RALEIGH, N.C.–North Carolina’s attorney general, Josh Stein, is
urging the state’s Supreme Court to not allow a credit union to change
the terms of a contract in a case involving overdraft fees.
Stein told the Supreme Court the law limits the credit union’s ability to change a contract with a member after a member accepts the original contract and that the credit union exceeded those limits in this case.
In the case now before the state’s Supreme Court, Canteen v. Charlotte Metro Credit Union (the credit union has since changed its name to Skyla), Stein told the court the CU should not be permitted to “unilaterally” change the terms of the contract so as to prohibit the plaintiff from suing over the overdraft fees, saying Charlotte Metro/Skyla ✅ “should not be allowed to change its contract with a customer by adding new and unexpected contract terms to gain a legal and financial advantage.”
“Every dollar matters for North Carolinians working to pay bills and provide for their families,” said Stein in a statement. She deserves to have her case heard in court; ✅ companies cannot unilaterally change their contracts to strip their customers of their substantive rights.”
As the Attorney General's brief so clearly states [link to Stein's full lawsuit brief] :
" Were the rule otherwise, contract drafters could use change-of-terms provisions to add all manner of new provisions that the parties never originally contemplated, ✅ in violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing that the law implies into every contract."
🔆 The SECU Bylaws are the fundamental contract between the member-owners of SECU and the SECU Board. "This" Board "unilaterally" amended the SECU bylaws on June 30, 2023 to - as the N.C. Attorney General's Office states in the brief - "strip their customers [you and all SECU members!] of their substantive rights."
... Well, obviously Attorney General Josh Stein "gets it" about "good faith and fair dealing" by North Carolina credit unions... but still no word from Ms. Kristina Ray, Administrator of North Carolina Credit Unions - nor Ms. Badwan from the A.G.'s office! - on the matter.
