Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union continues to fight a class action lawsuit alleging the $8.5 billion asset institution unjustly charged overdraft fees.
The credit union last week submitted a filing, denying the charges brought by a Paxton resident.
Brandi Salls, who first filed the lawsuit in June, alleges that DCU assessed multiple $30 overdraft fees when she in fact had sufficient funds in her account. Salls alleges that her account balance was artificially low not only because there was a hold placed on deposits into her account, but also because DCU subtracted pending transactions from the ledger balance.
In her lawsuit, Salls claimed that DCU violated the opt-in contract with its customers because it promised to only assess overdraft fees when there were not sufficient funds in the account.
She also claimed that DCU breached the account agreement because the contract never stated that it would deduct pending debit card transactions for purposes of determining “sufficient funds” when assessing an overdraft fee.
The other allegations by Salls include breach of good faith, unjust enrichment/restitution, money had and received and violation of Regulation E, a Federal Reserve law that outlines steps consumers must follow in reporting errors and the steps a bank must take to provide recourse.
In its filing, DCU stated the plaintiff and those she represents have waived any rights they may have against the credit union when she entered into an agreement with DCU.
“Among other things, plaintiff knowingly and willingly caused her account to overdraft and incurred and paid fees assessed as a result of those overdrafts,” DCU stated in its filing.
Furthermore, Digital also alleged in its filing that the plaintiff and other parties she represents have “unclean hands.”
In response to Salls’ claim that DCU violated Regulation E, DCU states that it was “unintentional and resulted from a good faith effort notwithstanding the fact it maintained procedures reasonably adapted to avoid any such error.”
A federal judge earlier this month ruled that the case could move forward.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman stated in his ruling that DCU did not properly define “available balance” and its meaning was therefore ambiguous to customers. Hillman also ruled that it is reasonable for customers to assume DCU would not use the ledger balance when calculating overdraft fees.
