Citibank (S.D.), N.A. v. Rhineer

30 Pa. D. & C.5th 402
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lancaster County
DecidedApril 26, 2013
DocketCI-11-03211
StatusPublished

This text of 30 Pa. D. & C.5th 402 (Citibank (S.D.), N.A. v. Rhineer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lancaster County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Citibank (S.D.), N.A. v. Rhineer, 30 Pa. D. & C.5th 402 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2013).

Opinion

ASHWORTH, J.,

— This matter is before the court on defendant Brian K. Rhineer’s preliminary objections to the complaint filed by plaintiff Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. For the reasons set forth below, these objections will be sustained and plaintiff will be permitted to file an amended complaint.

I. Procedural and Factual Background

Plaintiff filed a complaint on March 25, 2011, seeking to collect past due payments on a credit card allegedly issued to defendant Rhineer. Attached to the complaint as exhibit “A,” is a two-page document, which purports to be a monthly billing statement of an account with respect to a Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card. The document, which indicated a statement closing date of August 4, 2010, shows a “New Balance” of$20,059.12, a “Minimum Payment Due” of $20,059.12, a “Past Due Amount” of $1,931.96, and the “Interest Charged” as $74.77. (See complaint, exhibit “A.”) The statement describes the “Payment Due Date” as September 1, 2010. Id. No other [404]*404billing statements are attached to the complaint.

Plaintiff’s eight-paragraph complaint includes the following relevant averments:

4. Plaintiff furnished consumer credit to the defendant by means of a(n) CITI MASTERCARD credit card with account number ending in 5819 hereinafter referred to as the credit card account.
5. Plaintiff kept accurate running records of all debits and credits to the account.
6. Plaintiff mailed to defendant monthly statements for the account including the billing statement attached hereto as Exhibit A. The monthly statements accurately stated the previous balance, the debits and credits to the account for the prior billing period.
7. Before plaintiff mailed Exhibit A, defendant had for many months made payments on the account of the billing statement or retained the statement without payment.
8. Defendant’s actions as set forth above constituted an account stated between parties for the sum of $20,043.12 which sum reflects the Exhibit A statement balance less credits, if any, which were applied subsequent to the date of Exhibit A.

(See complaint at ¶¶ 4-8 (emphasis in original).) It is with these bare allegations that plaintiff purports to establish an account stated relationship with defendant entitling it to accrue an interest rate of 29.99%. (Id., exhibit “A.”)

Defendant filed preliminary objections to the complaint [405]*405based upon the following purported deficiencies in the pleading: (1) no averment is made as to whether the alleged agreement between the parties is oral or written; (2) no copy of the underlying agreement or writing was attached to the complaint; (3) the complaint fails to plead or allege with specificity averments of time, place and items of special damage, or to attach documentation in support thereof; and (4) the complaint improperly pleads account stated. (See preliminary objections at ¶¶ 2-10.) Based upon these objections, defendant asks this court to dismiss the complaint with prejudice, or in the alternative, to order plaintiff to file an amended complaint.

Plaintiff filed an answer to the preliminary objections asserting, inter alia, that: (1) the cause of action is based on an account stated theory and not a breach of contract, as a consequence of which it was not required to attach to the complaint any documentation other than the last billing statement1; (2) exhibit “A,” a copy of defendant’s August 2010 billing statement, properly sets forth the total balance due and owing; and (3) “[t]he majority of the courts of common pleas throughout the Commonwealth that have decided on similar preliminary objections to plaintiff’s 11 [sic] paragraph complaint have ruled that plaintiff’s complaint is sufficient to allege the account stated cause of action on a consumer credit account and have ruled that the account stated can be applied to consumer credit accounts.”2 (See plaintiff’s answer to preliminary [406]*406objections at ¶¶ 1-10.) Thus, this matter raises the now familiar issue of whether a credit card collection case may proceed on an account stated theory “upon the pleading of facts too anemic to support a breach of contract cause of action.”3 Citibank, N.A. v. Hull, #380-2012CV, slip op. at 4 (Clinton Co., Aug. 23, 2012) (Miller, J.). Regrettably, our appellate courts have not yet answered this question4 and there is disagreement among the courts of common pleas on this issue.

Based upon areading of the relevant appellate precedent, and in accordance with the better-decided common pleas decisions, and the holdings of other members of this bench, this court continues to adhere to what appears to be the minority position in this Commonwealth that a plaintiff in a credit card collection case cannot escape the pleading formalities described in Atlantic Credit and Finance, Inc. v. Giuliana, 829 A.2d 340, 345 (Pa. Super. 2003), by characterizing its claim as one based on an account stated. See, for example, Citibank (South Dakota) N.A., Bank v. Ananiev, 13 Pa. D.&C.5th 557 (Monroe Co. 2010); Arrow Financial Services LLC v. Witmer, 59 Cumb.L.J. 154 [407]*407(2010) (Ebert, J.); Target National Bank/Target Visa v. Samanez, 156 Pitts. Leg. J. 76 (2007) (Wettick, J.); Calvary Portfolio Services, LLC v. Mostyn, No. 2010-3233 (Centre Co, Feb. 2011) (Lunsford, J.); Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. v. Knepp, No. 2010-1161 (Clearfield Co. 2010) (Ammerman, J.); Citibank, N.A. v. Hull, #380-2012CV (Clinton Co, Aug. 23, 2012) (Miller, J.); Arrow Financial Services LLC v. Witmer, No. 2009-6197 (Cumberland Co., May 13, 2010) (Ebert, J.); Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. v. Ross, No. 2010-5668 (Cumberland Co., April 18, 2011) (Masland, J.); Citibank, N.A. v. Wadas, No. 2012-1705 (Cumberland Co., June 14, 2012) (Peck, J.); Barclay Bank Delaware v. Kmetz, No. 1385 of 2011 G.D. (Fayette Co., April 4, 2012) (Warman, J.); Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. v. Opitz, No. 207-2010-C (Fulton Co., Sept. 17, 2010) (Van Horn, J.); Velocity Investments, LLC v. Kahanic, No. 11 CV 6995 (Lackawanna Co., May 1, 2012) (Nealon, J.); Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. v. Quick, No. CI-11-00954 (Lane. Co, Nov. 9, 2011) (Cullen, J.).

II. Discussion

Under Pennsylvania law,

an ‘account stated’ is just a variety of contract. It is an agreement between debtors and creditors. The parties agree to a consolidated statement of debt, give up their right to bring suit on any of the underlying debts, and create a duty to pay. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 282 (1981); Restatement of Contracts § 422(1) (1932). The ‘account stated’ is ‘a debt as a matter of contract implied by law. It is to be considered as one debt, and a recovery may be had upon it without regard to the [408]*408items which compose it.’ 29 Williston on Contracts § 73:58 (2007).

Richburg v. Palisades Collection LLC, 247 F.R.D. 457, 464-65 (E.D. Pa.

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Bluebook (online)
30 Pa. D. & C.5th 402, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citibank-sd-na-v-rhineer-pactcompllancas-2013.