Basora v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

202 F. Supp. 3d 1328, 2016 WL 4059719, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99635
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedJuly 29, 2016
DocketCase No. 16-civ-60999
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 202 F. Supp. 3d 1328 (Basora v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Basora v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 202 F. Supp. 3d 1328, 2016 WL 4059719, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99635 (S.D. Fla. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS

MARCIA G. COKKE, United Stated District Judge

Plaintiff Ricardo Basora (“Plaintiff”) initiated this action against Defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“Defendant” or “Chase”). Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss Complaint (ECF No. 7), arguing that Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Plaintiff filed his Response to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 11), to which Defendant filed its Reply in Support of Motion to Dismiss Complaint (ECF No. 27). After reviewing Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, the Response and Reply thereto, the record, and relevant legal authorities, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Complaint is granted.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges that Chase violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq (“RESPA”) and its implementing regulations, 12 C.F.R. § 1024 (“Regulation X”). See generally, Compl., ECF No. 1-1. On January 22, 2016, Plaintiff, through counsel, sent a Qualified Written Request (“QWR”) containing both a Notice of Error and Request for Information to Chase. Id. at ¶ 7. However, Chase failed to acknowledge receipt of Plaintiffs QWR. Id. Plaintiff, through counsel, then sent a second QWR to Chase on March 18, 2016. Id. at ¶ 12. Chase again failed to respond. Id. Thus, Plaintiff alleges that Chase violated its obligations under RESPA by continually failing to respond to Plaintiffs correspondence. Id. at ¶ 13.

In response, Chase argues that this case must be dismissed for failure to state a claim because Plaintiff failed to send his QWRs to the specific address Chase designated to receive such requests. See ECF No. 7. Chase designated P.O. Box 183166, Columbus, OH 43218-3166 as the address to which borrowers must send any QWRs. Chase published this address on its website. However, Plaintiff sent his QWRs to a different address, P.O. Box 24696, Columbus, OH 43224-0696.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a complaint may be dismissed for “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). In order to state a claim, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) requires “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). The complaint must “give the defendant fair notice of what the [ ] claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 545, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (citations omitted). “While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiffs obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Id. “To survive a motion to dismiss, a [1330]*1330complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

At this stage in the litigation, the Court must consider the factual allegations in the Complaint as true and accept all reasonable inferences therefrom. Jackson v. Oka-loosa CrOy., Fla., 21 F.3d 1531, 1534 (11th Cir.1994). Nevertheless, the Court may grant a motion to dismiss when, “on the basis of a dispositive issue of law, no construction of the factual allegations will support the cause of action.” Marshall Only. Bd. of Edue. v. Marshall Cray. Gas Disk, 992 F.2d 1171,1174 (11th Cir.1993).

III. DISCUSSION

“A plaintiff states a cause of action under RESPA if the plaintiff alleges that he or she sent a ‘qualified written request’ to a mortgage servicer and the mortgage servicer failed to take proper action in response to the request as specified under the Act.” Rodriguez v. Seterus, Inc., 2015 WL 5677182, at *5 (S.D.Fla. Sept. 28, 2015); see 12 U.S.C. § 2605(e). Two regulatory provisions, 12 C.F.R. §§ 1024.35(c) and 1024.36(b), specifically govern QWRs. “Section 1024.35(c) governs QWRs by bor-l'owers seeking to assert errors with their mortgage and § 1024.36(b) governs QWRs by borrowers seeking information on their mortgage.” Best v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, 2016 WL 125875, at *2 (E.D.Mich. 2016). More specifically, section 1024.35(c) provides:

A servicer may, by written notice provided to a borrower, establish an address that a borrower must use to submit a notice of error in accordance with the procedures in this section. The notice shall include a statement that the borrower must use the established address to assert an error. If a servicer designates a specific address for receiving notices of error, the servicer shall designate the same address for receiving information requests pursuant to § 1024.36(b).

12 C.F.R. § 1024.35(c).

The abovementioned regulations set out strict guidelines that borrowers must adhere to. “If a servicer establishes a QWR mailing address and provides it to a borrower by written notice, ‘a borrower must use’ the designated address to submit a QWR.” Best, 2016 WL 125875, at *2. Consequently, “[f]ailure to send the QWR to the designated address ‘for receipt and handling of [QWRs]’ does not trigger the servicer’s duties under RESPA.” Id. (quoting Bemeike v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 708 F.3d 1141, 1149 (10th Cir.2013)) (applying a prior version of Regulation X promulgated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”)).

Plaintiff first argues that Chase relied upon an outdated version of Regulation X, promulgated by HUD and codified as 24 C.F.R. § 3500, in support of its argument that’s its response obligations were never triggered since Plaintiff sent his QWRs to the incorrect address. Originally, the task of promulgating RESPA regulations fell to HUD. Under 24 C.F.R. § 3500

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202 F. Supp. 3d 1328, 2016 WL 4059719, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/basora-v-jpmorgan-chase-bank-na-flsd-2016.