FIA Card Services N.A. v. Quinn (In re Quinn)

492 B.R. 341
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedApril 30, 2013
DocketBankruptcy No. 12-73276-WLH; Adversary No. 12-5652
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 492 B.R. 341 (FIA Card Services N.A. v. Quinn (In re Quinn)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FIA Card Services N.A. v. Quinn (In re Quinn), 492 B.R. 341 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING IN PART AND GRANTING IN PART DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

WENDY L. HAGENAU, Bankruptcy Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Defendant’s pro se Response to Plaintiffs Complaint Objecting to Dischargeability of Indebtedness and Further Motion Requesting Summary Judgment in Favor of Defendant (the “Motion”) [Docket No. 5]. Defendant filed her Bankruptcy case on September 18, 2012. Plaintiff commenced this adversary proceeding on December 17, 2012, seeking a monetary judgment in the amount of $6,299 for certain credit card charges as well as a judgment that it is non-dischargeable in Defendant’s Chapter 7 case pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A). [Docket No. 1]. As this matter arises in connection with a complaint to determine dischargeability, it constitutes a core proceeding over which this Court has subject matter jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(I); § 1334.

[344]*344The Court has reviewed the Motion and Plaintiffs Response thereto and Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiffs Response to Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment.

Standard for Motion for Summary Judgment:

Summary judgment is appropriate when “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). “The substantive law [applicable to the case] will identify which facts are material”. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A factual dispute is genuine “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. at 2510. The party moving for summary judgment has “the initial responsibility of informing the ... court of the basis for its motion, and identifying those portions of ‘the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits if any’ which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact.” United States v. Four Parcels of Real Prop., 941 F.2d 1428, 1437 (11th Cir.1991) (citing Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. at 2553). What is required of the moving party, however, varies depending on whether the moving party has the ultimate burden of proof on the issue at trial. “When the nonmoving party has the burden of proof at trial, the moving party is not required to ‘support its motion with affidavits or other similar material negating the opponent’s claim,’ in order to discharge this ‘initial responsibility’. Instead, the moving party simply may ‘show[]’— that is, point[ ] out to the ... court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case. Alternatively, the moving party may support its motion for summary judgment with affirmative evidence demonstrating that the nonmov-ing party will be unable to prove its case at trial.” Four Parcels of Real Prop., 941 F.2d at 1437-1438 (citations omitted).

In the Eleventh Circuit, “it is never enough simply to state that the nonmoving party cannot meet its burden at trial ... Instead the moving party must point to specific portions of the record in order to demonstrate that the nonmoving party cannot meet its burden of proof at trial.” Four Parcels of Real Prop., 941 F.2d at 1438 n. 19; see also Haines v. Cherokee County, 2010 WL 2821853, *27 (N.D.Ga.2010). Once this burden is met, the non-moving party cannot merely rely on allegations or denials in its own pleadings. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(e). Rather, the non-moving party must present specific facts that demonstrate there is a genuine dispute over material facts. Hairston v. Gainesville Sun Pub. Co., 9 F.3d 913, 918 (11th Cir.1993). Lastly, when reviewing a motion for summary judgment, a court must examine the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party and all reasonable doubts and inferences should be resolved in favor of the nonmoving party. Hairston, 9 F.3d at 918. With this standard in mind, the Court evaluates the requirements necessary to establish non-dis-chargeability in credit card cases under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A).

Dischargeability under Section 523(a)(2)(A) in Credit Card Cases:

Plaintiffs Complaint seeks a determination that Plaintiffs claim is non-dischargeable under Section 523(a)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code. Section 523(a)(2)(A) [345]*345withholds a discharge from any debt “for money, property, services, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by — false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud....”. 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A). The burden is on the creditor to prove non-dischargeability under this section. Equitable Bank v. Miller (In re Miller), 39 F.3d 301, 304 (11th Cir.1994) (citing Grogan v. Garner, 498 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 654, 112 L.Ed.2d 755 (1991)). The elements required to assert a Section 523(a)(2)(A) claim for false representation are: (1) the debtor made a false representation to deceive the creditor, (2) the creditor relied on the representation, (3) the reliance was justified, and (4) the creditor sustained a loss as a result of the misrepresentation. SEC v. Bilzerian (In re Bilzerian), 153 F.3d 1278, 1281 (11th Cir.1998); Matter of Ford, 186 B.R. 312, 316 (Bankr.N.D.Ga.1995). False pretenses is defined as “[A] series of events, activities or communications which, when considered collectively, create a false and misleading set of circumstances, or false and misleading understanding of a transaction, in which a creditor is wrongfully induced by the debtor to transfer property or extend credit to the debtor....” In re Burke, 405 B.R. 626, 645 (Bankr.N.D.Ill.2009) aff'd sub nom ColeMichael Investments, L.L.C. v. Burke, 436 B.R. 53 (N.D.Ill.2010). Actual fraud under Section 523(a)(2)(A) “embraces all the multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise and which are resorted to by one individual to gain an advantage over another ... [I]t includes all surprise, trick, cunning, dissembling, and any unfair way by which another is cheated.” Id. at 646 (citing McClellan v. Cantrell,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
492 B.R. 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fia-card-services-na-v-quinn-in-re-quinn-ganb-2013.