Bank of America Must Again Face Balance Inquiry Charges Suit

Bank of America NA must again face a putative class action alleging that the bank improperly charged its account holders for balance inquiries performed at out-of-network ATMs, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.

A California federal district court rejected the breach of contract claim, finding that the clause in the contracts regulating customer accounts stating that they may be charged a fee for a balance inquiry when using a non-BofA ATM is unambiguous.

But the district court made unreasonable assumptions about what a “layperson” understood about electronic transmittals that occur between an ATM and the bank, ...