In Swann v. Dynamic Recovery Solutions, LLC, No. 4:18-CV-1000-VEH, 2018 WL 6198997 (N.D. Ala. Nov. 28, 2018), the Northern District of Alabama dismissed a putative class action case alleging a letter seeking to collect a time-barred debt violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA").
The plaintiff, Susan Swann ("Plaintiff"), alleged that defendants Dynamic Recovery Services, LLC ("DRS") and Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC ("JCS") violated § 1692e and §1692f of the FDCPA. See generally id. Section 1692e prohibits debt collectors from "'us[ing] any false deceptive ...
The Northern District of Alabama recently followed the Second Circuit's holding in Reyes v. Lincoln Automotive Financial Services, 861 F.3d 51 (2d Cir. 2017), and held that consent provided in a contract as part of a bargained-for exchange could not be unilaterally revoked under the TCPA. With this holding, the Northern District of Alabama becomes the first court in the Eleventh Circuit to follow Reyes.
In Few v. Receivables Performance Management, No. 1:17-CV-2038-KOB, 2018 WL 3772863 (N.D. Ala. Aug. 9, 2018), Plaintiff alleged that Defendant violated the TCPA by calling and ...
In Jenkins v. Midland Credit Management, Inc.,[1] the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the filing of a proof of claim based on a time-barred debt cannot give rise to a claim for damages under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"), reasoning that any such claim is precluded by the Bankruptcy Code's comprehensive claims-allowance procedure. The court further held that the filing of a proof of claim on a stale debt does not merit sanctions under Bankruptcy Rule 9011 where the proof of claim is filed in compliance with the Code. Accordingly, the ...
In Etta Lowery v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, No. 2131060, 2015 WL 1525153 (Ala. Civ. App. Apr. 3, 2015), the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reversed the trial court's judgment on the pleadings entered in favor of Defendant-Appellee Wells Fargo on Plaintiff-Appellant Etta Lowery's claims relating to the notarization of her mortgage. Lowery had filed a complaint in the trial court against Wells Fargo alleging that her mortgage with Wells Fargo was void because it was notarized by a person she had never met. She also alleged that Wells Fargo concealed the improper notarization from her ...
Following the Eleventh Circuit's decision last year in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, the filing of a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in a bankruptcy case pending in the Eleventh Circuit's jurisdiction violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § § 1692-1692p ("FDCPA"). But as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama recently made clear in Gurganus v. Recovery Management Systems Corp. (In re Gurganus), No. 7:14-ap-70054-BGC, 2015 WL 65089 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. Jan. 5, 2015), before debtors start hauling creditors into court for something ...
In Hunt v. 21st Mortgage Corp., No. 2:12-CV-2697-WMA, 2013 WL 5230061 (N.D. Ala. Sept. 17, 2013), the Northern District of Alabama rendered an important decision regarding what constitutes an "automatic telephone dialing system" ("ATDS") under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") in the digital age, holding that a system constitutes an ATDS only if it has the present capacity, at the time the calls were being made, to randomly dial phone numbers. The plaintiff, who had brought claims under the TCPA, sought to compel inspection of the defendant's telephone system. The ...
In Stinson v. Receivables Management Bureau, Inc., No. 2:12-cv-02558, 2013 WL 1278966 (N.D. Ala. Mar. 26, 2013), an Alabama federal court recently held that a debt collector's telephone calls made to a non-debtor did not violate the FDCPA when the actual debtor provided the telephone number and the non-debtor plaintiff failed to inform the debt collector of the error. Plaintiff Jesse Stinson filed suit against Receivables Management Bureau, Inc. ("RMBI") alleging violations of the FDCPA and state law after RMBI made several telephone calls to his house attempting to collect a debt ...
For the first time, a federal court in Alabama addressed preemption under the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, subsidiaries and affiliates of national banks can no longer argue that state laws are preempted. While the court held that the Dodd-Frank Amendment did not apply retroactively and found that the plaintiffs' claims were preempted, it noted the changed status of subsidiaries and affiliates of national banks in light of the Dodd-Frank Amendment. In Selman v. CitiMortgage, the plaintiffs filed suit against their mortgage loan servicer, the investor, and the insurer ...
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 ...
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 ...
In Bandy v. Midland Funding, LLC, No. 12-00491-KD-C, 2013 WL 210730 (S.D. Ala. Jan. 18, 2013), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama held that filing a collection lawsuit without first obtaining evidence to prove the claims is not a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"). The Bandy defendant, a debt collection agency, filed suit in state court seeking to collect on a debt allegedly owed by the plaintiff. However, the debt collector's complaint allegedly did not contain any allegations supporting the validity of the debt, but only stated ...