A watershed ruling this week by a Pennsylvania court upholding a state regulator's decision to grant five-county field of membership expansions to two Philadelphia credit unions is a "key legal victory" on the so called "well defined" community definitions, top attorneys said.

The 54-page ruling handed down Monday by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania supporting the Department of Banking's FOM approvals for Trumark Financial CU and Freedom CU and climaxes nearly five years of banker-sponsored litigation against CUs and the state regulator.

The legal bills from the court fight are already topping "six figures," said a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association, a principal litigant along with CUNA.

"We're simply thrilled at the outcome even though this case is still not completely over," said one attorney involved in the case, noting the banking lobby could still appeal once again to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Nonetheless, the state's court decision, which followed a favorable earlier ruling by the Supreme Court, to turn aside banker standing paves the way for other states with parity wildcard statues on FOM regulations to get stronger court support, said CUNA attorney Michael Edwards.