News

Federal court dismisses fee placard suit

August 9, 2012

A federal court in New York has dismissed a fee placard law suit described as "cookie cutter."

An article by CUNA News Now said that the plaintiff, Yehudah Katz, a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., brought the suit against Atlanta-based Delta Community Credit Union. Katz alleged that the CU failed to provide a fee placard notice at its ATM located in New York's LaGuardia airport.

The case was dismissed "with prejudice, and on its merits, as to the named plaintiff only and without costs as to either party as against the other," with no other reason given for the dismissal.

According to the News Now report, the CU provided photos of the machine showing the fee placard. The photos were taken by ATA Services, which maintains the ATM on behalf of the CU. The agreement between ATA and the credit union calls for ATA to immediately report missing stickers. Court documents filed by Delta Community CU said that "[n]o such report was received by the credit union respecting the ATM in question." 

Another possible factor in the dismissal, said News Now, was that Katz's suit appeared to be filed using a "cookie cutter" legal form employed in a number of other unrelated cases. The report said that the form referred to Katz as "himself" and also as "plaintiff, on behalf of herself."

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