Lunsford v. Woodforest National Bank

299 F.R.D. 695, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187332, 2013 WL 8335725
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 12, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 1:12-CV-103-CAP
StatusPublished

This text of 299 F.R.D. 695 (Lunsford v. Woodforest National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lunsford v. Woodforest National Bank, 299 F.R.D. 695, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187332, 2013 WL 8335725 (N.D. Ga. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

CHARLES A. PANNELL, JR., District Judge.

This matter is before the court on the defendants’ motion to strike the plaintiffs’ class action allegation [Doc. No. 8-1] and the defendants’ motion to dismiss [Doc. No. 8-2].

I. Factual Background

For purposes of the defendants’ motions to strike and dismiss, the court considers the following facts the plaintiffs allege as true:

This is a civil action seeking monetary damages, restitution, and declaratory relief from the defendants Woodforest National Bank and Woodforest Bank (collectively ‘Woodforest”), arising from the assessment and collection of excessive overdraft fees. Woodforest National Bank is a privately held bank headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas. It operates several branch locations in Georgia, and does business in the state under the name Woodforest Bank. Woodforest is among the nation’s largest full-service in-store banks with in-store branches in WalMart, Kroger, Tom Thumb, and Sam’s Club stores. As one of the largest privately owned banks in the United States, with over $3.2 billion in assets, Woodforest — through approximately 750 branches in seventeen states — provides commercial and retail banking services to customers. The named plaintiffs are North Carolina residents who maintained a checking account with Woodforest and suffered from the alleged overdraft fee injuries at issue in this case.

Woodforest provides its customers with a variety of banking products and services. Customers who open a checking account are given a debit card, also known as a check card or ATM card. Through such debit cards, customers can engage in transactions using funds which are withdrawn from their accounts by engaging in “debit” or “point of sale” (“POS”) transactions, or may withdraw money from their accounts at automated teller machines (“ATMs”). Whether the card is used to execute POS transactions or to withdraw cash from ATMs, the transaction is processed electronically. As a result, Wood-forest is notified instantaneously when the card is swiped, and has the option to accept or decline transactions at such time.

Woodforest employs sophisticated software called “PrivilegePay” to automate its overdraft system. This program maximizes the number of overdrafts, and thus, the amount of overdraft fees charged per customer by manipulating and reordering debits from highest to lowest during given periods of time. Woodforest utilizes this sophisticated software system to generate overdraft fees. Customers at all Woodforest branches suffered from the same policies and systems under the bank’s PrivilegePay program. As a result of Woodforest’s manipulation and [697]*697alteration of customers’ transaction records, funds in a customer’s account are depleted more rapidly and more overdraft fees are likely to be charged for multiple smaller transactions.

Indeed, overdraft charges are likely to occur at times when, but for the manipulation and alteration, there would be funds in the account and no overdraft would occur. For example, if a customer, whose account has a $50 balance at the time Woodforest posted several transactions, made four transactions of $10 and then one subsequent transaction of $100, the defendants would reorder the debits from largest to smallest, imposing four overdraft fees on the customer. Conversely, if the $100 transaction were debited last— consistent with the actual order of transactions — only one overdraft fee would be assessed.

The plaintiffs and all members of the class maintain or maintained a checking account with Woodforest. The terms of the bank’s checking accounts are contained in standardized account holder agreements — -presented to its customers on a “take it or leave it” basis — drafted and imposed by Woodforest.

Until required to do so by federal regulators in 2010, Woodforest failed to disclose to customers that they had the option to “opt out” from the defendants’ “PrivilegePay” overdraft scheme. The bank’s account agreement does not adequately disclose Woodforest’s improper reordering and overdraft assessment practices described herein.

II. The Defendants’ Motion to Strike

The defendants have moved to strike the plaintiffs’ class action allegations for failing to meet the requirements for class certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. The plaintiffs have not yet moved for class certification, and the parties have not completed discovery. Nevertheless, the defendants ask the court to consider the merits of the plaintiffs’ class allegation at this time.

Class certification is governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. Subsection (a) provides:

One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all members only if: (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

The four requirements are commonly referred to as “the prerequisites of numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation.” General Telephone Co. of the Northwest, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 446 U.S. 318, 330, 100 S.Ct. 1698, 64 L.Ed.2d 319 (1980).

Rule 23(b) provides that, in addition to the Rule 23(a) prerequisites, a class must fall into one of three categories: (1) the pursuance of separate actions would create a risk of inconsistent verdicts or would, as a practical matter, make individual adjudications dispositive of the interests of class members who are nonparties; (2) the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the putative class such that declaratory or injunctive relief with respect to the class as a whole would be appropriate; or (3) questions of law or fact common to members of the class predominate over issues affecting individual members, and class adjudication is preferable to other methods of litigation for purposes of a fair and efficient resolution of the controversy. Generally, the burden is on the plaintiff to make the requisite showing for class certification. Here, however, the defendants have moved to strike the class allegation prior to the plaintiffs moving for certification; therefore the burden is on them to show that the alleged class cannot meet the requirements of Rule 23.

Here, the defendants argue that the court should strike the plaintiffs’ class allegation at this early stage because the number of states’ laws that could be involved creates a manageability problem, running afoul of [698]*698the requirements of the commonality prong of the Rule 23 standard. To satisfy the commonality requirement, the plaintiffs must show that there are questions of law or fact common to the entire class. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)(2). It is not necessary that all questions of law and fact be common. National Broadcasting Co. v. Cleland, 697 F.Supp.

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Bluebook (online)
299 F.R.D. 695, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187332, 2013 WL 8335725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lunsford-v-woodforest-national-bank-gand-2013.