DETROIT-Two more credit unions have settled ATM suits brought by a local retiree who has filed almost 40 suits against credit unions and banks under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.
Under the settlements of separate class action suits, AAC Community CU and Lenco CU will pay non-member users of certain ATMs up to $250 to settle violations of the EFTA, which requires ATM owners to post a fee notice on the outside of their machines.
The settlements also call for each credit union to pay $1,000 to Nancy Kinder, the local retiree who has filed more than three-dozen ATMs suits, and a total of $12,000 to Kinder's favorite charity, the Karmanos Cancer Institute, and $15,000 in legal fees. Kinder gets the biggest payment because she initiated the suits and as such is considered the class representative.
AAC Community has agreed to set aside $46,000 for the settlement and any funds not spent to compensate victims will go back to the credit union or its insurer, CUNA Mutual Group, which is paying for the settlement under its bond.
In the Lenco case, 1,555 non-members who used the credit union's ATM at 615 West Maple Avenue, in Adrian, between April 19, 2010 and April 18, 2011, are eligible for the payment. Lenco has agreed to set aside $39,500 to satisfy its settlement.
Lisa Milton, a Troy, Michigan, lawyer representing both credit unions, said she expects few members of the purported class in either case to make a claim, as happened in an earlier ATM settlement she entered in to with Kinder on behalf of ELGA CU.
"Historically, there have been few, if any, claims that can be confirmed to be legitimate,' Milton told Credit Union Journal. In the ELGA case, she said there were no claims other than Kinder's that could be confirmed.
Kinder has also filed ATM suits against Michigan Schools and Government CU, Jackson Community FCU, Northwood CU, White Sands FCU, Chino FCU, FirstLight FCU and Sunrise Family CU, among others.
