BOSTON - One credit union, Oregon’s SELCO Community CU, and one bank, AmeriFirst Bank in Alabama, continue to challenge the pennies-on-the-dollar settlement in the TJX data security case and earlier this month filed an appeal of the dismissal of the purported class action suit in the massive credit card breach.
The two financial institutions have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to overturn the U.S. District Court ruling which rejected class action status, according to Steve McIntire, general counsel for SELCO Community CU. SELCO was forced to reissue 14,363 Visa cards in the TJX case. The CU and bank are alleging breach of contract and negligence by both TJX and its merchant processor, Fifth Third Bancorp, in a breach that compromised in excess of 40 million credit union and bank accounts.
Many of those CUs in December signed on to an out-of-court settlement by TJX which paid them a portion of the costs they incurred to notify their members, then reissue hundreds of thousands of cards. Several credit unions were dissatisfied with the settlement and are exploring whether to file their own suit in the case.
SELCO and AmeriFirst Bank have filed a new suit in Middlesex County Superior Court in Cambridge against both TJX and Fifth Third making the same claims. “This is an opportunity to get it into state court,” McIntire told the Credit Union Journal.
