest to smallest.  This is the latest in what is becoming a fairly large line of settlements.

On May 16, 2012, Judge King certified the following class:

All PNC customers in the United States who had one or more consumer accounts and who, from applicable statutes of limitation through August 13, 2010 (the class period), incurred an overdraft fee as a result of PNC’s practice of sequencing debit card transactions from the highest to lowest.

In other excessive overdraft fee cases pending in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, when a class gets certified, the case soon settles.

I have reported on a number of settlements of excessive overdraft class actions pending against various banks in the Southern District of Florida.  Another one settled.  

Plaintiffs and Defendant TD Bank filed a Joint Notice of Settlement on May 11, 2012.  In the Notice of Settlement, Plaintiffs and TD Bank advised the Court that on May 8, 2012, they executed a Summary Agreement that sets forth the material terms of the parties’ binding and enforceable agreement to fully, finally and forever resolve, discharge, and release all rights and claims in, or that could have been asserted in the excessive overdraft class actions filed against TD Bank in exchange for the payment of $62 million. Continue reading “TD Bank settles excessive overdraft class action”

Judge King in the southern district of Florida certified a class action against BancorpSouth Bank.  The bank is one of the dozens of banks with cases pending against it in the southern district of Florida, which were transferred there by the Multi-District Litigation Panel.  I have mentioned these cases several times in posts on this blog.

The class is defined as follows: 

 All BancorpSouth Bank customers in the United States who, within the applicable statute of limitations preceding the filing of this action to August 13, 2010 (the class period), maintained a non-commercial account, and incurred an overdraft fee as a result of BancorpSouth’s practice of re-sequencing debit card transactions from highest to lowest dollar amount. Continue reading “Federal court certifies class action against BancorpSouth Bank”

Judge King in the Southern District of Florida preliminarily approved a settlement and certified a settlement class of customers who were charged overdraft fees based on Union Bank’s reordering from higher to lower.  The court’s order stated Union Bank entered into a Settlement Agreement and Release through arm’s-length negotiations with the assistance of Professor Eric Green, an experienced and well-respected mediator.  Under the settlement, subject to the terms and conditions therein and subject to court approval, plaintiffs and the proposed settlement class will fully, finally and release their claims in exchange for Union’s payment of $35,000,000, inclusive of all attorneys’ fees and costs, to create a common fund to benefit the settlement class. In addition, Union will separately pay for all costs associated with providing notice to the class.

The parties to the excessive overdraft case against Bank of Oklahoma pending in the Southern District of Florida, as well as other actions currently pending in Oklahoma state court have agreed to settle the actions pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth in an executed Settlement Agreement and Release. The parties reached the settlement through arms-length negotiations with the assistance of United States District Judge Layn Phillips (Ret.), an experienced and well-respected mediator. Under the Settlement Agreement, subject to the terms and conditions therein and subject to Court approval, Plaintiffs and the proposed Settlement Class would fully, finally, and forever resolve, discharge and release their claims in exchange for Defendant Bank of Oklahoma’s payment of $19,000,000, inclusive of all attorneys’ fees and costs, to create a common fund to benefit the Settlement Class. In addition, Bank of Oklahoma will separately pay all costs and fees associated with providing Notice to the Settlement Class and the costs and fees of Settlement Administration.

This blog has previously covered the numerous class actions pending against banks in the Southern District of Florida involving allegations of excessive overdraft fees resulting from a reordering of debit transactions from highest to lowest.  According to documents filed on March 29, 2012, by the Plaintiff’s executive committee in the case pending in Florida, Defendant BancorpSouth and its counsel have engineered a scheme in an attempt to circumvent Judge King’s governance of the litigation which the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”) entrusted to the Southern District of Florida. Long after the case against BancorpSouth was transferred to Judge King in the Southern District of Florida, and after a considerable amount of litigation over an 18-month period, including several instances of BancorpSouth seeking rulings consuming time and resources of this Court – and on the eve of a ruling on Plaintiff’s fully briefed Motion for Class Certification – BancorpSouth entered into a collusive class action settlement in another case encompassing the same claims at issue in the case in the Southern District of Florida. Continue reading “BancorpSouth seeks cheap settlement by cooperating in filing of copycat case in Arkansas”

Counsel for JPMorgan Chase and its customers have informed Judge King that they have reached an agreement to resolve the class action lawsuits pending against JPMorgan Chase in the MDL proceeding in the Southern District of Florida for $110 million.  The complaint alleges that JPMorgan Chase breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing when it unilaterally changed the manner in which debit card payments were charged against the account.  JPMorgan Chase changed from debiting the accounts in the order the charges were presented, to debiting the account from largest amount to smallest amount.  This is the eighth case that has settled in the MDL proceedings, and is also the largest settlement amount.  The other settlements have also been reported on this blog.

Intrust Bank has agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle a class action lawsuit concerning overdraft fees.  Intrust was sued in Kansas state court on September 17, 2010, so this case was not sent to the MDL in Florida where many of the other overdraft fee cases are pending.  The complaint alleged that the bank posted checking account transactions in an order different from the order in which they were made, causing customers to incur additional and excessive overdraft fees.

The class in the suit includes all Intrust account customers who maintained an Intrust account while residing within the state of Kansas and who from October 1, 2005 to June 30, 2010, incurred more than one overdraft fee on a single banking day, at least one of which was on a debit card transaction.

A final fairness hearing on the settlement is scheduled for May 21, 2012.

As reported earlier on this blog, a number of banks have recently been settling the excessive overdraft class actions pending against them in the MDL proceeding in the Southern District of Florida.  On about December 23, 2011, Commerce Bank announced it had reached an $18.3 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that claimed the bank improperly charged overdraft fees on certain debit card transactions.

The settlement still must be approved by the court, but the $18.3 million is to refund class members, pay attorney fees and cover additional costs.

The class action lawsuit, Wolfgeher v. Commerce Bank, was originally filed in the Western District of Missouri before being transferred to the Southern District of Florida.

On December 21, 2011, the parties informed the court that they had reached an agreement in principle, under which Harris Bank will pay the sum of $9.4 million in exchange for a full and complete release of all claims that were or could have been brought against Harris Bank in the multidistrict litigation pending in South Florida.

This is the seventh bank to settle these claims in the MDL proceeding.

Great Western Bank announced that it has settled the overdraft class action pending against it in the MDL in Florida for $2.2 million.  This is the sixth case pending in the MDL in Florida that has settled.  Others cited earlier in this blog include Bank of America ($410 million), Bank of Oklahoma ($19 million), Associated Bank ($13 million), Union Bank ($35 million), and Iberia Bank ($2.5 million).  Two overdraft fee class actions reported on in this blog that were not transferred to the MDL have also settled:  Bank of Hawaii ($9 million) and Fifth Third Bank ($9.5 million).

BOK Financial Corporation has entered into a $19 million settlement on three class action lawsuits that targeted the way the bank handled electronic debit transactions and overdraft fees.

A lawsuit initially was filed against BOK Financial Corporation and Bank of Oklahoma in August 2010, alleging that the bank manipulated the order of customers’ electronic debit transactions to maximize overdraft fees.  The complaint alleged that BOK reordered electronic debit transactions from the highest dollar amount to the lowest dollar amount, which depleted the customers’ available funds as quickly as possible and maximized the number of overdraft fees. Continue reading “Bank of Oklahoma settles overdraft fee class actions”

Plaintiffs and Defendant, Associated Bank, N.A., through their respective undersigned counsel, notified the Court in the MDL actions pending in southern Florida that as of November 23, 2011, they have reached an agreement in principle, under which Associated Bank, N.A. will pay the sum of Thirteen Million Dollars ($13,000,000.00) in exchange for a full and complete release of all claims that were or could have been brought against Associated Bank, N.A. in this multidistrict litigation. The proposed settlement will be memorialized in a complete written settlement agreement and related documents, which the parties will endeavor to file with the Court as part of a motion for preliminary approval within approximately 45 days.

Union Bank NA will shell out $35 million to withdraw from the multidistrict litigation in Florida accusing several banks of breaching contracts by unfairly charging customers exorbitant overdraft fees when they switched the order of processing the debit transactions to highest to lowest.  I earlier posted that Judge King had certified a class action against Union Bank.

This is the second bank to settle to get out of this litigation.  I earlier posted a note when Bank of America settled for $410 million.  Hopefully, there will be more settlements soon.