Más De León v. Banco Popular De P.R.

312 F. Supp. 3d 279
CourtUnited States District Court
DecidedMay 8, 2018
DocketCivil No. 17–01767 (DRD)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 312 F. Supp. 3d 279 (Más De León v. Banco Popular De P.R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States District Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Más De León v. Banco Popular De P.R., 312 F. Supp. 3d 279 (usdistct 2018).

Opinion

DANIEL R. DOMÍNGUEZ, United States District Judge

On June 7, 2017, Miguel Más de León (hereinafter, the "Plaintiff") filed a Complaint (Docket No. 1) against Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (hereinafter, "Banco Popular") and Kenneth Colondres (hereinafter, "Colondres"). In response to the Complaint, on September 27, 2017, Banco Popular filed a Motion Dismiss [sic] the Complaint to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) (Docket No. 14). The Plaintiff opposed the motion on December 8th, 2017 (Docket No. 16). Through its Motion to Dismiss , Banco Popular essentially seeks to dismiss the instant case on the basis that the Plaintiff has failed to state a claim. Specifically, Banco Popular alleges that 15 U.S.C. § 1643, which is the federal law under which this civil action arose, requires that the use of Plaintiff's credit card at issue must be unauthorized. Nonetheless, in the present case, the Plaintiff did not comply with this statutory requirement because he *281authorized Colondres for the use of his credit card. Consequently as expressed in this Opinion and Order, this Court GRANTS Banco Popular's Motion To Dismiss (Docket No. 14). The Court explains.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On June of the year 2016, the Plaintiff agreed to lend his credit card to Colondres, which he was to use for the sole purpose of paying some business debts, ascending only to $3,500. (Docket No. 1 at 2) However, when the Plaintiff received his credit card statement for that same month of June, it showed that Colondres had made transactions over $12,500. (Docket No. 1 at 2) The Plaintiff proceeded to contact Colondres to inquire about the charges, to which Colondres explained that he was to receive some money he was owed soon and then he would pay the Plaintiff back. (Docket No. 1 at 2-3).

On or before June 28th, 2016, the Plaintiff contacted Banco Popular because he was to go on vacations to Mexico on June 28th, 2016. (Docket No. 1 at 3) In these calls, the Plaintiff told the bank representative that he only authorized the transactions that were to be made from Mexico. (Docket No. 1 at 3)

Nevertheless, when the Plaintiff arrived from his vacation on July 11th, 2016, he learned that Colondres had charged over $31,000 on his credit card. (Docket No. 1 at 3) On July 22nd, 2016, eleven days later, the Plaintiff visited Banco Popular to inquire about these the charges to his credit card made by Colondres. (Docket No. 1 at 3) It is unclear from the Complaint whether Banco Popular effectively canceled the Plaintiff's credit card. Notwithstanding, the Complaint does state that the Plaintiff proceeded to pay the debt incurred by Colondres on his credit card. (Docket No. 1 at 3)

Afterwards, on July 27th, 2016, the Plaintiff had filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Colondres. (Docket No. 1 at 3) On this day, the Plaintiff also sent a certified letter to Colondres, in which "[h]e stated inter alia that the unauthorized charges, progressively made by the latter, had topped to $37,035.99 and that if the whole amount was not paid by July 29, 2016, we would take legal action against him." (Docket No. 1 at 3) Subsequently, the Plaintiff called Colondres to inquire about the increased expenses. (Docket No. 1 at 3) In response, Colondres again reiterated that he was waiting to receive payment for a debt in order to pay the Plaintiff back. (Docket No. 1 at 3)

On July 30th, 2016, the Plaintiff hand-delivered a letter to Banco Popular, in which he:

[A]sked for assistance handling the unauthorized debt, as he always has had good credit, advised Banco Popular on the unauthorized usage of his credit card by Mr. Colondres, as well as the filing of the criminal complaint filed against the latter for said actions, and inquired on Banco Popular's actions on allowing charge to his card, without being notified about it, even when he advised Banco Popular before he went off on vacation on June 28, 2016 that he would be out of Puerto Rico on vacation, and charges were still continually being made from Puerto Rico, and not Mexico.

(Docket No. 1 at p. 3-4).

To date, Colondres still owes money to the Plaintiff, even though he paid $2,400.00 to the Plaintiff. (Docket No. 1 at 4)

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires plaintiffs to provide "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Under Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), the Court *282determined was decided that a plaintiff must "provide the grounds of his entitlement [with] more than labels and conclusions ." See Ocasio-Hernández v. Fortuño-Burset, 640 F.3d 1, 12 (1st Cir. 2011) (emphasis ours) ("[I]n order to 'show' an entitlement to relief a complaint must contain enough factual material 'to raise a right to relief above the speculative level on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact).' ") (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ) (citation omitted). Thus, a plaintiff must, and is now required to, present allegations that "nudge [his] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible" in order to comply with the requirements of Rule 8(a). Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ; see e.g. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937

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Bluebook (online)
312 F. Supp. 3d 279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mas-de-leon-v-banco-popular-de-pr-usdistct-2018.