On March 10, the CFPB submitted a status report to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas advising it will continue to pursue a lawsuit against a consumer lender and its subsidiary for alleged violations of the Military Lending Act (MLA). As previously covered by InfoBytes, the district court last year rejected the defendants’ attempt to rely on the “bona fide error” defense, which protects against civil liability for unintentional violations of the MLA. In a matter of first impression, the court ruled the “bona fide error” defense was intended to protect against liability to individual borrowers — not federal agencies.
This marked the second MLA case the CFPB said it will continue to pursue under new agency leadership after the Bureau made a similar move last month to continue the prosecution of another consumer lender for alleged violations of the MLA and UDAAP provisions of the CFPA (covered by InfoBytes here).
