33-year-old lawsuit ends in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The Utah State Supreme Court ruled unanimously on a 33-year-old case, saying a mortgage lender was not required to pay interest on escrow accounts.

The suit, filed in 1975 by Richard and Nancy Madsen, challenged the Prudential Federal Savings and Loan Association to pay interest on accounts in which the plaintiffs made monthly contributions for tax and insurance purposes, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday.

The class-action suit asked for a $134 judgment for the Madsens and an average of $105 in interest payments for 9,547 other plaintiffs.

The case was one of the state's oldest active civil rights case -- eclipsed only by several water-rights cases in debate since the 1950s. Lead plaintiff Richard Madsen died in 2006, leaving Nancy Madsen as the lead plaintiff, the newspaper reported.

The court ruled Prudential, purchased by Washington Mutual Bank in the 1990s, was not mandated to pay interest under federal laws in place at the time the Madsen's contract was signed and that federal law took precedent over state laws.