JOHN G. KOELTL, District Judge.
The defendants, Citizens Financial Group, Inc. ("Citizens") and Bruce Van Saun, have moved to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint ("SAC") filed by the
In deciding a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), the allegations in the complaint are accepted as true, and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in the plaintiff's favor.
While the Court should construe the factual allegations in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, "the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in the complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions."
The Court accepts the following allegations solely for purposes of the pending motion. As stated in
The plaintiff alleges that the defendants made several errors on her account over several years, which include (1) failing to post payments to her loan account, (2) improperly reporting negative credit information, and (3) fraudulently opening a new account in her name.
First, the plaintiff claims that she attempted to make several payments for her loan in 2016, but that Citizens failed to post those payments to her account. SAC at 2; SAC Ex. 7. For example, the plaintiff alleges that in February, 2016, she sent a check of $100.00 to Citizens for payment; however, Citizens returned the original check with a letter dated March 4, 2016, which stated that Citizens was "unable to identify an account to credit." SAC Ex. 7.
Attempting to correct the non-posting of payments, the plaintiff sent a letter to Bruce Van Saun on May 4, 2016. SAC at 2; SAC Ex. 7. Van Saun is the Chief Executive Officer of Citizens. SAC at 2. The letter stated the plaintiff's name and loan number, that she had attempted to submit monthly payments, but that the payments had not been posted by Citizens and explained that she thought this was an error because she had made all payments on time. SAC Ex. 7. The letter also mentioned that her check was returned in March.
Second, after sending the letters, the plaintiff alleges that instead of acknowledging the errors and taking corrective action, Citizens reported inaccurate, negative credit information to the credit reporting agencies. SAC at 2. The plaintiff states that she then took various steps to dispute the erroneous credit information reported by Citizens.
Third, in March 2018, the plaintiff received a letter from Citizens indicating she had opened a "new account" but that Citizens had not yet received her "first payment that was due on 02/23/2018." SAC at 8; SAC Ex. 1 at 2. The plaintiff alleges that she did not open this account. SAC at 8.
Due to these errors, the plaintiff alleges that she suffered negative credit reporting and has been denied loans due to reports of her "delinquent past or present credit obligations with others" and "current/previous slow payments, judgments, liens or BK." SAC Ex. 1 at 1, 3. She states that she had to pursue "expensive financing," and has been denied access to over $300,000 in savings invested in her home. SAC at 11.
The plaintiff also alleges that the defendants sent her threatening and harassing extortionate letters by United States certified mail in an attempt unlawfully to extract money from her and her husband.
Additionally, the plaintiff alleges that Citizens used various entity names to "deceptively. . . set up their organizational structure" in a manner that obscures the fact that they are a debt collector for Charter One.
The plaintiff previously brought a lawsuit against Citizens in 2016 and alleges that the defendants are now seeking revenge in retaliation because the previously filed lawsuit was settled.
In the SAC, the plaintiff adds Bruce Van Saun as an individual defendant and alleges 7 claims against the defendants. She first claims that the defendants breached a provision of the HELOC contract that incorporated rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act ("FCBA"). Second, she states that the defendants violated New York General Business Law ("NYGBL") § 349. Third, the plaintiff brings a claim of fraudulent schemes and artifices pursuant to Section 13-2310 of Arizona's Criminal Code. Fourth, she claims that the defendants violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") by making automated calls to her cell phone in March, 2018 and July, 2018. Fifth, the plaintiff reiterates her argument from the FAC that the defendants violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"). Sixth, the plaintiff argues that the defendants are debt collectors who violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"). Finally, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants committed common law fraud.
The defendants contend that the addition of Bruce Van Saun as a named defendant is improper because the plaintiff's allegations are too vague to hold Van Saun personally liable for the alleged acts of Citizens. Under New York law,
The plaintiff makes no colorable claim that Van Saun knew of or participated in a fraud. The plaintiff alleges that Van Saun received two letters about the billing dispute, one mailed in May 2016 and the other in November of the same year. SAC at 2-3. Van Saun did not respond to the first letter.
Because the plaintiff has not alleged sufficient facts to plead any claim against Van Saun in an individual capacity, the defendants' motion to dismiss claims against Bruce Van Saun is
The defendants seek to dismiss the plaintiff's claim for breach of contract (Count I) for failure to state a claim.
To survive a motion to dismiss for a breach of contract claim under New York law, a complaint must allege "(1) the existence of an agreement, (2) adequate performance of the contract by the plaintiff, (3) breach of contract by the defendant, and (4) damages."
In this case, the plaintiff has alleged elements 1, 2, and 4. As to the first element, the plaintiff alleges that she and her husband signed a contract for the HELOC in April, 2008. Regarding the second element, the plaintiff has alleged that she and her husband performed in full under the contract — namely that they timely paid their bills. And for the fourth element, the plaintiff claims that she has suffered damages — specifically, negative credit reporting that caused her to be denied access to further credit and forced her to take out expensive financing.
As to the third element, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants breached the portion of the contract that incorporated rights under the FCBA by reporting inaccurate negative credit information to CRAs. The FCBA provides a private right of action.
Under the FCBA, a consumer may notify a creditor of billing errors by writing to the creditor within sixty days of the creditor's first transmission of a statement with the errors.
The Billing Rights section of the contract between the plaintiff and Charter One listed the address to which the plaintiff could send disputes as "Charter One Servicing Department, P.O. Box 42002, Providence, RI, 02940-2002." The plaintiff sent a letter to Van Saun on May 4, 2016, explaining that payments she had been making to Citizens were not being properly posted.
The plaintiff's November 9, 2016 letter to Van Saun was sent to a different address than specified in the contract. SAC Ex. 6. Thus, the November 9, 2016 letter also did not trigger obligations under the FCBA.
Because the plaintiff has failed to allege that she complied with the notice provisions of the FCBA under § 1666, she has not alleged that Citizens' duties under the FCBA were triggered and that it breached the terms of the HELOC agreement. Accordingly, the defendants' motion to dismiss Count I of the SAC is
The defendants argue that the plaintiff has failed to state a claim under NYGBL § 349 (Count II). The plaintiff references NYGBL § 349 twice in her SAC: as a standalone Count II and under Count VII for fraudulent schemes and artifices.
To state a claim under NYGBL § 349, "a plaintiff must allege that a defendant has engaged in (1) consumer-oriented conduct that is (2) materially misleading and that (3) plaintiff suffered injury as a result of the allegedly deceptive act or practice."
"With regard to the first factor, the gravamen of the complaint must be consumer injury or harm to the public interest. The critical question, then, is whether the matter affects the public interest in New York, not whether the suit is brought by a consumer or a competitor."
In her complaint, the plaintiff does not specifically allege what the consumer-oriented conduct was, or how the deceptive practices might affect other consumers. To the extent that the misleading acts or practices related to failing to post payments to her loan account, reporting negative credit information for missed payments, and opening a new consumer account improperly, these issues raise private disputes between the parties. As the plaintiff did in this case, a reasonable consumer would recognize if a new account did not belong to her and would not likely be misled. Further, the plaintiff cannot satisfy the third requirement because she has not alleged that a misleading practice, from which an injury could have arisen, occurred. Accordingly, the defendants' motion to dismiss Count II is
The defendants correctly argue that the plaintiff's claim under Arizona's Criminal Code § 13-2310 (Count III) should be dismissed because there is no colorable claim that there is a private right of action under that criminal statute and no explanation at all why an Arizona criminal statute applies to the claims in this case. Accordingly, the defendants' motion to dismiss Count III is
The defendants move to dismiss Count IV for failure to state a claim under the TCPA. They argue that the plaintiff's conclusory allegation that she received "automated," "robo calls" from Citizens is insufficient to state a TCPA claim because the plaintiff does not allege that Citizens made calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice in violation of the TCPA.
The TCPA makes it unlawful to make any nonemergency or unconsented-to call "using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. . . to any telephone number assigned to a. . . cellular telephone service . . . unless such call is made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States." 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1). The TCPA defines an "automatic telephone dialing system" as equipment which has the "capacity. . . to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator" and "to dial such numbers."
In this case, the plaintiff alleges that Citizens placed multiple calls to her cell phone. While the plaintiff does not explicitly state that she had not consented to the calls, it is apparent that the calls were unwanted and viewed as harassment. Further, the plaintiff had previously hired a lawyer to stop the robo calls.
The defendants argue that the plaintiff has failed to state a claim under the FCRA (Count V). They argue that (1) the provision on which the plaintiff's FCRA cause of action appears to be based, 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a), does not contain a private right of action, and (2) if the plaintiff's cause of action rests on § 1681s-2(b), she has failed to state a claim.
As noted in
Section 1681s-2(b) "imposes a duty upon those who furnish information to credit reporting agencies to conduct an investigation upon notice that a consumer has disputed the accuracy or completeness of reported information."
The plaintiff alleges that she disputed the defendants' negative credit reporting to an unidentified CRA on April 23, 2018. The plaintiff filed the SAC on May 9, 2019. In her Opposition to the current motion, the plaintiff notes that on May 29, 2019, she received a "Dispute Results" message from the CRA, Experian, stating, "[o]ur reinvestigation of the dispute(s) and/or other request(s) you recently submitted is now complete."
The defendants also argue that the plaintiff has failed to state a claim under the FDCPA (Count VI) because the plaintiff has not alleged that Citizens is a "debt collector" within the meaning of the statute.
"As a general matter, creditors are not subject to the FDCPA. However, a creditor becomes subject to the FDCPA if the creditor in the process of collecting his own debts, uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts. A creditor uses a name other than its own when it uses a name that implies that a third party is involved in collecting its debts, pretends to be someone else or uses a pseudonym or alias."
In
In the SAC, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants "set up their organizational structure" in a manner that obscures the fact that Citizens is a debt collector. SAC at 6-7. The plaintiff alleges that she received statements from various different entities, which imply that a third party was attempting to collect Citizens' debt.
The new allegations fail to establish that Citizens was using an alias to collect a debt it was owed. Nearly all of the entities' names that the plaintiff listed — ("Citizens Financial Group," "Citizens Bank N.A.," "Citizens Home Loans," "Charter One A division of RBS Citizens N.A.," and "Charter One N/A,") — include the word "Citizens," which clearly refers to the defendant. To the extent that the plaintiff is arguing that Citizens is a separate name from Charter One, this Court noted in
Finally, the defendants argue that there are no facts alleged that support a claim for common law fraud (Count VII) and that the plaintiff has not met the heightened pleading standard for pleading fraud as set out by Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). In this section of her complaint, the plaintiff also alleges that the defendants committed fraud under NYGBL § 349 and § 13-2310 of Arizona's Criminal Code. For the reasons stated in Section C & D above, the plaintiff's claims of fraud pursuant to NYGBL § 349 and § 13-2310 of Arizona's Criminal Code are
"Under New York law, to state a claim for fraud a plaintiff must demonstrate: (1) a misrepresentation or omission of material fact; (2) which the defendant knew to be false; (3) which the defendant made with the intention of inducing reliance; (4) upon which the plaintiff reasonably relied; and (5) which caused injury to the plaintiff."
The plaintiff has alleged that she received a letter from Citizens indicating that Citizens had not received a payment for the plaintiff's new account, when she had not opened a new account. SAC at 8. However, the plaintiff has not pleaded any facts to demonstrate that the defendants knew this to be false or made such statements about a new account with the intent to induce reliance. Further, the plaintiff disputed ever opening a new account, and thus could not have reasonably relied on this representation and likewise, could not have suffered injury from it.
The plaintiff also alleges that the defendants and their lawyers have joined together to force the plaintiff's loan into default, to increase legal fees, to eliminate the obligation of Citizens to service the loan, to seek revenge for a prior lawsuit, and to turn a profit. These allegations are completely conclusory and do not allege any specific misrepresentations of fact or that the defendants knew of such misrepresentations.
These allegations do not give rise to a strong inference that the defendants or their lawyers had any intent to defraud the plaintiff. Further, the lack of detail regarding the time, place, speaker, and content of the alleged misrepresentations underline that the plaintiff has failed to allege sufficient facts to support a strong inference that the defendants intended to defraud the plaintiff. Accordingly, the defendants' motion to dismiss Count VII is
The Court has considered all of the arguments of the parties. To the extent not specifically addressed above, the remaining arguments are either moot or without merit. For the foregoing reasons, the defendants' motion to dismiss is
The Court has considered the sur-reply filed by the plaintiff, which does not affect the outcome of this motion. The defendants' motion to strike this document is
The Clerk is directed to close all open motions.