BALTIMORE JUDGE APPROVES SETTLEMENT OF NATIONWIDE CLASS ACTION
On April 16, 2007, Judge John Glynn of the Baltimore City Circuit Court gave final approval to the $16.1 million class action settlement announced on this site late last year. In making his decision, Judge Glynn noted that there were no timely objections filed by any of the 2.7 million class members who received notice of the proposed settlement in January. After the appeals period ended, settlement administrators began processing the approximate 275,000 claims that class members filed, and established a process for confirming higher payouts for those whose records will permit actual damage calculations which, for some individuals, could exceed $1,000. Tom Minton is class counsel, together with D.C. based Public Justice, Inc. (formerly Trial Lawyers for Public Justice) and Tom Ward of the Law Offices of William H. Murphy, Jr.
The case, Wells v. Chevy Chase Bank, F.S.B., was filed in 1999. Named plaintiffs Dale Wells, Sharon Goldenberg and John Dovel alleged that the bank failed to issue the required notice when it sought to raise interest rates above 24% - breaking a promise that it would “never” do so – and raised late fees and overlimit fees. The case was dismissed twice at the trial court level – once on the basis that the plaintiffs’ claims were subject to mandatory arbitration, and once on the basis that federal law pre-empted the contract claims at issue. Both rulings were overturned by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
After the case was remanded to the trial court for a second time, the parties engaged in discovery and in extensive motions practice, including a motion for partial summary judgment that the bank filed in early 2004. That motion was denied and, while plaintiffs’ motion for class certification was pending, the parties conducted three days of mediation with a nationally-known private mediator before reaching the agreement that Judge Glynn preliminarily approved on July 26, 2006.
This settlement marks a successful ending to a protracted struggle in which we helped achieve not only a significant monetary benefit for our clients and the class, but in which important consumer rights were vindicated in two seminal rulings in plaintiffs’ favor by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
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