Ellis v. General Revenue Corp.

274 F.R.D. 53, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29744, 2011 WL 1106230
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedMarch 23, 2011
DocketNo. 3:09-cv-1089 (CFD)
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 274 F.R.D. 53 (Ellis v. General Revenue Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ellis v. General Revenue Corp., 274 F.R.D. 53, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29744, 2011 WL 1106230 (D. Conn. 2011).

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION AND MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

CHRISTOPHER F. DRONEY, District Judge.

I. Introduction

The plaintiffs, Cheryl Ellis and Gena Hamilton, both have student loans that went into default. The defendant, General Revenue Corp. (“GRC”), is the collection agency that attempted to collect the outstanding debt on behalf of the student loan guarantor. GRC sent letters to Ellis, Hamilton and the members of the purported classes telling them they could rehabilitate their defaulted student loans through a federal loan rehabilitation program by making nine consecutive monthly payments. The federal statute which governs the program provides that a loan is rehabilitated when the guarantor receives nine payments within ten months. Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit on July 8, 2009, alleging GRC’s characterization of the repayment schedule violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1692-1692p, and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (“CUTPA”), Conn. Gen. Stat. § 42-110a-42-110q.

[56]*56II. Background1

This ease arises from GRC’s alleged violations of the federal student loan rehabilitation program. (See 20 U.S.C. § 1078 — 6(a)(1) and 34 C.F.R. § 682.405.) Specifically, 34 C.F.R. § 682.405 states that in order for a borrower to rehabilitate a defaulted loan, “the borrower must voluntarily make at least nine of the ten payments required under a monthly repayment agreement,” and all nine payments must be “received within a ten-month period that begins with the month in which the first required due date falls and ends with the ninth consecutive calendar month following that month.”

Plaintiffs’ student loan debts were bought by a guarantor, United Student Aid Funds, Inc., that then referred both accounts to GRC for collection. The plaintiffs received letters from GRC offering them the opportunity to enter a loan rehabilitation program. Ellis received a loan rehabilitation offer letter on October 30, 2007 and Hamilton received the letter on April 2, 2008. The loan rehabilitation offer advises the borrower that:

Nine (9) consecutive monthly payments ... must be received timely____According to federal law, a loan may be considered eligible for rehabilitation only after you have made voluntary and reasonable payments for each of the 9 consecutive months. If a payment is received too late, too early, or for less than the agreed amount, this offer becomes null and void and the series of 9 payments must start over again. (Emphasis added.)

Ellis made seven consecutive payments beginning in October 2007, but then failed to make her May 2008 (eighth) payment. In July 2008, she agreed to a new loan rehabilitation program, this time with smaller monthly payments than before. On July 10, 2008, GRC sent Ellis the forms necessary to complete her application for the renewed program, and one of those forms repeated the disputed language. Although Ellis began making payments again, she did not initially return a signed copy of the agreement. GRC’s system automatically sent duplicate letters that repeated the disputed language until Ellis finally returned the agreement on May 11, 2009. This second time, Ellis made enough payments to qualify her loan for rehabilitation.

Hamilton made her first payment in April 2008. On April 2, 2008, GRC sent Hamilton a letter agreement to confirm her enrollment in the rehabilitation program, and it repeated the disputed language. Hamilton never executed the letter agreement, and so GRC continued to send her copies of the document. Hamilton made her first eight payments (through November 2008). She failed to make her December 2008 payment, which would have been her ninth and qualified her loan for rehabilitation. She never made any additional payments to GRC.

This lawsuit was filed on July 9, 2009. Plaintiffs move to certify the class, and GRC moves for summary judgment.

III. Applicable Law and Discussion

The Court will first address GRC’s motion for summary judgment, then the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification.

A. Summary Judgment

In a summary judgment motion, the burden is on the moving party to establish that there are no genuine disputes as to any material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 256, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); White v. ABCO Eng’g Corp., 221 F.3d 293, 300 (2d Cir.2000). Once the moving party has met its burden, in order to defeat the motion the nonmoving party must “set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial,” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, and present such evidence as would allow a jury to find in his favor. Graham v. Long Island R.R., 230 F.3d 34, 38 (2d Cir.2000).

In assessing the record, the trial court must resolve all ambiguities and draw all inferences in favor of the party against whom [57]*57summary judgment is sought. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505; Graham, 230 F.3d at 38. “This remedy that precludes a trial is properly granted only when no rational finder of fact could find in favor of the non-moving party.” Carlton v. Mystic Transp., Inc., 202 F.3d 129, 134 (2d Cir. 2000). Consistent with this standard, all evidence favorable to the nonmoving party must be credited if a reasonable jury could credit it. Evidence favorable to the moving party, on the other hand, must be disregarded unless a reasonable jury would have to credit it because it comes from a disinterested source and is uncontradicted and unimpeached. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150-51, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). “When reasonable persons, applying the proper legal standards, could differ in their responses to the question” raised on the basis of the evidence presented, the question must be left to the jury. Sologub v. City of New York, 202 F.3d 175, 178 (2d Cir.2000).

1. FDCPA statute of limitations

GRC first argues that it is entitled to summary judgment because the plaintiffs’ claims were brought after the FDCPA’s statute of limitations had expired.

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Bluebook (online)
274 F.R.D. 53, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29744, 2011 WL 1106230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellis-v-general-revenue-corp-ctd-2011.