Bright v. Asset Acceptance, LLC

292 F.R.D. 190, 2013 WL 3990817, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108432
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedAugust 1, 2013
DocketCivil No. 11-5846 (JBS/JS)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 292 F.R.D. 190 (Bright v. Asset Acceptance, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bright v. Asset Acceptance, LLC, 292 F.R.D. 190, 2013 WL 3990817, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108432 (D.N.J. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

SIMANDLE, Chief Judge:

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the court on the motion of Plaintiff Jeffrey Bright (“Plaintiff’) for class certification [Docket Item 41] and his motion to seal confidential documents [Docket Item 40]. The Defendant Asset Acceptance, LLC (“Defendant” or “Asset”) filed opposition to the motion for class certification. Oral argument was held on May 22, 2013.

In this action, Plaintiff alleges Defendant violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) when Asset called New Jersey consumers from a telephone number which falsely displayed the name “Warranty Services” on the consumers’ caller identification devices. As a result, Plaintiff alleges consumers were misled about the identity of the caller as a debt collection agency in di[193]*193rect violation of the FDCPA. Plaintiff brought the instant action on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated and now seeks class certification. [Docket Item 3.]

For the reasons set forth below, the Plaintiffs motion for class certification will be denied.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Defendant Asset Acceptance, LLC, collects debt. (Deck of Sergei Lemberg, Ex. B, Supp. Int. 2.) To collect debt, Asset calls delinquent debtors who are frequently hard to reach. (Langusch Tr. 22:8-23:9.)

In January 2005, Asset acquired Plaintiff Bright’s account for an unpaid cell phone bilk (Supp. Int. 7.) The original creditor of this account was Sprint PCS. (Pl.’s Ex. E, Dep. of Kenneth Proctor (“Proctor Dep.”) at 80:1-15.) According to Asset’s collection database, the statute of limitations on Bright’s account had expired in October, 2003. (Id. at 81:9-22.) Bright first spoke with Asset on February 25, 2011. (Pl.’s Ex. F, Bright Account Notes, 2/25/2011 12:34 PM entry.) Bright informed Asset he did not remember the account and requested documentation of the Sprint debt. (Id.)

Over the next several months, Asset continued to call Bright. (See generally Pl.’s Ex. F, Bright Account Notes.) One such call occurred on June 13, 2011. (Proctor Dep. at 92:25-93:19.) On this call, the name “Warranty Services,” not “Asset Acceptance,” appeared on Plaintiffs caller identification display along with the telephone number 443-550-7962. (Bright Aff. at ¶¶6-8 and Caller ID photo attached as Bright Ex. A.) Plaintiff did not answer this phone call and Asset left a message for Bright which correctly disclosed that the call was from “Asset Acceptance.” (Def.’s Ex. 2, Deck of Kenneth Proctor (“Proctor Deck”) at ¶ 15.) Plaintiff testified in his deposition that had the caller ID displayed the correct name, “Asset Acceptance,” rather than “Warranty Services,” he would have answered the phone calk (Def.’s Ex. 5, Deposition of Jeffrey Bright (“Bright Dep.”) at 77:1-25.) In other words, the Plaintiff would not have avoided answering the phone if he knew Asset was calling rather than “Warranty Services.”

In opposition to this motion for class certification, Defendant relies on the Declaration of Christopher Gillen, the Operations Manager of Omega Services, LLC (“Omega”). Non-party Omega provides caller ID display services to its clients, including Asset. (Def.’s Ex. 1, Deck of Christopher Gillen (“Gillen Deck”) at ¶ 10.) Asset has a Master Services Agreement with Omega wherein Omega agreed to provide Asset with caller ID display and management services for Asset’s use in Asset’s customer contact centers. (Id.; Pl.’s Ex. C., Master Services Agreement.) For purposes of caller ID, companies are allowed to register a name of up to 15 characters to be associated with their telephone numbers, commonly referred to as a “CNAM.” (Gillen Deck ¶ 5.) Omega assigns telephone numbers to Asset for use at Asset’s calling centers and registers those numbers and the CNAM Asset wants associated with those numbers in two separate databases operated by different Signaling System Seven Providers (“SS7 Provider”). (Gillen Deck ¶¶ 6,11.)

Caller ID services provide additional information by associating the number called from with a caller name. (Gillen Deck ¶ 5.) Local Exchange Carriers (“LEC”), or phone providers, such as Comcast or AT & T, contract with an SS7 provider in order to access a number’s CNAM for caller ID service. At the time of an incoming call, the LEC makes an inquiry searching the SS7 provider’s database to learn the CNAM associated with the phone number and display it on a caller ID device. (Gillen Deck ¶¶ 6-7.) Omega registers CNAMs in separate databases operated by two different SS7 providers.

Omega acquired the right to assign the 443-550-7962 telephone number from Na-tionsline which previously owned the 7962 number. (Gillen Deck ¶ 12.) Omega first assigned the 7962 number to a company named IGPEN, Inc., and updated a calling name database to associate the CNAM “Warranty Services” with the 7962 number. (Gil-len Deck ¶ 12.) IGPEN stopped using the number on or about September 3, 2008. (Id.)

[194]*194Ten months later, on or about July 20, 2009, Omega assigned the 7962 number to Asset for Asset’s exclusive use. (Gillen Decl. ¶ 14.) Asset then requested Omega to associate the 7962 number with the CNAM “AACC,” the abbreviation for Asset’s parent company, Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (Gillen Decl. ¶ 14.) On July 9, 2010, Asset accessed Omega’s Caller ID management tool through the Internet and instructed the name associated with the 7962 number be changed from “AACC” to “ASSETACCEP-TANCE.” (Gillen Decl. ¶ 15.) Omega processed Asset’s request the same day by registering the new name in the SS7 provider’s database. (Gillen Decl. ¶ 15; Def.’s Ex. 4, Declaration of Donna Kingdon (“Kingdon Decl.”) ¶ 4.) Since July 9, 2010, Asset has sought periodic confirmation from Omega that the CNAM associated with the 7962 number remained “ASSETACCEPTANCE” and Omega continually confirms this information. (Gillen Decl. ¶ 19.) There is no evidence in the record that Asset instructed Omega to associate the CNAM “Warranty Services” with the 7962 number. Asset alleges that it had duly registered its correct name, through Omega, in the SS7 provider’s database and that Plaintiffs own telephone service provider—Comcast—is responsible for failing to update its caller ID database accordingly, so that Comcast displayed the “Warranty Services” name due to its use of the outdated database.

In support of his motion for class certification, Plaintiff Bright submitted the affidavit of Jay Shell, the Director of Information Technology at Asset until May 2011. (Decl. of Jay Shell (“Shell Decl”) ¶ 2.) Shell confirmed that Omega provides its clients, including Asset, a computerized interface that enables the clients to change the outbound caller ID as well as the name of the caller appearing on the recipient’s caller ID. (Id. at ¶ 7.) Shell also corroborated Gillen’s declaration that Local Exchange Carriers, such as Comcast or AT & T, “dip” into a database in order to update the caller ID for their customers and the Local Exchange Carriers are responsible for updating the caller ID list for their customers. (Id. at ¶ 9.) However, Shell stated that the CNAM database was a national database whereas Defendant’s witness, Christopher Gillen, declared that there are multiple SS7 Providers that maintain CNAM databases and Local Exchange Carriers contract with different SS7 Providers to access their databases. Gillen also stated that Omega updates CNAM information on two different SS7 databases.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
292 F.R.D. 190, 2013 WL 3990817, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bright-v-asset-acceptance-llc-njd-2013.