Jeffries v. Volume Servs. Am., Inc.

319 F. Supp. 3d 525
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 3, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 17-1788 (CKK)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 319 F. Supp. 3d 525 (Jeffries v. Volume Servs. Am., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jeffries v. Volume Servs. Am., Inc., 319 F. Supp. 3d 525 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY, United States District Judge

Defendant Volume Services America, Inc. (d/b/a Centerplate and Centerplate/NBSE) ("Centerplate") presently moves to dismiss Plaintiff's [1] Complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). Because the Court finds that Plaintiff lacks standing, and consequently that the Court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, the Court need not reach the sufficiency of Plaintiff's claim. Upon consideration of the briefing,1 the relevant legal authorities, and the record as a whole, the Court shall GRANT Defendant Centerplate's Motion to Dismiss contained in its [9] Notice of Motion, and shall DISMISS this case.

I. BACKGROUND

The alleged facts in this case are few and readily stated. Plaintiff used a credit card to make a purchase from Defendant Centerplate and, in some fashion, ten Doe defendants. Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶¶ 16, 37. To memorialize the transaction, Defendants provided Plaintiff with one or more electronically printed receipts that contained the following pieces of information from Plaintiff's credit card: the full sixteen-digit card number, the expiration date, and the brand.2 Id.

Plaintiff brought a putative class action against Defendant Centerplate and the ten Doe defendants for allegedly violating the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 ("FACTA"). Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶ 1. As amended by FACTA, Title 15 of the U.S. Code provides in pertinent part that "no person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last 5 digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of the sale or transaction." 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(g)(1). The transaction *528allegedly occurred after the effective date of this amendment. See id. § 1681c(g)(3) (identifying effective date as either "3 years after December 4, 2003," or "1 year after December 4, 2003," depending on the machine used to print the receipt); Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶ 37 (alleging transaction "[a]fter December 3, 2006, and within two years from the date of filing of this action" on September 1, 2017).3

Defendant Centerplate seeks dismissal of this action under Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Now that briefing has concluded, this motion is ripe for resolution. Because the Court shall resolve this case on the grounds of Plaintiff's inability to establish standing, the fact that the Doe defendants are presently unidentified has no bearing. But for ease of reference, the Court shall refer in the remainder of this Memorandum Opinion to the actions of Defendants as attributable only to Defendant Centerplate.

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

A. Subject Matter Jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1)

A court must dismiss a case pursuant to Federal Rule 12(b)(1) when it lacks subject matter jurisdiction. In determining whether there is jurisdiction, the Court may "consider the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts evidenced in the record, or the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts plus the court's resolution of disputed facts." Coalition for Underground Expansion v. Mineta , 333 F.3d 193, 198 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (citations omitted). "At the motion to dismiss stage, counseled complaints, as well as pro se complaints, are to be construed with sufficient liberality to afford all possible inferences favorable to the pleader on allegations of fact." Settles v. U.S. Parole Comm'n , 429 F.3d 1098, 1106 (D.C. Cir. 2005). In spite of the favorable inferences that a plaintiff receives on a motion to dismiss, still that "[p]laintiff bears the burden of proving subject matter jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence." Am. Farm Bureau v. Envtl. Prot. Agency , 121 F.Supp.2d 84, 90 (D.D.C. 2000). "Although a court must accept as true all factual allegations contained in the complaint when reviewing a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), [a] plaintiff['s] factual allegations in the complaint ... will bear closer scrutiny in resolving a 12(b)(1) motion than in resolving a 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim." Wright v. Foreign Serv. Grievance Bd. , 503 F.Supp.2d 163, 170 (D.D.C. 2007) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted).

B. Failure to State a Claim under Rule 12(b)(6)

Pursuant to Federal Rule 12(b)(6), a party may move to dismiss a complaint on the grounds that it "fail[s] to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). "[A] complaint [does not] suffice if it tenders 'naked assertion[s]' devoid of 'further factual enhancement.' " Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). Rather, a complaint must contain sufficient factual allegations that, if accepted as true, "state a claim to relief that is *529plausible on its face." Twombly , 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

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Doris Jeffries v. Volume Services America, Inc.
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Bluebook (online)
319 F. Supp. 3d 525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jeffries-v-volume-servs-am-inc-cadc-2018.