The latest update surrounding Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc., Case No. 19-14434 centers not on the Eleventh Circuit or the Hunstein decision itself but on the district courts nationwide that are considering numerous copycat cases relying on the Hunstein reasoning.
In one such recent case, Nabozny v. Optio Solutions, LLC, Case No. 21-cv-297-jdp, 2022 WL 293092 (W.D. Wis. Feb. 1, 2022), a district judge from the Western District of Wisconsin considered, and rejected, the plaintiff’s Hunstein argument, finding that Hunstein lacked persuasive ...
In Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, No. 16-348 (May 15, 2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a debt collector does not run afoul of the FDCPA by filing a proof of claim in bankruptcy on a stale debt. In its 5-3 decision, the Court sided with the majority of the federal courts of appeals to have considered the issue and reversed the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which had held that filing a proof of claim on a debt for which the statute of limitations had expired amounted to a "false," "deceptive," "misleading," "unconscionable," and "unfair" means of debt collection.
The case arose ...
The writing was on the wall following Justice Elena Kagan's dissent in Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. v. Symczyk, 133 S. Ct. 1523 (2013), wherein Justice Kagan blasted the view that an unaccepted offer of complete relief made to a named plaintiff pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 68 is capable of mooting the plaintiff's individual (and putative class) claims as "wrong, wrong, and wrong again," id. at 1533 (Kagan, J., dissenting) - a position that every Court of Appeals to rule on the issue after Genesis Healthcare had adopted - and on January 20, 2016, the Supreme Court made it official. In a 6-3 ...
The Supreme Court Monday re-affirmed the enforceability of class-waivers in arbitration agreements. The five-justice majority felt the need to rebuke the California courts for trying to end-run Federal preemption through a latent "States-rights" nullification approach. Two of the three dissenters saw the case as a consumerist crusade against big business. But the biggest take away for businesses using arbitration clauses just might lie hidden within the opinion. DirectTV's Conditional Class-Waiver. DirectTV's consumer contracts contained a conditional class waiver ...
On October 14, 2015, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez, 14-SC-857. The plaintiff in Gomez alleged he received an unsolicited marketing text message advertising the US Navy from the marketing firm Campbell-Ewald Company in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"). The plaintiff sued on the Campbell-Ewald Company on behalf of himself and a putative class. The facts of the case present a classic example of an effort to "pick off" a putative class representative with an offer of judgment under Rule 68 ...
On June 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, in which all nine Justices joined in an opinion that reversed an Eleventh Circuit ruling that chapter 7 debtors may "strip off" wholly unsecured junior liens. The Caulkett opinion largely relies upon the Supreme Court's prior decision in Dewsnup v. Timm, 502 U.S. 410 (1992), in which the Court held that a chapter 7 debtor may not "strip down" liens where the value of the property partially secures the underlying claim. The Eleventh Circuit previously recognized but distinguished ...
Since the Constitution was ratified, 226 years ago, potential plaintiffs have been required to first establish that they have a "case or controversy" before a court can consider the merits of any legal claim. As the U.S. Supreme Court has phrased it, "the person seeking to invoke the jurisdiction of the court must establish the requisite standing to sue." Whitmore v. Arkansas, 495 U.S. 149, 154 (1990). There are three components of standing:
1) the plaintiff has suffered an "injury in fact" that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or ...
In LNB-017-13, LLC v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., 14-cv-24800-UU, 2015 WL 1546150 (S.D. Fla. April 7, 2015), Judge Ursula Ungaro revisited the familiar topic of the statute of limitations for mortgage foreclosure and previously dismissed foreclosure actions. In two prior opinions on the subject, Judge Ungaro dismissed efforts to quiet title to mortgages where the borrowers had alleged the expiration of the statute of limitations as grounds for removing valid mortgage liens from title. See Lopez v. HSBC Bank, N.A., 1:14-cv-20798-UU, 2014 WL 3361755, at 1 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 28, 2014); Torres ...
The United States Supreme Court recently held in Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., et al., 574 U.S. -- (2015), that the Truth in Lending Act's ("TILA") rescission provision, 15 U.S.C. § 1635, does not require a borrower to file a lawsuit within the three-year time period under 15 U.S.C. § 1635(f) in order to rescind. The Jesinoski borrowers had refinanced their mortgage in 2007. Exactly three years later, the borrowers sent their lender and loan servicer a letter purporting to rescind the transaction. The lender and loan servicer refused to acknowledge the rescission. One ...
The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided that a named class action plaintiff cannot prevent removal by stipulating to seek less than $5 million in damages before class certification, in Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, 11-1450, --- U.S. ----, 2013 WL 1104735 (Mar. 19, 2013). The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 ("CAFA") provides federal district courts original jurisdiction over civil class action lawsuits when "the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000." 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332(d)(2). The class must have more than 100 members and those members must be ...