Credit union ATM deployers should keep routinely checking their ATMs to make sure all their standard fee disclosures are up to date as law firms around the country have continued to file lawsuits alleging disclosure errors.
The latest suit has cropped up in Maryland where a woman named Vicki Piontek, a resident of Pennsylvania, alleged that she used an ATM at a stand alone shared branching location in Maryland on Jan. 9, 2010 and that she was charged $1.75 for the transaction when a disclosure above the ATM said the transaction "may" cost $1.50.
A similar lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania in May of last year.
Piontek filed suit in U.S. District Court for Maryland about the 25 cent discrepancy, alleging that she and other ATM users were harmed by the ATM's deployer, which the suit identified as the CU Service Network, LLC, a Colorado based shared branching CUSO.
But when contacted about the suit, CU Service Network denied owning or deploying any ATM in Maryland or anywhere else.
"We're still trying to figure out how they linked us up to this ATM and we are working hard to get our names off the suit, since we believe they are barking up the wrong tree," said CUSN CEO Doug Burke.
Burke said the shared branching CUSO has participating CUs in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Mexico.
The CUSO has never had participating CUs in Maryland and has never deployed ATMs. The law firm representing Piontek has not returned calls for comment.
