Mayfield v. Asta Funding, Inc.

95 F. Supp. 3d 685, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43236, 2015 WL 1501100
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 31, 2015
DocketNo. 14-CV-2591
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 95 F. Supp. 3d 685 (Mayfield v. Asta Funding, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mayfield v. Asta Funding, Inc., 95 F. Supp. 3d 685, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43236, 2015 WL 1501100 (S.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

LORETTA A. PRESKA, Chief Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Mayfield, Millien and Porter bring this action alleging that a debt-buying company, a law firm and associated individuals orchestrated a scheme fraudulently to obtain and enforce consumer debt judgments against them and thousands of similarly situated individuals in state court. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants brought consumer debt lawsuits against them without sufficient evidence to prove the debt, filed fraudulent affidavits in support of their claims, and engaged in “sewer service” so that Plaintiffs never received notice of the suits. When Plaintiffs failed to appear in court, Defendants obtained and enforced default judgments.

Plaintiffs sue on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, asserting claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1601, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1691, New York General Business Law (“GBL”) § 349, and New York Judiciary Law § 487. Plaintiffs seek damages, injunctive relief and declaratory relief.

Defendants move to compel arbitration, strike class action allegations and dismiss various claims in the Complaint. For the reasons that follow, all of Defendants’ motions are denied.

[691]*691II. BACKGROUND

The allegations in the Complaint are assumed to be tine for the purposes of the motion to dismiss and are as follows:

A. The Parties

Plaintiffs Charlette Mayfield, Claude Millien and Ebony Porter (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) allege that Defendants conspired fraudulently to obtain and enforce consumer debt judgments against them. (Compl. ¶¶ 3-4.) Between 2005 and 2007, each named Plaintiff was sued by Defendants in New York City Civil Court to collect on alleged defaulted AT & T Wireless accounts. (Id. 171, 173, 235, 237, 299, 301.) Mayfield and Millien never had accounts with AT & T Wireless, and Porter did not owe any money to AT & T Wireless. (Id. ¶¶ 185, 248, 298, 312.)

None of the named Plaintiffs was notified of the actions until years after default judgments were entered against them. (Id. ¶¶ 169-171, 195, 211, 234-35, 256, 298-, 99, 322.) Millien and Porter only became aware of the judgments in 2013 when they learned their employers were garnishing their wages. (Id. ¶¶ 234, 298.) Plaintiffs bring this class action on behalf of all victims and potential victims of the alleged scheme — that is, all those who have been sued or may be sued by Defendants in New York City Civil Court to collect alleged AT & T Wireless debts. (Id. ¶ 156.)

Defendants are a debt-buying company, a law firm that specializes in debt collection, and individuals affiliated with the scheme alleged in the Complaint.

Defendants Asta Funding, Inc. (“Asta”), and Palisades Collection, LLC (“Palisades”), .a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asta, are in the business of purchasing and collecting defaulted consumer debts. (Id. ¶¶ 2, 10-12.) Asta and Palisades are led by Defendant Gary Stem (“Stern”), President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Asta. (Id. ¶¶ 2, 13.) Together, along with affiliated individuals, they comprise the “Asta Defendants.” (Id. ¶¶ 10-13.)

Defendants Pressler & Pressler, LLP (“Pressler”) is a law firm regularly engaged in the business of collecting consumer debts on behalf of its clients, including Asta Defendants. (Id. ¶¶ 2, 17.) Defendants Richard A. Franklin, Tin-an A. Wang, Mitchell E. Zipkin and Craig Stiller are attorneys who were at relevant times employed at Pressler and personally engaged in the business of collecting consumer debts on behalf of Asta Defendants. (Id. ¶¶ 18-21.) Along with affiliated individuals, they comprise the “Pressler Defendants.” (Id. ¶¶ 17-24.)

B. The Alleged Scheme

Debt buyers purchase deeply discounted, defaulted debts and then seek to collect the full face value for profit.1 (Compl. ¶ 25.) Asta is one of the nation’s largest debt buyers. (Id.) Plaintiffs allege that Defendants purchased consumer debt portfolios for pennies on the dollar and then devised and implemented a scheme to collect millions from alleged debtors by fraudulently obtaining default judgments against them. (Id. ¶ 3.)

In July 2004, Asta Defendants entered into an agreement to batch purchase charged-off debt from AT & T Wireless. (Id. ¶¶ 34-35.) For debts purchased under this agreement, Asta Defendants received [692]*692a spreadsheet, known in the industry as a “stream of data,” containing limited information about each alleged account — including the account holder’s name, social security number, telephone number, address, account open date, last payment date, charge-off date, and alleged amount owed. (Id. ¶ 38.) Although they had the opportunity to do so, Asta Defendants generally did not purchase or otherwise obtain the original documentation confirming the indebtedness of the alleged account holders. (Id. ¶¶ 40-42) Plaintiffs allege that Defendants did not have the evidence necessary to verify debts or to prove their claims against alleged account holders. (Id. ¶¶ 3, 77-79, 120-21, 124-25.)

Asta Defendants, through their attorneys at Pressler, devised a strategy to collect on the unsubstantiated debts. Pressler, on behalf of Palisades, filed tens of thousands of mass-generated “verified complaints” against the alleged debtors in New York City Civil Court. (Id. ¶ 63.) All told, Pressler and Palisades filed nearly 60,000 suits between 2005 and 2007. (Id. ¶ 158.) The same week they sued Plaintiff Mayfield, Defendants sued over 1,200 others in New York City. (Id. ¶ 172). Defendants supported these actions with fraudulent Affidavits of Fact, signed by employees of Palisades, attesting to their “personal knowledge” of facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged debt when in fact they did not have access to documents substantiating the debt. (Id. ¶¶ 114-22.) Pressler Defendants ' also swore they were “in possession of the salient papers in connection with the action” and had verified the information in the complaint. (Id. ¶ 71-79.)

The vast majority of alleged debtors did not appear in court to defend themselves because they never received notice of the actions against them. (Id. ¶¶ 92-94.) Pressler retained process serving agencies known to engage in “sewer service” — filing fraudulent affidavits of service where no service had been made. (Id. ¶¶ 81-84, 91-104.) In 2007, only 6% of those sued by Pressler appeared in court. (Id. ¶ 92.) When alleged debtors failed to appear, the court issued default judgments against them. (Id. ¶¶ 103-04, 127.)

After securing default judgments, Defendants proceeded to garnish Plaintiffs’ wages, restrain their bank accounts, and impair their credit histories, resulting in the denial of specific credit opportunities including mortgages for their homes. (Id. ¶ 130, 169, 229-32, 293-96, 348-50.) Plaintiffs incurred litigation costs and suffered emotional distress on account of the fraudulent suits.

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Bluebook (online)
95 F. Supp. 3d 685, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43236, 2015 WL 1501100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mayfield-v-asta-funding-inc-nysd-2015.