Clark v. Capital Credit & Collection Services, Inc.

561 F. Supp. 2d 1213, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45834, 2008 WL 2404940
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedJune 11, 2008
DocketCivil 03-340-JE
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 561 F. Supp. 2d 1213 (Clark v. Capital Credit & Collection Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Capital Credit & Collection Services, Inc., 561 F. Supp. 2d 1213, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45834, 2008 WL 2404940 (D. Or. 2008).

Opinion

ORDER

JOHN JELDERKS, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiffs Linda Clark and Jerry Clark seek an award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $192,567.50 and costs in the amount of $5,720.01 from defendants Capital Credit & Collection Services, Inc. (Capital Credit); Janine Brumley, an employee of Capital Credit (collectively “Capital Credit defendants”); and Jeffrey Hasson. 1

BACKGROUND

The background to this action is fully set out in an Opinion and Order filed by this court, Clark v. Capital Credit, CV 03-340 (D.Or. Jan. 4, 2004), and in a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Clark v. Capital Credit, 460 F.3d 1162 (9th Cir.2006). I will therefore review the background only briefly here.

Plaintiffs filed this action in March, 2003, alleging that defendants had violated various provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq., and the Oregon Unfair Debt Collection Practices Act (UDCPA), O.R.S. § 646.639 et seq. On their federal claim, plaintiffs sought recovery of $150,000 in general damages, recovery of the “actual damages,” and statutory damages in the amount of $1,000 from each *1216 defendant for each plaintiff. On their state claim, plaintiffs sought recovery of their actual damages, or, in the alternative, $200 from each defendant. Plaintiffs sought punitive damages on the state claim, and sought recovery of attorney’s fees and costs under both claims.

In an Opinion and Order filed on January 23, 2004, 2004 WL 1305326, I denied plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment, granted defendant Hasson’s motion for summary judgment, and granted the Capital Credit defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to most of plaintiffs’ claims. I denied the Capital Credit defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs’ claim that was based upon a telephone call defendant Brumley made to Ms. Clark on July 30, 2002. Though I concluded that plaintiffs had waived objection to the call itself because Ms. Clark had telephoned defendant Hasson’s office seeking additional information, I concluded that material issues of fact existed as to the scope and nature of defendant Brum-ley’s communication with Ms. Clark during the call.

On February 10, 2004, before the remaining issue was tried, plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal of this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On February 23, 2004, after plaintiffs’ counsel had expended 21.8 hours of work on the appeal, plaintiffs moved to dismiss the appeal. I granted the motion. Plaintiffs now assert that they were required “to resolve the residual claim at trial as a predicate to appeal” because defendants would not “accept[ ] appeal without trial of the residual claim.... ” Plaintiffs’ memorandum in support of motion for attorney’s fees at 7. They further assert that the “first appeal sought to avoid trial of the residual issue for which defendants now dispute liability.” Plaintiffs’ reply memo in support of motion for attorney’s fees at 6.

Plaintiffs’ remaining claim was tried in a three-day jury trial that concluded with a defense verdict on May 28, 2004. A judgment and amended judgment were subsequently entered in defendants’ favor, and costs in the amount of $1,794.50 were awarded in defendants’ favor. Defendants’ motion to recover attorney’s fees was denied.

Plaintiffs appealed, and defendants cross-appealed. Plaintiffs appealed the rulings on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment, and defendants appealed the denial of their motion to recover attorney’s fees.

In two separate opinions filed on August 24, 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the action to this court for further proceedings. In a Memorandum opinion, 198 Fed.Appx. 623, the Court of Appeals affirmed the granting of summary judgment in the defendants’ favor as to plaintiffs’ claims brought pursuant to 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692g(b) and 1692e(3) and pursuant to the UDCPA, and affirmed the denial of defendants’ motion to recover attorney’s fees. In a published opinion, 460 F.3d 1162, the Court of Appeals affirmed this court’s conclusion that defendant Hasson could not be liable for defendant Brumley’s July 30, 2002 telephone call to plaintiff Linda Clark, but reversed as to the conclusion that Ms. Clark had necessarily waived objection to the call. The Court of Appeals also reversed the grant of summary judgment on plaintiffs’ claim that defendants violated 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2)(a), which prohibits false representation of “the character, amount, or legal status of any debt,” and as to plaintiffs’ claim under §§ 1692d, 1692f(l), and 1692g(a)(l). The Court of Appeals also concluded that this court had erred in failing to evaluate the merits of plaintiffs’ motion to compel before addressing the merits of the parties’ motions for summary *1217 judgment. In the conclusion of its published opinion, the Court of Appeals noted that

This case presents a complicated web of problems that has required us to address a litany of issues for which there is a dearth of applicable precedent.

Clark, 460 F.3d at 1179.

On November 8, 2007, after the action was remanded to this court, the parties resolved the substantive portion of their dispute during a settlement conference conducted by Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin. Under the terms of the settlement, defendant Hasson agreed to pay plaintiffs $7,500, and the Capital Credit defendants agreed to pay plaintiffs $7,500. The parties agreed that defendants would present plaintiffs an offer of judgment reflecting these amounts, that plaintiffs would accept the offer, and that a judgment dismissing this action with prejudice would ultimately be entered. The agreement provided that an outstanding bill of costs in the approximate amount of $1,800, which had been pending since a judgment was rendered in defendants’ favor before the appeal, would be deemed satisfied. The agreement further provided that plaintiffs could seek an award of plaintiffs’ reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, and that I would determine the amount of fees and costs that would be awarded. Judge Coffin agreed with Hasson’s counsel’s assertion that the petition for fees and the request for costs would be divided into two parts, separately specifying the amounts sought from the Capital defendants and the amounts sought from defendant Has-son. Judge Coffin also agreed with plaintiffs’ counsel’s request that he be allowed to request fees and costs from all defendants in a single petition which separated the amounts sought from Hasson and the Capital Credit defendants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
561 F. Supp. 2d 1213, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45834, 2008 WL 2404940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-capital-credit-collection-services-inc-ord-2008.