Wells Fargo Class Action
A law office recently announced that a class action settlement was reached between a financial institution and its shareholders.
The Miller Law Firm, P.C., along with Glancy Binkow and Goldberg, LLP, noted that the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota involving Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. The settlement will provide $62.5 million for shareholders.
This litigation began due to actions from the company related to the financial crisis in 2008. The settlement was finalized one week before the lawsuit would begin as a trial.
“Wells Fargo had prevailed on a similar case just last year, but we were not about to back down,” said E. Powell Miller, member of The Miller Law Firm. “This settlement represents an outstanding result for the pensions and other investors. Our success was only possible after years of hard-fought litigation and intense trial preparation.”
Earnings from the deal will be paid out to a number of organizations involved in the securities lending program at Wells Fargo from the beginning of 2006 until 2012. This included close to 100 pension funds, insurance companies, corporations and other entities.
The lawsuit’s class representatives included the Arizona State Carpenters Defined Contribution Trust Fund, the City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System and the Board of Trustees of the Arizona State Carpenters Pension Trust Fund.
Class certified in 2012
The lawsuit against Wells Fargo was initially filed by the aforementioned law offices, according to the securities litigation website. This class action lawsuit was filed due to allegations that the financial institution breached contract, fiduciary duty and violated the Minnesota Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act.
The City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System acted as the main representative, and was negatively affected by Wells Fargo because of the financial institution’s actions that violated terms of its securities lending agreements, the announcement explained. Even with this allegation, Wells Fargo completely denied that it committed any actions that they were accused of.
Class certification for The City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. occurred on March 28, 2012, the announcement noted. Multiple law offices were included as class counsel including Glancy Binkow and Goldberg, Zimmerman Reed, PLLP, VanOverbeke Michaud and Timmony, P.C. and The Miller Law Firm.
Shareholders had an ability to join the class or exclude themselves before the process got underway, the announcement added.
Wells Fargo Class Action