VALERIE CAPRONI, United States District Judge:
This is a putative class action against TD Bank related to overdraft fees on Automated Clearing House ("ACH") transactions. Plaintiffs are checking-account customers who allege that TD Bank improperly charged them non-sufficient fund ("NSF") fees. Am. Compl. (Dkt. 28) ¶¶ 1, 13-14. According to Plaintiffs, TD Bank may not charge a second or third NSF fee when previously-rejected transfer requests are resubmitted to TD Bank. Id. ¶¶ 5-6. Plaintiffs allege breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, consumer fraud under New York General Business Law ("GBL") § 349, and unjust enrichment. Id. ¶¶ 9-12. TD Bank has moved to dismiss all four claims, arguing, primarily, that the applicable contract expressly authorizes the conduct alleged. Mot. (Dkt. 31); see TD Bank's Mem. of Law (Dkt. 32) at 1-2. For the following reasons, TD Bank's motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED part.
The Deposit Account Agreement and incorporated Personal Fee Schedule (together, the "Agreement") govern Plaintiffs' relationship with TD Bank. Am. Compl. Sect. B ¶¶ 24, 34; see Compl. (Dkt. 4) Exs. A, B.
Ex. B at 1; Am. Compl. Sect. B ¶ 32. The Deposit Account Agreement, in turn, defines "item":
Ex. A at 7; Am. Compl. Sect. B ¶ 27 (emphasis added).
Plaintiff Perks alleges that he attempted to make three one-time PayPal transfers via ACH transactions. Am. Compl. Sect. A ¶¶ 17, 22. TD Bank rejected all three transfers and charged him a $35 NSF fee for each one because Perks's account lacked sufficient funds. Id. ¶¶ 18, 23. A week later, PayPal resubmitted those transactions for payment, and TD Bank rejected them again, incurring another round of NSF fees. Id. ¶¶ 19, 24.
Plaintiff Navarro-Reyes alleges a similar experience: he submitted three ACH transactions, TD Bank rejected them, and the intermediary resubmitted them a week later. Id. ¶¶ 29-31, 34-36. There were still insufficient funds in the account to cover the transactions; TD Bank again rejected the transactions and charged additional fees for each. Id. ¶¶ 31, 36.
To survive a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), "a complaint must allege sufficient facts, taken as true, to state a plausible claim for relief." Johnson v. Priceline.com, Inc., 711 F.3d 271, 275 (2d Cir. 2013) (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555-56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). "[A] complaint does not need to contain detailed or elaborate factual allegations, but only allegations sufficient to raise an entitlement to relief above the speculative level." Keiler v. Harlequin Enters., Ltd., 751 F.3d 64, 70 (2d Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). The Court accepts all factual allegations in the complaint as true and draws all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Gibbons v. Malone, 703 F.3d 595, 599 (2d Cir. 2013). The Court is not required, however, "to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955).
At issue is TD Bank's right to impose an NSF fee when a rejected ACH transaction is resubmitted to TD Bank for processing. This issue turns on the definition of "item" in the Agreement. Plaintiffs assert that the original submission and all resubmissions of an ACH transaction constitute a single "item," and, as such, may incur only a single NSF fee. See Am. Compl. Sect. B ¶¶ 29-31; Pls.' Resp. Opp. (Dkt. 41) at 5. TD Bank argues that the Agreement expressly authorizes it to assess NSF fees on each submission and resubmission of a transaction. See TD Bank's Mem. of Law at 6. Because the Court finds both interpretations reasonable, TD Bank's motion must be denied.
On a motion to dismiss, the Court may dismiss a breach of contract claim for failure to state a claim if the "plain language" of the contract contradicts or fails to support the plaintiff's allegations of breach. Orchard Hill Master Fund Ltd. v. SBA Commc'ns Corp., 830 F.3d 152, 156-58 (2d Cir. 2016). Any contractual ambiguities must be resolved in
The Court finds that the Agreement's definition of "item" is ambiguous. It states in relevant part: "An `item' includes a[n] ... ACH transaction ... and any other instruction or order for the payment, transfer, deposit or withdrawal of funds." Ex. A at 7 (emphasis added).
In short, the definition of "item" is ambiguous with regard to whether a resubmission of an ACH transaction is a separate item or is part of the same initial ACH transaction, and that ambiguity must be read in favor of Plaintiffs at this stage. Because Plaintiffs' proposed construction is a reasonable construction of the Agreement, Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged a breach resulting from multiple overdraft charges imposed as a result of resubmissions of a single ACH transaction.
The cases that TD Bank relies upon are clearly inapposite. The courts in Belfon, Gao, and HSBC Bank dismissed breach of contract claims because, unlike here, the plaintiff had not identified any contractual provision that was allegedly breached. See Belfon v. Credit Check Total Consumerinfo.com, Inc., No. 18-CV-408, 2018 WL
Under New York law, all contracts contain an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Fishoff v. Coty Inc., 634 F.3d 647, 653 (2d Cir. 2011). "Where the contract contemplates the exercise of discretion, this pledge includes a promise not to act arbitrarily or irrationally in exercising that discretion." Id. (quotation omitted). A claim for breach of the implied covenant "will be dismissed as redundant where the conduct allegedly violating the implied covenant is also the predicate for breach of covenant of an express provision of the underlying contract." Merryman v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 15-CV-9188, 2016 WL 5477776, at *11 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2016) (quoting Boart Longyear Ltd. v. All. Indus., Inc., 869 F.Supp.2d 407, 419 (S.D.N.Y. 2012)); see also Cruz v. FXDirectDealer, LLC, 720 F.3d 115, 125 (2d Cir. 2013).
Plaintiffs' breach of contract and breach of implied covenant claims are duplicative because they both arise from the same allegations that TD Bank imposed NSF fees on resubmitted ACH transactions. Plaintiffs' argument that TD Bank breached the implied covenant by using its discretion to interpret the ambiguous contract terms in bad faith is simply a repackaging of their breach-of-contract theory. See Pls.' Resp. Opp. at 14. The implied covenant of good faith is directed to the parties' promised performances, not their interpretations of the contract. See CIT Bank, N.A. v. Nwanganga, 328 F.Supp.3d 189, 200 (S.D.N.Y. 2018) ("To show a breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, [a plaintiff] must provide facts which tend to show that [the defendant] sought to prevent performance of the contract or to withhold its benefits from [the plaintiff]." (quotation omitted)). When one party to a contract advances an interpretation that the other party disagrees with, breach of the express provision of the contract is the appropriate cause of action.
For substantially the same reasons, the Court dismisses Plaintiffs' GBL § 349 claim because it is duplicative of their breach-of-contract claim. "To state
It is well settled that a claim for unjust enrichment will not lie if the parties have a contract. Although an exception to that rule exists when there is a question whether the contract is valid, that exception does not apply here. See In re Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Litig., No. 19-CV-1578, 2019 WL 7187111, at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 26, 2019) ("Where a plaintiff fails to allege that the contract at issue is invalid or unenforceable ... a claim for [unjust enrichment] is precluded.") (citing Air Atlanta Aero Eng'g Ltd. v. SP Aircraft Owner I, LLC, 637 F.Supp.2d 185, 196 (S.D.N.Y. 2009)).
For the reasons stated above, TD Bank's motion to dismiss is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The parties are ordered to meet and confer and submit a joint letter and proposed Case Management Plan and Scheduling Order no later than
The Clerk of Court is respectfully instructed to close docket entries 31 and 52.