Lenn A. Ferrer, who worked in USAA Bank's compliance department, sued USAA in May over comments it made to the San Antonio Express-News.
A Florida judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against USAA by a former USAA Federal Savings Bank employee who had accused the bank of defaming him after he alleged it had committed financial crimes. Attorney Lenn A.
Ferrer, who worked in USAA Bank’s compliance department from 2012 to 2020, sued the San Antonio-based financial services company in May over comments it made to the San Antonio Express-News in response to allegations he leveled against the bank in 2022. Last week, St. Johns County Circuit Judge Howard M. Maltz tossed the lawsuit after determining that Ferrer had filed it two days after the expiration of Florida’s two-year statute of limitations for defamation actions. RELATED: San Antonio’s USAA Bank under fire from former employee Ferrer, a former federal prosecutor and Navy lawyer who lives in St. Johns County, sued on May 22 — the second anniversary of the article’s publication in the Express-News’ print edition. The article first appeared online two days earlier. Under Florida law, the statute of limitations begins to run at the time of first publication. “This single publication rule clearly provides the Plaintiff’s action accrued May 20, 2022, and thus, since he filed the action after the expiration of the two-year statute of limitations, this action is time-barred,” the judge said in his ruling. USAA had filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that it was filed too late. Ferrer argued in court documents that USAA’s motion was not proper because the company filed it before it had been formally served with the lawsuit. The judge rejected that argument. “There is no authority which prohibits a party from responding to the merits of a case prior to being formally served with process,” Maltz said in his order. Ferrer’s defamation suit centered on a 2022 Express-News article in which Ferrer contended that USAA Bank had committed 400,000 violations of the Military Lending Act, a federal law that protects service members from lending practices that could pose a threat to military readiness and hurt service member retention. His allegations were first reported by Compliance Week, a publication for regulatory compliance officers. In his suit, Ferrer accused Kate Gallivan, USAA’s head of regulatory relations and a senior vice president, of making false statements when she disputed the 400,000 figure to the Express-News, calling it “grossly overstated.” Ferrer said in the suit that Gallivan’s statements were made to “intentionally undermine Ferrer’s credibility.” He also said USAA “acted with malice” in its comments to the Express-News by “portraying him as a dangerous, disgruntled, lying former employee.”
San Antonio Express-News Federal Savings Bank Navy Express-News Lenn A. Ferrer Howard M. Maltz Plaintiff Kate Gallivan Florida San Antonio St. Johns County Military Lending Act Compliance Week
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