On May 7, 1986, the United States filed a lawsuit against the Capitol Thrift and Loan Association in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit, presumably filed under the Fair Housing Act and/or Equal Credit Opportunity Act, alleged that the lender discriminated against black and Mexican-American home-loan applicants by instructing its employees not to make too many loans to members of these groups, or by giving them less favorable terms than other clients.

Using evidence developed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Justice Department negotiated a consent decree that enjoined further discriminatory conduct on the part of the defendant, and required that Capitol establish affirmative marketing practices. Capitol entered into the consent decree, and the District Court signed the decree on September 2, 1986.

Because this case happened before the federal courts began digitizing their records, we have not been able to obtain any documents for it. Therefore, this limited summary is based largely on information in Jean Noonan's article, "Federal Trade Commission Enforcement Activities," published in the Practicing Law Institute, June 1, 1989.

Nick Niles - 07/12/2007


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