A federal court in Pennsylvania recently held that a "Quick Response Code" ("QR Code") located on an envelope that contained a debt collection letter did not violate Section 1692f of the FDCPA. In Waldron v. Professional Medical Management, the plaintiff sued the defendant debt collection firm after it sent him collection letter bearing a QR Code that was visible through the pane of the envelope and, when scanned, showed the plaintiff's name, address, and a nineteen digit code. No. 12-1863, 2013 WL 978933 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 13, 2013). The defendant moved for summary judgment. In support of ...
In Wassef v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. CV-12-02480-PHX-DGC, 2013 WL 1123678 (D. Ariz. Mar. 18, 2013), the United States District Court for the District of Arizona granted a motion to dismiss where the claims were premised on an alleged repayment agreement. There, the plaintiffs had taken out a loan from Chase Bank, N.A. to refinance their home. The loan was secured with a deed of trust on the property. The plaintiffs later entered into a HAMP modification agreement with Chase, but they were unable to make their payments under the modification. The plaintiffs alleged that Chase ...
On March 7th, the Florida Supreme Court held that the economic loss rule (the doctrine that an economic loss is not recoverable under a tort theory unless accompanied by physical property damage or personal injury) applies only to products liability cases, effectively eliminating use of the doctrine in consumer cases. Tiara Condominium Ass'n, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc., 2013 WL 828003 (Fla. Mar. 7, 2013). In Tiara, a condominium association sued its insurance broker under both tort and contract theories for failing to inform the association that it was underinsured for ...
Frank Springfield and Zachary Miller have written an article for the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association that was published in the Business Law Today. The article addresses the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ("CFPB") rule defining "larger participants" in the consumer debt collection market and the impact that the CFPB will have on the collection industry. The article also highlights changes that can be expected for attorneys practicing in this industry and recent decisions released by federal courts addressing the scope of the Fair Debt Collection ...
An Alabama federal court recently rejected an attempt by certain merchant defendants to dismiss claims brought under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act ("FACTA"), 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., on the basis of the plaintiffs' failure to allege actual damages. In the case, Amason v. Kangaroo Express, the plaintiffs sued merchants with whom they had transacted business, alleging that the defendants willfully violated FACTA by printing more than the last five digits of the plaintiffs' credit and debit card numbers on receipts. No. 7:09-2117-RDP, 2013 WL 987935, at 3 (N.D ...
In Echlin v. Columbia Collectors, Inc., NO. C12-5878 RBL, 2013 WL 858206 ( W.D. Wash. Mar. 7, 2013), the Western District of Washington held that an Offer of Judgment of $1,500 plus costs and attorneys' fees mooted the debtor's claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"), where the debtor sought statutory damages, actual damages, costs, and attorneys' fees in her complaint yet failed to allege that she in fact suffered actual damages. The plaintiff-debtor in Echlin, who alleged that various notices sent by the defendant-debt collector were defective under the ...
A federal court in Washington last week declined to grant summary judgment in favor of OneWest Bank on a Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA") claim where OneWest did not fully investigate account disputes received directly from the consumer and not from a consumer reporting agency. In McDonald v. OneWest Bank, FSB, Case No. C-10-1952RSL, 2013 WL 858187 (W.D. Wash. Mar. 7, 2013), the plaintiff/consumer notified three consumer reporting agencies ("CRAs") he disputed a debt OneWest was reporting on his credit report. He also sent letters directly to OneWest outlining the specific ...
In Caprio v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC, --- F.3d ---, 2013 WL 765169 (3d Cir. Mar. 1, 2013), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently held that language in a debt collection letter asking the plaintiff to "please call" if the plaintiff disputed the amount owed violated the debt validation and false representation provisions of the FDCPA. Plaintiff Ray Caprio filed a putative class action against Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC ("HRRG") alleging violations of § § 1692g and 1692e(10) of the FDCPA based on a collection letter he received that contained ...
As Burr & Forman has offices located in five southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee), our attorneys have been actively involved in various forms of litigation involving Chinese drywall for the last several years. While standard Chinese drywall lawsuits have involved claims related to construction and products liability, a recent case handled by our financial services litigation attorneys involved the interplay between Chinese drywall and mortgage servicing. In Buckentin v. SunTrust Mortgage Corporation, No. 2:11-cv-00532-RDP, 2013 WL ...
A recent federal court decision, Rogers v. Virtuoso Sourcing Group, LLC, 2013 WL 772865, 12-CV-01511 (S. D. Ind. Feb. 28, 2013) sheds new light on whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA") requires a debt collector to affirmatively undertake to update its credit reporting to reflect a dispute by the consumer concerning the validity of the debt. The District Court for the Southern District of Indiana held that the FDCPA, specifically those provisions found at 15 U.S.C 1692e(8), contains no such affirmative requirement when the dispute is tendered to the debt collector ...