Justia Consumer Law Opinion Summaries

Woods claims an identity thief opened a credit card in his name, leading debt collectors to pursue him for the card’s unpaid balance, $723.55. The debt collector, Resurgent, initially rejected his claims that the debt was not his. After months of phone calls and letter writing, Woods succeeded in having the debt removed from his credit report. Woods filed suit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. He alleged that the companies violated the FDCPA by using “false representation[s] or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt,” 15 U.S.C. 1692e(10). In Woods’s view, Resurgent’s collection letters were literally false, since they stated that he owed a debt that American Airlines had since determined was not his. Woods claimed that Resurgent violated FCRA by failing to conduct a reasonable investigation into his fraud claims, 15 U.S.C. 1681s-2(b)(1)(A).The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of his suit. Literal falsity is not the standard under section 1692; a statement “isn’t ‘false’ unless it would confuse the unsophisticated consumer.” Resurgent’s investigation was reasonable, in light of Woods’s failure to respond to requests for information. View "Woods v. LVNV Funding, LLC" on Justia Law

Morgan’s credit reports reflected purported overdue home loan payments. Morgan wrote to his loan servicer: Please find a report ... stating as of 10/13/15 I owe Caliber $16,806[.] [A]lso on 9/20/16 I called Caliber and talked to Thomas ID#27662[.] [H]e stated I owe $30,656.89 and the $630.00 on my record is late charges. Can you please correct your records[?] Your office reporting the wrong amount to the credit agency is effecting [sic] my employment. Morgan included a copy of a credit report. Morgan alleges the defendant continued to report adverse loan information.When Johnson fell behind on her mortgage payments, the defendant reported to credit reporting agencies. While seeking a loan modification, Johnson sent a letter, challenging the existence of “title issues” and requesting “a reasonable investigation,” correction of the “errors,” and “an accounting of all sums you have imposed." The parties ultimately finalized a loan modification but in the interim, the defendant continued reporting adverse information.Johnson and Morgan filed a putative class action. Qualified written requests (QWRs) under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), 12 U.S.C. 2601 or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Regulation X, trigger an obligation to cease providing adverse information to credit reporting agencies. The Fourth Circuit reversed the dismissal of Morgan’s claim but affirmed the dismissal of Johnson’s claim. Where a written correspondence to a loan servicer provides sufficient information to identify the account and an alleged servicing error, such correspondence is a QWR; if it merely challenges a contractual issue, it does not implicate a servicing issue and is not a QWR. Johnson’s correspondence did not concern the servicing of her account. View "Morgan v. Caliber Home Loans, Inc." on Justia Law

Darilyn Baker, individually and on behalf of a certified class, appealed an order denying her motion for a new trial after a jury returned a verdict in favor of RW Enterprises, Inc. and Randy Westby. This case has been before the North Dakota Supreme Court three times. Prior to the Baker III decision, the district court dismissed Baker’s claims after finding the defendants did not violate disclosure requirements of the North Dakota Retail Installment Sales Act (“RISA”). Baker appealed. In Baker III, the Supreme Court concluded the retail installment contracts did not comply with RISA’s disclosure requirements. The Supreme Court reversed the district court’s judgment and remanded for consideration of a willful violation of RISA and the remedies available for noncompliance with the disclosure requirements. On remand, Baker filed a motion requesting the district court to approve a settlement with Autos, Inc., Robert Opperude, and James Hendershot, dismiss all claims under RISA, and grant summary judgment on the usury claim against RW Enterprises and Westby. The court approved the settlement but denied the motions to dismiss and for summary judgment. At trial, Baker requested the jury be instructed on a partnership between the defendants. The district court declined to provide the partnership instruction, but provided an instruction on “acting in concert” in order for Baker to establish the defendants worked together. The jury found RW Enterprises and Westby did not violate RISA. By answering “no” to the RISA violation, the verdict form instructed the jury to stop answering other questions and return the form to the court. Had the jury found RW Enterprises and Westby in violation, the next question was whether the contract charged usurious interest and if so, what damages were suffered by the plaintiffs. Baker moved for a new trial arguing the district court provided an improper verdict form and jury instructions. The district court denied Baker’s motion. Finding no reversible error in that judgment, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court. View "Baker v. Autos, Inc., et al." on Justia Law

Pincus’s vehicle was photographed running a red light in North Miami Beach. His notice of violation stated that he owed a statutory penalty of $158 and that if Pincus paid online or by phone, he would be charged an additional convenience fee. Pincus paid online with a credit card and was required to pay both the statutory penalty and the convenience fee. Pincus brought a putative class action against ATS, the vendor that operated the city’s red-light enforcement program. He alleged that several Florida statutes barred ATS from charging the convenience fee and that ATS was unjustly enriched by retaining the fee. The district court dismissed Pincus’s complaint,The Eleventh Circuit certified questions to the Supreme Court of Florida, which explained that a claim for unjust enrichment under Florida law required Pincus to allege that “it was inequitable for ATS to retain” the convenience fee. Even assuming Florida law barred ATS from charging the fee, the court concluded, it was “not inequitable” for ATS to retain the fee because Pincus received “value in exchange,” including not having to procure postage and a check or money order; being able to pay the balance over time; avoiding the risk of payment being delayed, stolen, or lost; being afforded more time because his payment would be received instantaneously; and receiving immediate confirmation of payment. The Eleventh Circuit, in response, affirmed the dismissal. View "Pincus v. American Traffic Solutions, Inc." on Justia Law

In 2005, Lyons opened a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) with PNC’s predecessor, signing an agreement with no arbitration provision. In 2010, Lyons opened deposit accounts at PNC and signed a document that stated he was bound by the terms of PNC’s Account Agreement, including a provision authorizing PNC to set off funds from the account to pay any indebtedness owed by the account holder to PNC. PNC could amend the Account Agreement. In 2013, PNC added an arbitration clause to the Account Agreement. Customers had 45 days to opt out. Lyons opened another deposit account with PNC in 2014 and agreed to be bound by the 2014 Account Agreement, including the arbitration clause. Lyons again did not opt out. Lyons’s HELOC ended in February 2015. PNC began applying setoffs from Lyons’s 2010 and 2014 Accounts.Lyons sued under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). PNC moved to compel arbitration. The court found that the Dodd-Frank Act amendments to TILA barred arbitration of Lyons’s claims related to the 2014 Account but did not apply retroactively to bar arbitration of his claims related to the 2010 account. The Fourth Circuit reversed in part. The Dodd-Frank Act 15 U.S.C. 1639c(e) precludes pre-dispute agreements requiring the arbitration of claims related to residential mortgage loans; the relevant arbitration agreement was not formed until after the amendment's effective date. PNC may not compel arbitration of Lyons’s claims as to either account. View "Lyons v. PNC Bank" on Justia Law

A group of pet owners brought a class action against Champion Petfoods USA, Inc., alleging representations on Champion’s packaging on its Acana and Orijen brands of dog food were false and misleading. Champion’s dog food packaging contained a number of claims about the product, advertising the food as “Biologically Appropriate,” “Trusted Everywhere,” using “Fresh and Regional Ingredients,” and containing “Ingredients We Love [From] People We Trust.” The district court dismissed the claims as either unactionable puffery or overly subjective and therefore not materially misleading to a reasonable consumer. To this, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, finding Plaintiffs’ claims failed to allege materially false or misleading statements on Champion’s packaging because the phrases failed to deceive or mislead reasonable consumers on any material fact. View "Renfro, et al. v. Champion Petfoods USA, et al." on Justia Law

A judgment creditor’s attorney, Rodenburg, mailed the consumer debtor, Ojogwu a copy of the garnishment summons Rodenburg had served on garnishee US Bank, knowing that Ojogwu had retained counsel after the default judgment was entered and that he disputed the debt. The district court held that Minn. Stat. 571.72(4), which requires that copies of papers served on a third-party garnishee “be served by mail at the last known mailing address of the debtor not later than five days after the service is made upon the garnishee” was inconsistent with, and therefore preempted by, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: “Without the prior consent of the consumer . . . or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with collection of any debt . . . if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt.” 15 U.S.C. 1692c(a)(2).The Eighth Circuit ordered the dismissal of the case. Under recent Supreme Court precedent, Ojogwu lacks Article III standing to pursue this claim in federal court because he failed to allege and the record does not show that he suffered concrete injury-in-fact from Rodenburg’s alleged violation of section 1692c(a)(2). View "Ojogwu v. Rodenburg Law Firm" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs, whose vehicles had been “totaled,” sued Liberty, an auto insurer, and CCC, alleging that Liberty breached its contracts with its insureds and that both companies violated Washington’s unfair trade practices law and committed civil conspiracy. Liberty’s valuation method uses a report about the value of “comparable vehicles,” provided by CCC. To account for the difference between the average car owned by a private person and the cars for sale at dealerships, CCC reduces a totaled car’s valuation.The district court declined to certify a proposed class because individual questions predominated over common questions and individualized trials were superior to a class action. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. Whether Liberty and CCC’s condition adjustment violates the Washington state regulations is a common question but to show liability for breach of contract or unfair trade practices, the plaintiffs must show an injury. Establishing an injury will require an individualized determination for each plaintiff; those individualized determinations predominate over the common questions. A class action here would involve adjudicating issues specific to each class member’s claim, and that would be unmanageable. Individual trials would be a better way to adjudicate those issues. View "Lara v. First National Insurance Co." on Justia Law

The First Circuit vacated and reversed the judgment of the district court holding that two laws passed by Maine's Legislature in 2019 that amended the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act, Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, 1306 et seq. (Maine Act) were preempted under section 1681t(b)(1)(E) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq., holding that remand was required.The amendments to the Maine Act were passed in order to regulate the reporting of overdue medical debt and debt resulting from economic abuse. Plaintiff, an industry group representing the "Big Three" credit reporting agencies, brought a facial preemption challenge to the laws. The district court concluded that the amendments were preempted by section 1681t(b)(1)(E). The First Circuit remanded the matter for further proceedings, holding (1) section 1681t(b)(1)(E) narrowly preempts state laws that impose requirements or prohibitions with respect to the specific subject matters regulated under section 1681c; and (2) the amendments were not preempted in their entirety. View "Consumer Data Industry Ass'n v. Frey" on Justia Law

A class action claimed Nationstar violated consumer protection laws in servicing class members’ mortgage loans. Years later, the parties filed a notice of settlement. A magistrate granted preliminary approval. In order of priority, the parties proposed that the $3,000,000 settlement fund pay for administrative expenses up to $300,000, attorneys’ fees, a class representative award, and class claims. The settlement proposed notice by Email, Postcard, and Longform. The Email and Postcard Notice informed class members of the amount of the settlement, how to submit a claim, how to opt-out of the class, and where to find the Longform Notice. The Longform Notice explained the attorneys’ fee arrangement. The notices did not estimate each class member's recovery. Nationstar agreed not to oppose class counsel’s fee request up to $1,300,000. Class counsel submitted records that supported $1,261,547.50 in fees and $217,657.26 in unreimbursed expenses but requested only $1,300,000. The value of a class member’s claim is determined by a points system based on Nationstar’s treatment of their account and the class member’s expenses.An absent class member, having sued Nationstar in California state court, objected to the settlement, arguing that the notice was insufficient; the settlement was unfair and inadequate; the release was unconstitutionally overbroad; and the attorneys’ fee award was improper. The magistrate overruled those objections. The Fourth Circuit affirmed, noting that over 97% of the nearly 350,000 class members received notice and the low opt-out rate. View "McAdams v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC" on Justia Law