Miller v. Bank of America

San Francisco Superior Court Case Number 301917

Case Type: Class Action - Consumer Fraud, Unfair Business Practices

Status: Judgment in excess of $1 billion after jury trial, appeal pending

The Sturdevant Law Firm and San Francisco attorney Tom Brandi represent Paul Miller and a class of more than one million elderly and disabled Bank of America customers in this class action lawsuit challenging the bank’s confiscation of its customers’ directly deposited Social Security benefits to pay itself overdrafts and overdraft fees. The case was tried to a jury for approximately six weeks in January and February of 2004. At trial the plaintiffs established that the bank charged class members as much as $162 per day in overdraft fees and that it knew that its conduct of collecting such fees from Social Security accounts was illegal. After hearing the evidence, the jury found that Bank of America had illegally seized class members’ Social Security benefits and that it had made unlawful misrepresentations to them about its right to engage in such conduct. The jury awarded $75 million in damages to the class and an additional statutory damage award of $1,000, resulting in a verdict exceeding $1 billion. This is the largest verdict in the history of San Francisco and perhaps in California. After hearing additional evidence, the trial judge increase the $75 million jury award to almost $285 million and confirmed the remainder of the jury’s verdict. The Court also entered an order permanently prohibiting the bank from engaging in it’s unlawful practices. The bank has appealed the judgment and has temporarily obtained a stay of enforcement.