Martinez-Santiago v. Public Storage

312 F.R.D. 380, 2015 WL 7253819, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155224
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedNovember 17, 2015
DocketCivil No. 14-302 (JBS/AMD)
StatusPublished

This text of 312 F.R.D. 380 (Martinez-Santiago v. Public Storage) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinez-Santiago v. Public Storage, 312 F.R.D. 380, 2015 WL 7253819, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155224 (D.N.J. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

SIMANDLE, Chief Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This action is a putative class action brought under the Truth in Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (“TCCWNA”), N.J.S.A 56:12-14 — 18, on behalf of persons in New Jersey who signed lease agreements with Defendant Public Storage for a storage unit since at least 2007. The TCCWNA makes it unlawful for a lessor to offer or enter into a written consumer contract “which includes any provision that violates any clearly established legal right of a consumer or responsibility of a ... lessor” as established by state or federal law at the time the contract is signed. N.J.S.A. 56:12-15.

Before the Court is Plaintiff Jaekeline Martinez-Santiago’s motion for class certification pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3). The principal issues are whether Plaintiff can satisfy the requirements of commonality and predominance under Rule 23 by identifying the plaintiffs whose “clearly established legal right[s]” were violated at the time they entered into the Public Storage contract; and whether the superiority requirement has been met. For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiffs motion will be granted.

II. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Jaekeline Martinez-Santiago entered into a lease agreement with Defendant Public Storage for storage space at Defendant’s Sicklerville, N.J., facility on February 7, 2012. (Am. Compl. [Docket Item 10] ¶ 19.) Plaintiff listed Mr. Orlando Colon as an ‘Alternate Contact Name” on her lease agreement. (Lease Agreement, Am. Compl. Ex. A [Docket Item 10-4] at 1.) After Colon slipped on a patch of ice on a walkway directly in front of Plaintiffs storage unit in February 2012, he sued Public Storage for his injuries in New Jersey Superior Court, alleging negligence. (Am. Compl. ¶ 24.)

Public Storage filed an amended answer and third-party complaint naming Ms. Martinez-Santiago as a third-party defendant in Colon’s lawsuit. (Id. ¶ 26.) Public Storage sought indemnification from Martinez-Santiago because of a provision in the storage facility lease agreement which indemnified Public Storage from any loss incurred by Public Storage arising out of Martinez-Santiago’s use of the facility, including “claims of injury or loss by Occupant’s visitors or invitees.” (Id. ¶ 27; Lease Agreement, Paragraph 7.)

In the Superior Court, Public Storage obtained a default judgment against Martinez-Santiago because she did not respond to the lawsuit. (Am. Compl. Ex. G [Docket Item 10-7] at [40-41.]) On September 24, 2013, Martinez-Santiago, with the aid of counsel, filed a motion to vacate default judgment and sought permission to file a third-party answer and class-action counterclaim out of time. [Id. at 3.] The proposed class-action counterclaim [id. at 64-64], sets forth the same causes of action in the present Amended Complaint here.

Public Storage settled Colon’s suit and, before the Superior Court could rule on Martinez-Santiago’s motion to vacate default judgment, voluntarily dismissed the third-party complaint against Martinez-Santiago. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 28,30, 32-33.)

On December 3, 2013, Martinez-Santiago filed this putative class-action in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Camden County, and Defendants removed the action to this Court. [Docket Items 1 & 1-2.]

Plaintiff challenges four provisions in the lease agreement with Public Storage: (1) the Indemnity Clause in Paragraph 7,1 which requires the occupant of the storage unit to indemnify Defendant “from any loss incurred [385]*385by Owner [Defendant] and Owner’s Agents in any way arising out of Occupant’s use of the Premises or the Property, including, but not limited to, claims of injury or loss by Occupant’s visitors or invitees”;2 (2) the Exculpatory Clause, also in Paragraph 7, which releases Defendant from all responsibility for loss or damage to the occupant’s property or injury to persons caused by, among other things, “Owner’s [Public Storage’s] and Owner’s Agents active or passive acts, omissions, negligence or conversion, unless the Loss is directly caused by Owner’s fraud, willful injury or willful violation of law”;3 (3) the Limitations Clause, in Paragraph 4 of the lease agreement, which limits the time in which Plaintiff may bring a claim arising out of the lease agreement to one year after “the date of the act, omission, inaction or other event that gave rise to such a claim and purports to extend the one-year limit to any defenses Plaintiff may seek to raise in any suit against her arising out of the lease agreement;4 and (4) the Severability Clause, also in Paragraph 4, which states generally that any provision under the lease agreement that is prohibited by any state law will be ineffective without invalidating the remainder of the contract.5

Plaintiff argues that all four provisions violate the TCCWNA. The TCCWNA makes it unlawful for a lessor to offer or enter into a written consumer contract “which includes any provision that violates any clearly established legal right of a consumer or responsibility of a ... lessor” as established by state or federal law at the time the contract is signed. N.J.S.A. 56:12-15.

Plaintiff contends that the first three provisions are unconscionable and unenforceable under New Jersey contract law, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the New Jersey Court Rules, and therefore violate section 56:12-15. She also argues that the fourth provision, the Severability Clause, violates section 56:12-16 of the TCCWNA, which states that “[n]o consumer contract, notice or sign shall state that any of its provisions is or may be void, unenforceable or inapplicable in some jurisdictions without specifying which provisions are or are not void, unenforceable or inapplicable within the State of New Jersey ....” N.J.S.A. 56:12-16.

In an earlier opinion, this Court denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss, finding that Plaintiff had stated plausible claims for relief under the TCCWNA.6 See Martinez-Santiago v. Public Storage, 38 F.Supp.3d 500, 517 (D.N.J.2014). In response to the Court’s opinion, Public Storage revised its lease agreement on October 21, 2014. (Revised [386]*386Lease Agreement, Def. Opp’n Ex. 14 [Docket Item 118-15].)

Plaintiff now moves for class certification on the TCCWNA claims under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3) on behalf of the following class:7

All natural persons who since September 7, 2007 entered into lease agreements with Defendant in the State of New Jersey. Excluded from the Class are Defendant, each of its parents, subsidiaries, authorized distributors and affiliates, and its legal representatives, officers, board members and the heirs, successors, and assigns of any excluded person.

(Pl. Mem. of Law in Support of Mot. to Certify Class (“PL Br.”) [Docket Item 99-1] at 2.) She seeks at least the minimum $100 statutory penalty under the TCCWNA for each class member. See N.J.S.A. § 56:12-17.

III. CLASS CERTIFICATION MOTION

A. Class Certification Standard

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Bluebook (online)
312 F.R.D. 380, 2015 WL 7253819, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-santiago-v-public-storage-njd-2015.