Feggins v. LVNV Funding LLC (In re Feggins)

535 B.R. 862
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Alabama
DecidedAugust 25, 2015
DocketCase No. 13-11319-WRS; Adv. Pro. No. 14-1049-WRS
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 535 B.R. 862 (Feggins v. LVNV Funding LLC (In re Feggins)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, M.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Feggins v. LVNV Funding LLC (In re Feggins), 535 B.R. 862 (Ala. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

William R. Sawyer, United States Bankruptcy Judge

These consolidated cases are before the Court on the Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.1 (Doc. 39). The motion is now fully briefed. (Docs.50, 51). For the reasons set forth below, the. Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings is DENIED.2

I. FACTS.

As this is before the Court on the Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, the Court will accept as true the facts pled in the Complaint.3

[864]*864William Feggins (“Feggins”) filed a petition in bankruptcy pursuant to Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code on July 24, 2013. (Doc. 1, ¶ 14). On December 12, 2013, Defendant Resurgent Capital Services, L.P. filed Proof of Claim 17 on behalf of Defendant LVNV Funding, LLC (collectively “Defendants”) in the amount of $2,026.66. (Doc. 1, ¶¶ 15-18). Feggins alleges that this claim is barred by the statute of limitations.4 In addition, Feggins claims that the filing of a time-barred proof of claim in bankruptcy court is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). Therefore, Feggins not only seeks disallowance of Claim 17 under the Bankruptcy Code but also damages and attorney’s fees under the FDCPA.5

II. JURISDICTION.

This Court has jurisdiction to hear these proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1334(b). An objection to a proof of claim is a core proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(B). Determination of whether the Defendants are entitled to judgment on Feggins’s FDCPA claim is a non-core proceeding, but the denial of a motion for judgment on the pleadings is not a final order. See Continental Nat’l Bank of Miami v. Sanchez (In re Toledo), 170 F.3d 1340, 1348 (11th Cir.1999); Wood v. Wood (In re Wood), 825 F.2d 90, 97 (5th Cir.1987); 28 U.S.C. § 157(c)(1).

III. MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS STANDARD.

These consolidated adversary proceedings are before the Court on the Defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), as made applicable to these proceedings by Fed. R. BaNKR. P. 7012(b). The standard to be applied here is the same as if this were a motion to dismiss made pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Robert v. Abbett, Case No. 3:08—CV-329-WKW, 2009 WL 902488, *3 (M.D.Ala. Mar. 31, 2009). That standard is as follows:

A pleading must contain a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitle to relief.... The pleading standard Rule 8 announces does not require detailed factual allegations but it demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.... A pleading that offers labels and conclusions or a formulaic recitation of the element of a cause of action will not do. Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders naked assertions devoid of further factual enhancement.
To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its fact. A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that al[865]*865lows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 677-79, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949-50, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal citations omitted); see also Critten v. Quantums Group, LLC, 528 B.R. 835, 837 (Bankr.M.D.Ala.2015).

IV. THE BANKRUPTCY CODE DOES NOT PRECLUDE THE FDCPA.

The Defendants’ central argument in the instant motion is that the Bankruptcy Code precludes the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Eleventh Circuit recently held that the filing of a proof of claim on a stale debt in bankruptcy proceedings is a violation of the FDCPA. Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, 758 F.3d 1254, 1261 (11th Cir.2014), cert. denied sub nom. LVNV Funding, LLC v. Crawford, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1844, 191 L.Ed.2d 724 (2015). However, the court expressly declined to weigh in on whether the Bankruptcy Code displaces the FDCPA when debt collectors “misbehave in bankruptcy.”6 Id. at 1262 n. 7. If the Bankruptcy Code precludes the FDCPA, the filing of a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in a bankruptcy case could not implicate the FDCPA because the exclusive remedy would be under the Bankruptcy Code. This argument is rejected for two reasons: first, there is a strong federal policy against repeal by implication because, whenever possible, federal statutes are to be read in harmony, and second, there is no irreconcilable conflict between the Bankruptcy Code and the FDCPA.

A. Repeal by implication is not favored.

Before addressing the specifics of the Defendants’ repeal argument, the Court notes that there is nothing in the language of either the FDCPA or the Bankruptcy Code that states that a debtor may not be provided a remedy under the FDCPA when the collection activity complained of takes place in a bankruptcy proceeding. In other words, there is no express conflict here and the Defendants make no claim that there is. Rather, the Defendants assert that there is an inherent conflict—the weakest of statutory preclusion arguments.

The Defendants argue that the Bankruptcy Code repeals the FDCPA by implication, failing to recognize that such a practice is highly disfavored and'only rarely done. “Because a repeal by implication requires the most speculation about the intent of Congress, there is a presumption against finding one.” Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Fla. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 619 F.3d 1289, 1299 (11th Cir.2010). “The courts are not at liberty to pick and choose among congressional enactments, and when two statutes are capable of co-existence, it is the duty of the courts, absent a clearly expressed congressional intention to the contrary, to regard each as effective. ‘When there are two acts upon the same subject, the rule is to give effect to both if possible.... The intention of the legislature to repeal “must be clear and manifest.” ’ ” Morton v. Mancan, 417 U.S. 535, 551, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2483, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974) (quoting United States v. Borden Co., 308 U.S. 188, 198, 60 S.Ct. 182, 188, 84 L.Ed. 181 (1939)); see also Rodriguez v. United States,

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Related

Feggins v. LVNV Funding LLC (In re Feggins)
540 B.R. 895 (M.D. Alabama, 2015)
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540 B.R. 129 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 2015)
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539 B.R. 192 (D. Maine, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
535 B.R. 862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/feggins-v-lvnv-funding-llc-in-re-feggins-almb-2015.