Credit Union Fails to Meet ‘Heavy Burden’ Under EFTA, Says T-Mobile
Michigan First Credit Union “has no claim for indemnification or contribution for liabilities that federal law specifically allocates to Michigan First, not T-Mobile,” said T-Mobile’s reply brief Friday (docket 2:22-cv-13159) in support of its motion to dismiss Michigan First’s first…
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amended complaint. The credit union alleges the SIM-swaps that T-Mobile enabled among third-party bad actors left it holding the bag for $7.6 million in squandered funds it was required to replace in 2022 under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) (see 2304030039). But T-Motion urges the court to “reject Michigan First’s attempt to create first-of-its-kind indemnity and contribution rights in derogation of Congress’s statutory scheme,” said its reply brief. The court should also reject Michigan First’s attempt “to sidestep controlling federal law because it fails to allege any viable state claim,” it said. Michigan First “fails to meet its heavy burden to show a federal right to indemnity or contribution for its EFTA liabilities,” said T-Mobile. Michigan First doesn’t argue the EFTA “provides an express or common law right to indemnification or contribution and instead argues that the statutory framework of EFTA suggests Congress intended an implied right to bring such claims,” it said. There’s no basis for “grafting” a new implied right onto a 50-year-old statute, it said.