"If they're doing this to him -- a highly educated, sophisticated businessman -- what's happening to other Hispanics who don't know this violates the law and just accept it and walk away?" said Arteaga's attorney in an interview.

Arteaga is affiliated with the University of Miami through his company Global Institute of Higher Extension Studies, which provides services to foreign students at the university.

In February 2005, Dell solicited Arteaga via e-mail to purchase computers and software through Dell under its small-medium business acquisitions department. Arteaga was required to personally guarantee the credit line, since Global was a relatively new company. Arteaga was approved and made a $4,063 down payment for leased computer equipment. But later that month, approval for the transaction was withdrawn.

According to an internal e-mail between Dell employees, the credit application was denied because "our verification department seems to think that Juan Carlos [Arteaga] can't speak English and a non-English speaker can't personally guarantee an account for fear they may not understand the terms and conditions of the lease."

The e-mail was later forwarded to Arteaga, but his requests to Dell to further explain its policy went unanswered.

"The people at the verification department never spoke with Mr. Arteaga," said Juan's attorney. "Juan Carlos Arteaga is obviously a Spanish name, so I think the question arises of what criteria are they using. Unless the e-mail is a lie, unless somebody speaks English they're not going to give them credit."

Equels said that Arteaga leased computers from another vendor after Dell rejected him. But he filed the suit out of concern that other Hispanic business owners could be subjected to the same treatment.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discriminating based on a number of factors, including age, race, color, national origin, religion or marital status. The suit alleges that a policy of denying credit based on English-language skills has a direct discriminatory impact on Hispanics.

Juan Carlos' attorney said he does not know the number of potential class members but estimated that there are thousands. Recovery for the individual plaintiffs likely would be small. That's because the issue is the extension of credit, which is unlikely to have a large financial impact on customers. If the class action suit qualifies for punitive damages, such damages would be capped at $500,000.

But for Arteaga, the suit is about principle, according to his attorney "He went and got his computers elsewhere, but his concern is that small Hispanic businesses should not be discriminated against. It's a violation of federal law to discriminate based on language skills, and he wants to set an example."

Arteaga's attorney plans to examine the company's credit files to identify other Hispanics who have applied for credit and see if they faced similar problems with the verification department. Based on the e-mail he already obtained, he suspects the policy was applied to others.

The lawsuit involves anyone who was denied Dell Credit based on their inability to speak English.