Don Anderson has been a busy bee generating federal lawsuits against lenders in Arkansas and elsewhere. Anderson, who hails from somewhere in New York, has buzzed from one end of the state to the other in search of automated teller machines.
Specifically, Anderson is looking for ATMs that don’t have fee notices physically posted on the machines as mandated by the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
Anderson has played the role of lead plaintiff in seven lawsuits against Arkansas banks. The list starts with First Security Bank of Searcy on Aug. 23, 2011, and includes five other banks that have settled EFTA compliance suits brought by Arnold.
“The case was resolved, so I’m not at liberty to discuss any of the terms,” said Chris Plumlee, a lawyer at the Rogers office of Mitchell Williams Selig Gates & Woodyard who represented Bank of Salem.
Confidential settlement terms notwithstanding, sources indicate Anderson earned $1,000 while his attorneys collected an unspecified financial reward of cost plus fees, according to American Banker. Whether that $1,000 was per lawsuit or per claim is unclear. Anderson’s Arkansas track record of litigation was typically a one-claim per defendant affair.
His most recent case was filed against Union Bank & Trust of Monticello on July 13 and remains active. Among other things, Union Bank & Trust countered in its response that:
“Plaintiff’s claims are barred of the doctrine of unclean hands, fraud or other illegality in that Plaintiff intentionally and at great effort sought out an ATM with potential notice deficiencies, utilized it with full understanding of the facts and law and with the intent and sole purpose to file a lawsuit as a result of the alleged notice deficiency.”
The bank also claimed that Anderson didn’t sustain any loss or damage but that if he did, it occurred only after he “knowingly, voluntarily and willfully assumed the risk and consented to such damage or losses as an intentional predicate to this litigation.”
A transaction fee of 40 to 50 cents is the norm encountered by Anderson in Arkansas.
His cases all seek class-action status and include the same interstate legal team: Michael Todd Harrison of Stevenson Ranch, Calif., and Dan and Todd Turner of the Arkadelphia firm of Arnold Batson Turner & Turner.
Harrison didn’t return phone calls and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Dan Turner portrays his firm’s involvement as minimal, merely serving as local counsel to facilitate Harrison’s lawsuits because he’s not licensed to practice law in Arkansas.
Fee notices are displayed on ATM screens before a customer can complete a transaction, and banks are seeking to repeal the sticker notice on machines as redundant and a bothersome source of frivolous lawsuits.
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