Canterbury Career School, Inc. v. Riley

833 F. Supp. 1097, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14610, 1993 WL 409558
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedOctober 14, 1993
DocketCiv. A. 93-3843 (MLP)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 833 F. Supp. 1097 (Canterbury Career School, Inc. v. Riley) 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
Canterbury Career School, Inc. v. Riley, 833 F. Supp. 1097, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14610, 1993 WL 409558 (D.N.J. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

PARELL, District Judge.

This matter comes before the court on application by plaintiff, Canterbury Career Schools, Inc., for a preliminary injunction seeking (a) to prevent defendant, Richard W. Riley, in his official capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Education, from publishing or continuing to publish certain cohort default rates which plaintiff alleges have been erroneously calculated by defendant; (b) to mandate defendant to suspend these rates and publish appropriate notice of such suspension; and (c) for any other relief which the court deems just and proper. Also before the court is defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The following opinion constitutes the findings of the court on this application for preliminary relief and motion to dismiss. For the reasons stated, the preliminary injunction is granted and the motion to dismiss is denied.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff, Canterbury Career Schools, Inc., is a New Jersey corporation which operates a post-secondary school with its main campus located in Nevada and branch campuses located in California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Plaintiff provides career training for a variety of occupations, including tractor trailer driving, secretarial positions, medical support positions, bartending, word processing and a few technical careers. Since 1987 plaintiff has been accredited without interruption by the Accrediting Counsel for Continuing Education & Training. A substantial percentage of the students who attend plaintiffs schools are economically disadvantaged and, at the time of enrollment, many of these students are on welfare.

Approximately 72% of the students who enroll at plaintiffs school succeed in completing their courses of study and go on to graduate. Of those graduates, plaintiff is successful in placing approximately 88% in education-related jobs. 1 Plaintiff asserts that its school is reputed as providing students with quality education and for preparing those students to perform well in their chosen occupations

Defendant, Richard W. Riley, has been sued by plaintiff in his official capacity as the Secretary of the United States Department of Education. Defendant is responsible for administering and implementing the Federal Family Educational Loan programs (“FFEL”) authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. § 1070 et seq. Plaintiff has a Participation Agreement with the Secretary, in accordance with 20 U.S.C. § 1094, whereby plaintiff .is fully eligible to participate in the FFEL programs.

The purpose of the FFEL programs 2 is to enable students to obtain federally guaranteed loans. Under the FFEL programs, a student receives a loan from a participating lender, usually a bank, to pay tuition, fees and living expenses related to attendance at *1101 an eligible post-secondary institution. Repayment of the student loan is insured by a guaranty agency. 20 U.S.C. § 1078(b) — (c); 34 C.F.R. 682.100 and 682.401. In the event of default, the guaranty agency pays the lender the unpaid amount of the outstanding loan. The Department of Education (“DOE”) “re-insures” the guaranty agencies for payments made to the lenders. 20 U.S.C. § 1078(c); 34 C.F.R. 682.100 and 682.404.

However, in order for the lender to collect reimbursement from the guaranty agency on a defaulted loan, the lender must demonstrate that “due diligence” in the collection of the loan was properly performed 3 . Lenders must perform “due diligence” for a period of at least 180 days. 34 C.F.R. 682.411. This 180 day period begins either (1) 30 days after the lender discovers that the student borrower has entered the repayment period 4 or (2) the day after the student borrower misses a payment, whichever is later. 34 C.F.R. 682.-411(b). After the 180 day period has expired, the loan goes into default and the lender submits a claim to the guaranty agency for reimbursement. Before a reimbursement claim is paid, the guaranty agency is responsible for reviewing the lender’s records to ensure that the lender has, in fact, properly performed “due diligence”. 34 C.F.R. § 682.406(a)(1) and (3). If the lender has not properly performed “due diligence”, then the guaranty agency is not authorized to reimburse the lender. Once the guaranty agency pays a claim, it is required to employ collection or servicing efforts of its own before seeking reimbursement from DOE. 34 C.F.R. § 682.410(b)(4). If those efforts fail, then the guaranty agency may seek reimbursement from DOE.

Because of the increasing monetary drain on DOE in paying defaulted loans, Congress amended HE A in 1990 by passing the Student Loan Default Prevention Initiative Act (20 U.S.C. § 1085). The purpose of 20 U.S.C. § 1085 was to reduce the number of defaulted loans by revoking the eligibility of schools whose students had high rates of default. Section 1085 provides that any school whose “cohort default rate” (“CDR”) exceeds a certain threshold percentage 5 for three consecutive years loses its eligibility for participation in the FFEL program for the fiscal year in which the determination is made and for the two succeeding years. 20 U.S.C. 1085(a)(2)(A).

A school’s CDR is calculated by the Secretary of DOE by taking the number of current or former students who enter the repayment period in a given fiscal year and dividing that number by the number of those students who default by the end of the following fiscal year. 20 U.S.C. § 1085(m)(l)(A). As specifically set forth in the statute, the Secretary of DOE, in calculating a school’s CDR, is to “exclude any loans which, due to improper servicing or collection, would result in an inaccurate or incomplete calculation of the cohort default rate.” 20 U.S.C. § 1085(m)(l)(B).

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Bluebook (online)
833 F. Supp. 1097, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14610, 1993 WL 409558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/canterbury-career-school-inc-v-riley-njd-1993.