Kort v. Diversified Collection Services, Inc.Kort v. Diversified Collection Services, Inc.
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Gettleman
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
In her class action complaint,
1
plaintiff Elizabeth Kort, individually and on behalf
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of all others similarly situated, alleges that Diversified Collection Services, Inc. (“DCS”), a California corporation, violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, (“FDCPA”),
FACTS 2
Defendant is a collection agency that collects delinquent student loans for various creditors. Defendant’s operations include a student loan department that engages in a full range of collection services on behalf of defendant’s clients, including telephone contact with borrowers to negotiate repayment arrangements and recommending to clients that accounts be put into administrative wage garnishment. When a client, either at defendant’s suggestion or on its own initiative, requests that a defaulting borrower be subjected to wage garnishment, defendant’s administrative wage garnishment department prints and mails a 30 day notice to the defaulting borrower indicating that garnishment will occur unless specified actions are taken.
On February 5, 2000, defendant printed a letter addressed to plaintiff entitled, “NOTICE PRIOR TO WAGE WITHHOLDING,” to collect a loan to plaintiff by defendant’s client, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (“ISAC”). The envelope containing the letter is postmarked February 7, 2000. The relevant portion of the letter read as follows:
You are given notice that Illinois Student Assistance Commission, pursuant to Federal Law (Public Law 102-164;20 U.S.C. § 1095a et seq. ), will order your employer to immediately withhold money from your pay (a process known as “wage garnishment”) for payment of your defaulted student loan(s), unless you take the action set forth in this Notice.
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You must establish a written repayment agreement with Diversified Collection Services (DCS) on or before March 6, 2000; otherwise, Illinois Student Assistance Commission will proceed to collect this debt through deductions from your pay. Unless you act by March 6, 2000, your employer will be ordered to deduct from your pay an amount equal to no more than 10% of your “disposable pay” for each pay period, or the amount permitted by 15 U.S.C. 1673 (unless you give Illinois Student Assistance Commission written consent to deduct a greater amount) to repay your student loan(s) held by your guarantor....
*1021 The letter then states that plaintiff has the opportunity to avoid wage garnishment by “immediately remitting the balance in full or by entering into a written repayment agreement with DCS to establish a satisfactory schedule for the repayment” of the debt. It informs plaintiff that she has a right to object to the garnishment and has an opportunity to request a hearing on her objection. The letter further explains a borrower’s right to an exemption if the borrower has been involuntarily separated from employment:
If you document that you have been involuntarily separated from employment, Illinois Student Assistance Commission will not garnish your wages until you have been re-employed continuously for twelve (12) months. If you wish to claim this exemption from wage garnishment, you will need to complete Part II of the enclosed Request for Hearing form and send us written proof that you qualify for the exemption by March 6, 2000. Satisfactory “written proof’ is the following: documents from the applicable Employment Commission (or a similar agency in another state) indicating your entitlement to unemployment compensation, and a statement from your present employer indicating the date you began work at your present job. If you are not covered under a state’s unemployment program (even if involuntarily separated from employment), you must provide a statement to that effect from the state unemployment agency. Failure to provide written proof may result in your claim of exemption being rejected as unsubstantiated. (Emphasis in original).
A form entitled “REQUEST FOR HEARING” is attached to the letter. Part I of the form allows the borrower to choose a written, in person, or telephonic hearing. Part II is entitled, “REASONS WHY YOU OBJECT TO GARNISHMENT” and states:
Check one or more reasons that apply. Explain any further facts concerning your objection(s) on a separate sheet of paper. You have the burden of proving any claims raised by your objection(s). The hearing on your objection(s) will be conducted based on the information on this form, any documentation you provide, and the documentation maintained by Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Please note that failure to provide written proof of your objection(s) may result in a hearing official issuing a decision to deny your objection as unsubstantiated.
The first choice provided contains a box that may be checked and states, “I was involuntarily separated from employment and have not been re-employed continuously for twelve (12) months.” It continues:
If you are covered under a state’s unemployment program, you must submit this form along with documents from your state Employment Commission [or a similar agency in another state] indicating your entitlement to unemployment compensation, and a statement from your present employer indicating the date you began work at your present job. If you are not covered under a state’s unemployment program (even if involuntarily separated from employment), you must provide a statement to that effect from the state unemployment agency. Please note that failure to provide written proof may result in a decision by the hearing official to deny your objection.
Below this statement, the borrower is provided with a space to indicate his or her previous and present employers’ names, addresses and telephone numbers and the date of separation and hire. The letter is identical to a form notice of administrative wage garnishment drafted in 1998 by the *1022 U.S. Department of Education (“DOE”). The DOE requires student loan guaranty agencies to use this form when seeking to garnish the wages of borrowers who have defaulted on a guaranteed student loan under the HEA’s Federal Family Education Loan Program. Only the name of the borrower, guaranty agency and the dates vary with each instance of the form mailed. In the instant case, ISAC provided this form to DCS, which used it in its mailings to plaintiff and class members. Although the form letter is intended to give its recipient thirty days’ notice of garnishment, both plaintiff and members of the sub-class referred to in Count I were mailed letters postmarked less than thirty days before the date garnishment might begin as indicated in the letter.
Plaintiff claims that the letter violates § 1692e and § 1692e(5) of the FDCPA. Specifically, plaintiff asserts that the letter threatens to garnish plaintiffs wages sooner than defendant is legally entitled to do so, and misrepresents the date by which she must act to avoid wage garnishment. In Count II, plaintiff claims that the portion of the letter discussing the criteria for possible exemption from wage garnishment violates § 1692e because it requires plaintiff to document or provide written proof of her eligibility for an exemption by a specific deadline although she is not required to do so. Plaintiff contends that because of the violations of the FDCPA, she is entitled to statutory damages, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees as provided by
Defendant asserts that the provisions of the HEA and the FDCPA are in conflict and cannot be harmonized. As the more specific statute, HEA controls and, therefore, loan servicers under the HEA are not statutory debt collectors under § 1692a of the FDCPA. Defendant also argues that as a company that merely prints, addresses and mails a collection letter authored by its client, it is not a statutory debt collector for FDCPA purposes. Defendant next asserts that the letter, whether mailed on the day printed or not, does not misstate plaintiffs and class members’ rights under the FDCPA because, (1) the date by which the letter’s recipient must act is not necessarily the date on which garnishment would begin, and (2) the proof requirement for the unemployment exemption in the letter cannot violate the HEA because it was authored by the DOE, which in doing so was giving its authoritative interpretation of the HEA as the administrative agency Congress empowered to administer the statute. Finally, even if DOE’s interpretation as expressed in the form is inaccurate, defendant asserts a bona fide error defense under
DISCUSSION
A movant is entitled to summary judgment under
Count I
Defendant’s argument as to Count I asserts that specific provisions of the HEA and the FDCPA conflict and cannot be harmonized. According to defendant, the
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HEA, as the more specific statute, controls, and the provisions of the FDCPA do not apply at all to student loan servicers like DCS. In particular, defendant notes that while the HEA regulations require a collection agency acting for a loan guarantor to send the borrower several written notices and to diligently attempt to contact the borrower by phone to demand repayment,
When two federal statutes appear to conflict, absent a clearly expressed Congressional intention to the contrary, it is the duty of the courts to harmonize them where possible.
Morton v. Mancari,
In balancing the need for local regulation of collection activity on GSL obligations against the public need for efficient and effective collection activity, the Secretary took particular note of the existence of Federal law that regulated the conduct of these third party collectors of defaulted student loans. These debt collectors were subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. 1692-1692o, prior to the promulgation of these GSL regulations, and even under these preempting regulations, they remain subject to the FDCPA. Thus while the GSL regulations preempt inconsistent State laws regarding pre-litigation collection activity, significant Federal protection for GSL debtors remains under the FDCPA. Id.
The Secretary’s statement led the Ninth Circuit to hold that private guaranty agencies attempting to collect guaranteed student loans are subject to the FDCPA. Id. at 1262. That same reasoning leads this court to hold that private guaranteed student loan debt collectors are subject to the FDCPA.
Next, relying on
Laubach v. Arrow Service Bureau, Inc.,
Defendant further argues that the letter in the instant case did not run afoul of the FDCPA in any event because nowhere in the letter does it state that initiation of proceedings for wage garnishment would occur on March 6, 2000, less than thirty days from the date the letter was postmarked. Thus, defendant argues that the letter accurately describes the garnishment procedures contained in
Although the letter does not specifically state that wage garnishment proceedings would commence on any particular date, or would take place before the requisite 30 day notice period was complete, defendant’s form letter sets a March 6 deadline by which plaintiff must take certain actions. Guaranty agencies are not required by statute to provide a specific deadline for establishing a repayment plan, full remittance, or even the commencement of wage garnishment (30 days notice is all that is statutorily required). If a deadline is gratuitously established, however, it must not be misleading to the unsophisticated consumer.
See e.g. Moore v. Fidelity Financial Services, Inc.,
In the instant case, in denying defendant’s motion to dismiss, this court has already held that the insertion of the March 6 date could lead an unsophisticated consumer to read the statement, “you are given notice that [ISAC] ... will order your employer to immediately withhold money from your pay ... unless you take the action set forth in this Notice,” coupled with the statement, “[y]ou must establish a written repayment agreement with [DCS] on or before March 6, 2000; otherwise, [ISAC] will proceed to collect this debt through deductions from your pay,” to be
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lieve that a wage garnishment could begin immediately following March 6, 2000.
Kort v. Diversified Collection Services, Inc.,
In the Seventh Circuit, whether a collection letter would mislead an unsophisticated consumer is a question of fact and not law.
Walker v. National Recovery, Inc.,
Indeed, other Seventh Circuit cases have affirmed summary judgment for the plaintiffs or granted judgment for the plaintiffs on the issue of confusion on the face of a collection letter without requiring additional evidence or a trial, and there is no indication that
Walker
was intended to overrule them.
Bartlett v. Heibl,
Other courts in this district have held that, absent an outright contradiction on the face of the letter, extrinsic evidence may be required to show that unsophisticated consumers are in fact misled.
Chuway v. National Action Financial Services, Inc.,
Count II
Defendant asserts a bona fide error defense as to Count II.
Plaintiff argues in response that adoption of defendant’s argument would mean that any violation of the FDCPA would satisfy the conditions for the bona fide error defense. It is difficult to see why. Defendant has argued each element of the affirmative defense by reference to specific facts which would not be present in every putative FDCPA violation. For example, a deliberate attempt to violate the FDCPA could not satisfy the unintentional act element of the bona fide error defense. Similarly, reliance on a client-authored form letter in circumstances where the collector knew or should have known that the author was an unreliable source of interpretation of the law could not satisfy the reasonable procedures element of the bona fide error defense.
Finally, plaintiff argues that only factual or clerical error, not legal error, can serve as the basis for a bona fide error defense, and that in any event blind reliance on a creditor client’s interpretation of the law cannot be considered a procedure reasonably adapted to avoid legal error. While courts are divided on whether the FDCPA bona fide error defense applies to mistakes of law, a growing minority of courts have concluded that mistakes of law can be considered bona fide errors.
Nielsen v. Dickerson,
Because this court itself would have to “give substantial deference to an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations,”
Brannan v. United Student Aid Funds, Inc.,
In the instant case, the undisputed evidence shows that the letters sent were identical to the form DOE required guarantors like ISAC to instruct their collection agencies to send. Thus, even if the DOE’s language concerning the steps plaintiff and class members must take to receive the unemployment exemption falls *1027 afoul of the FDCPA, any such error by DCS would be inadvertent. Reliance on DOE’s interpretation of the statute as expressed by its form letter would be a procedure reasonably adapted to avoid such error. Accordingly, plaintiffs motion for summary judgment as to Count II is denied and defendant’s cross-motion for summary judgment as to Count II is granted.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, plaintiffs motion for summary judgment pursuant to