Dasher v RBC Bank Overdraft Settlement

Settlement Class Members who are current customers of PNC will receive a credit to their PNC accounts for the amount they are entitled to receive from the Settlement Fund.

Account credits will be issued pursuant to the terms of the Settlement Agreement. If you did not exclude yourself from or opt out of the Settlement, you are automatically entitled to an award.

Settlement Class Members who are former customers of PNC or RBC Bank will receive a check for the amount they are entitled to receive from the Settlement Fund. Mailing of checks is expected to commence by July 2022.

Checks will be issued pursuant to the terms of the class action Settlement Agreement. If you did not exclude yourself from, or opt out of, the Settlement, you are automatically entitled to an award.

If you need to have your Settlement check reissued to a new address, please write to the Settlement Administrator at the address listed below. All requests must include your full name, return address, and signature.

Dasher v RBC Settlement Administrator
P.O. Box 4109
Portland, OR 97208-4109

The deadline for check reissue requests is October 20, 2022.

If the name of the Class Member on the check should be changed, please send in documentation, as applicable, according to the following list:

• Name Change – If your name has changed, please provide documentation showing this to be the case, which can include documents such as a marriage certificate, divorce decree, or court papers indicative of a name change.
• Name Removal – In order to have a name removed from a check reissue, either have both parties on the check sign a letter requesting the name to be removed or provide documentation that shows one party is unable to negotiate the check (e.g., a death certificate).
• Deceased Class Member – If the Class Member indicated on the check is deceased, please submit acceptable documentation showing that you are the beneficiary of his or her estate. Acceptable documentation is a death certificate, together with the pertinent portion of the Will, or court order/letters testamentary naming you as personal representative, administrator, executor, or executrix.
• Incapacitated Class Member – If the Class Member cannot act on his or her own behalf, acceptable documentation includes a power of attorney or guardianship/custodial paperwork.
• Closed Business – If you are the legal representative of a business which is no longer active, please include a letter with instructions for the name that should be included on the replacement check as well as documentation proving you are authorized to act on behalf of the business. Documentation may include articles of incorporation, articles of organization, articles of dissolution, or any other similar legal documentation that explicitly states the individual is an acting party for the business.

We will review the letter and documentation and contact you if more information is required.

For reasons of security, a check reissue cannot take place until either the original check is received back by us, a mailing has been returned to us as undeliverable, or the original stale date of the check has passed or expired.

Because one of these events must occur before we can act on your request, it is not possible for us to provide an estimated date for the reissue to take place. We thank you for your patience.

You cannot dispute the amount of your Settlement Payment, and the deadline to object to the Settlement was March 18, 2020.

The amount of your Settlement Payment is final and represents the amount to which you were entitled under the terms of the Settlement Agreement. The Court approved the Settlement, including the methodology used to compute the amount of Settlement Payments, on August 10, 2020. The United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed Final Approval of this Settlement on February 16, 2022.

A Court authorized a notice because you have a right to know about the approved Settlement of this class action lawsuit and about all of your options. This Settlement Website explains the lawsuit, the Settlement, and your legal rights.

Senior Judge James Lawrence King, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, is overseeing this case. The case is known as In Re: Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, 1:09-MD-02036-JLK. The person who sued is called the "Plaintiff." The Defendant is PNC Bank, successor in interest to RBC Bank when the two banks merged.

The lawsuit claims that RBC posted Debit Card Transactions in the order of highest to lowest dollar amount, which Plaintiff argues results in an increased number of Overdraft Fees assessed to customers. The complaint in this Action is posted on this website and contains all of the allegations and claims asserted against RBC. PNC maintains that there was nothing wrong about the posting process RBC used and that no laws were violated.

An "Overdraft Fee" is any fee assessed to an Account for items paid when the Account has insufficient funds to cover the item. Fees charged to transfer funds from other accounts are excluded. "Account" means any consumer checking, demand deposit or savings account maintained by RBC in the United States accessible by a Debit Card, including Accounts which became PNC accounts as a result of RBC's merger with PNC.

"High-to-Low Posting" means RBC's practice of posting an Account's Debit Card Transactions from highest to lowest dollar amount each business day, which is alleged to have resulted in the assessment of Overdraft Fees that would not have been assessed if RBC had used an alternative posting method, e.g., one that posted transactions from lowest to highest.

"Debit Card Transaction" means any debit transaction effectuated with a Debit Card, including Point of Sale transactions (whether by PIN or signature/PIN-less) and ATM transactions. For avoidance of doubt, Debit Card Transaction does not include a debit transaction effectuated by check, by preauthorized transaction, by wire transfer or Automated Clearing House ("ACH") transaction, or a transfer to another account such as a credit card account or line of credit.

“Positive Differential Overdraft Fee” means all eligible Overdraft Fees minus any Overdraft Fees that were not paid due to a negative account balance at closing or were not refunded by RBC.

In a class action, one or more people called named plaintiffs (in this case, Michael Dasher) sue on behalf of people who have similar claims.

All of the people who have claims similar to the named plaintiff are members of the Settlement Class, except for those who timely exclude themselves from the class.

The Court has not decided in favor of either Plaintiffs or PNC. Instead, both sides agreed to the Settlement. By agreeing to the Settlement, the Parties avoid the costs and uncertainty of a trial, and Settlement Class Members receive the benefits described in this Settlement Website. The class representative and their attorneys think the Settlement is best for everyone who is affected.

If you received notice of the Settlement from a postcard addressed to you, then you are in the Settlement Class. But even if you did not receive a postcard with Settlement notice, you may still be in the Settlement Class, as described below.

The Settlement Class includes:

All holders of a RBC Account who, from October 10, 2007 through and including March 1, 2012, incurred one or more Overdraft Fees as a result of RBC's High-to-Low Posting.

Excluded from the Class are all former RBC and current PNC employees, officers and directors, and the judge presiding over this Action.

You may contact the Settlement Administrator if you have any questions as to whether you are in the Settlement Class.

PNC has agreed to establish a Settlement Fund of $7.5 million from which Settlement Class Members may receive payments or Account credits. The amount will be based on the number of Settlement Class Members and the amount of Additional Overdraft Fees each Settlement Class Member paid as a result of RBC's High-to-Low Posting practice. PNC will separately pay for Settlement administration and related costs; such amounts will not come out of the $7.5 million Settlement Fund.

If you are in the Settlement Class and entitled to receive a cash benefit, you do not need to do anything to receive a payment or Account credit. Now that the Court has approved the Settlement, it has become final and effective, and you remained in the Settlement Class, all Settlement Class Members whose Overdraft Fees were not paid due to a negative account balance at closing or were not refunded by the bank will automatically receive a payment or Account credit for their pro rata portion of eligible Overdraft Fees paid during the time period covered by the Settlement.

Unless you excluded yourself from the Settlement Class, you cannot sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against PNC about the legal issues in this case. It also means that all of the decisions by the Court bind you. The "Release of Claims" included in the Settlement Agreement describes the precise legal claims that you gave up if you remained in the Settlement. Click here to download a copy of the Settlement Agreement.

The deadline to excluded yourself from, or opt out of, this Settlement was March 18, 2020.

No. Unless you exclude yourself, you give up the right to sue PNC for the claims that the Settlement resolves. You had to exclude yourself from this Settlement Class in order to try to pursue your own lawsuit.

No. You will not receive a payment or Account credit if you excluded yourself from the Settlement.

The Court has appointed a number of lawyers as "Class Counsel" and "Settlement Class Counsel" to represent you and others in the Settlement Class. Aaron S. Podhurst of Podhurst Orseck, P.A.; Bruce S. Rogow of Bruce S. Rogow, P.A.; and Robert C. Gilbert of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen, P.A., have been appointed as Settlement Class Counsel, and they are responsible for handling all Settlement-related matters on behalf of Plaintiffs.

Settlement Class Counsel will represent you and others in the Settlement Class. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.

Class Counsel intend to request up to 35% of the money in the Settlement Fund for attorneys' fees, plus reimbursement of their litigation costs and expenses incurred in connection with prosecuting this case. The fees and expenses awarded by the Court will be paid out of the Settlement Fund. The Court will determine the amount of fees and expenses to award. Class Counsel will also request that up to $10,000.00 be paid from the Settlement Fund to the one Class Representative for his service to the entire Settlement Class.

The deadline to object to this Settlement was March 18, 2020.

Objecting is telling the Court that you do not like something about the Settlement. You can object to the Settlement only if you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement. Excluding yourself from the Settlement is telling the Court that you don't want to be part of the Settlement. If you exclude yourself from the Settlement, you have no basis to object to the Settlement because it no longer affects you.

The Court held a Final Approval Hearing on April 22, 2020, and granted Final Approval to the Settlement on August 10, 2020. The United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed Final Approval of the Settlement on February 16, 2022.

If you did nothing, you will still receive the benefits to which you are entitled. Unless you excluded yourself, you will not be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against PNC or RBC relating to the issues in this case.

This Settlement Website summarizes the approved Settlement. More details can be found in the Settlement Agreement. Click here to download a copy of the Settlement Agreement. You may also write with questions to Dasher v RBC Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 4109, Portland, OR 97208-4109, or call the toll-free number 1-855-958-0544. Please do not contact PNC or the Court for information.