Under the authority of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was provided with rule-making authority, as well as the supervision for and enforcement of compliance under the EOCA. In 1985, under Regulation B, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) expanded the definition of applicant to include spousal guarantors. One of the goals of the statute was to extend protections against credit discrimination for married woman. The ECOA, passed in 1974, strictly prohibits creditors from discriminating against a credit “applicant” on the basis of sex or marital status (the statute would be amended two years later to include prohibitions against discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, receipt of public assistance, and the good faith exercise of rights under the Consumer Credit Protection Act). Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit agreed. The Missouri district court ruled in favor of the bank on summary judgment and the U.S. The Bank argued that the term “applicant” did not extend to a spousal guarantor, but merely to the individual requesting the credit in this instance, the husbands. ![]() Plaintiffs Hawkins and Patterson alleged that the bank requirement for the wives to serve as loan guarantors strictly because of their marital status violated the ECOA. ![]() After the bank sued the guarantors for moneys owed, including the spousal guarantors, Hawkins and Patterson filed an action against the bank. The endeavor was unsuccessful, the husbands defaulted on their loans, and the bank pursued payments totaling more than $2 million. Community Bank of Raymoreinvolved two Missouri plaintiffs, Valerie Hawkins and Janice Patterson, acting as personal guarantors on loans provided to their respective husbands for a business endeavor. A 4-4 ruling by the Supreme Court (the first even-split Court since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia) did not set precedent, but limited the definition of “applicant” under the ECOA within the boundaries of the Eighth Circuit. ![]() 1691 et seq., to allow spousal guarantors to bring claims against creditors for marital discrimination. “The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court.” One sentence, published by the United State Supreme Court on Masealed the fate of two plaintiffs seeking to expand protections under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C.
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