Charvat v. Mutual First Fed. Credit Union, No. 12-2790 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed putative class actions under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), 15 U.S.C. 1693, alleging that Mutual First and First National violated the Act because defendants' ATM machines did not have "on machine" notice of a transaction fee. The district court dismissed for lack of standing. The court concluded, however, that plaintiff's claim of statutory damages was sufficiently related to his injury to confer standing where defendants did not provide him with the required "on machine" notice and then charged him a prohibited fee following an ATM transaction that he initiated and completed. Further, plaintiff's injury was fairly traceable to defendants' conduct where, if defendants had not violated the Act's notice requirement, plaintiff would not have been forced to choose between engaging in a transaction without the required notice and walking away. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
Court Description: Civil case - Electronic Fund Transfer Act. In action alleging defendants violated the Act by failing to have an exterior fee notice posted on or at their ATM machines, the district court erred in finding plaintiff did not have standing because he did not have an injury in fact; assuming without deciding that plaintiff waived the claim that the $2.00 fee he was charged constituted an injury in fact, plaintiff still had standing to pursue his claim against the defendants based on the informational injury he allegedly sustained because of the failure to post the notice; once he alleged a violation of the notice provisions of the Act in connection with his ATM transactions, plaintiff had standing to claim damages; further, the injury was fairly traceable to defendants' conduct.
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