JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a proposed
class action lawsuit alleging that the bank inappropriately closed an
estimated 55,000 credit card accounts, leaving consumers unable to redeem
the reward points they had accumulated. The financial institution has
been accused of deceptive practices and fraudulent inducement, but according
to the filing, the bank maintains that it has done nothing wrong.
Plaintiff Harry Gao claims that his credit card account was randomly terminated
in July 2013 despite the fact that he had never missed a payment, causing
him to lose two years’ worth of rewards points. He and fellow lead
plaintiff Roberta Socall had opened the credit accounts and charged thousands
of dollars to the card in order to accumulate points. While they were
able to redeem some of their rewards, the rest were lost “almost
without warning” when the bank abruptly closed their accounts.
In a motion for approval on October 6, 2016, the plaintiffs stated the
following:
"The court has good cause to grant preliminary approval of this settlement,
which is the product of vigorous, arm's-length negotiations by experienced
counsel. The resulting settlement is a fair, reasonable and adequate resolution
of all claims."
The class is represented by
Richard M. Golomb and
Kenneth J. Grunfeld of Golomb & Honik, P.C. along with Ted Trief and Barbara Olk of Trief
& Olk. The case is
Harry Gao et al. v. JPMorgan Chase & Co. et al., cause number 1:14-cv-04281 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York.
Click here to view the original
Law360 coverage.