Status of KeyBank Litigation

As we mentioned last week, the District Court granted KeyBank's Motion to Dismiss. While this was extremely disappointing, the District Court went out of its way to spend two-thirds of its written opinion holding that we adequately alleged KeyBank engaged in unlawful and unfair acts and practices under California’s Unfair Competition Law by aiding and abetting Silver State’s violation of the Holder Rule, a federal consumer protection regulation. However, the Judge felt constrained to dismiss the entire case on the ground of federal conflict preemption.

On April 21, 2010 we filed a Notice of Appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal of the District Court's ruling granting KeyBank's Motion to Dismiss. We and several amicus curiae ("friends of the court") with whom we will be working are confident this part of the decision will be reversed and KeyBank will be held to answer at minimum for its aiding and abetting Silver State's unlawful conduct.

We will update this site with additional information as the appeal progresses.

Sincerely,

Andrew August and Kevin Rooney, Pinnacle Law Group