Miller v. Ginny's Inc.

287 F. Supp. 3d 1324
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedDecember 13, 2017
DocketCase No: 8:16–cv–1958–T–36AEP
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 287 F. Supp. 3d 1324 (Miller v. Ginny's Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Ginny's Inc., 287 F. Supp. 3d 1324 (M.D. Fla. 2017).

Opinion

Charlene Edwards Honeywell, United States District Judge

This cause is before the Court on Plaintiff Marguerite Miller's Motion for Summary Judgment and Supporting Memorandum of Law (Doc. 24), Defendant's Response in Opposition to Defendant's [sic] Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 30), and Plaintiff Marguerite Miller's Reply to Defendant's Response in Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment and Supporting Memorandum of Law (Doc. 31). Miller alleges that Defendant Ginny's, Inc. ("Ginny's") violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii), and the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act ("FCCPA"), § 559.72 of the Florida Statutes, by repeatedly calling her cellular telephone after she orally advised Ginny's that she would not pay on an account and requested that it stop calling her. Doc. 1 ¶¶ 1, 8-11; Doc. 24 p. 1-2. She moved for summary judgment on these claims. Doc. 24. Upon due consideration of the parties' submissions, including declarations, affidavits, depositions and exhibits, and for the reasons that follow, the Court will deny Miller's motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND AND FACTS1

Miller opened a credit account (the "Account") with Ginny's on June 18, 2013, when ordering $310.63 worth of items for her personal and household use. Doc. 28 ¶¶ 3, 9, 10. When opening the Account, Miller received and agreed to Ginny's Choose 'N Charge® Credit Terms ("Credit Terms"). Id. ¶ 11. Ginny's Credit Terms provided as follows:

COMMUNICATION : We may use contact information you provide to contact you from time to time regarding your Account. We may contact you in any manner consistent with the information you have provided. For example, once you have provided contact information, *1326we may contact you by telephone, e-mail or text message. We may use automated technology for the purpose of contacting you, including but not limited to automatic dialing or similar equipment. We may call you on your mobile telephone. We may monitor or record calls from you to us and calls from us to you. When you give us your mobile telephone number we may contact you at that number using automated dialing equipment and we can leave pre-recorded or other messages, as allowed by law .

Doc. 30-1 p. 8 (emphasis added). Also, at the time of opening the Account, Miller provided Ginny's with her cellular telephone number. Doc. 28 ¶ 13. The cellular telephone connected with that number was used by Miller for ten years, was the only telephone regularly used by Miller, the account for the telephone number was in Miller's name and she paid for it, and Miller maintained exclusive possession of the phone. Id. ¶ 13; see also Miller Depo. 18:24-25, 19:7-11, 20:2-6; Doc. 24-1 ¶ 2.

Miller did not make any required payments on the Account and Ginny's began making regular calls to Miller's cell phone on July 31, 2013 using an automatic dialing machine. Doc. 28 ¶¶ 8, 12-13. The calls were not recorded and Miller did not maintain personal records of the calls because she expected them to stop. Id. ¶¶ 14, 20; Chamberlain Depo. 9:21-23; Doc. 24-1 ¶ 5. At all times relevant to this case, Ginny's had a policy that it would not cease collection calls if the consumer gave only an oral cease-and-desist request. Doc. 28 ¶ 6; Chamberlain Depo. 6:22-7:5. Instead, it was Ginny's policy to cease such calls only in the event that a written request was made. Id.

Ginny's maintained a Collection Correspondence Log, which documented the content of calls to customers through an action code that corresponded with various interactions between an agent and customer, and by a narrative that summarized the agent's conversation with the customer. Doc. 30-1 ¶¶ 9-11, 15. One of the action codes was "313," which Ginny's stated was used when the answering party did not identify him or herself, and would not be used if the answering party confirmed that he or she was the client. Doc. 30-1 ¶¶ 13-14; Chamberlain Depo. 21:8-18; 22:11-16. Miller disputes that this is the only instance in which the 313 action code would be used, based on Ginny's policy manual. The policy manual explained that the code should be used as follows:

313 TT THIRD PARTY-NO MSG
The agent will use this action code at any time they speak to someone at the phone number dialed, but were unable to leave a message.
This code should also be used in the following situations:
*This code may also be used when the agent speaks to the customer but does not obtain any promise to pay from the customer and the reason why does not fit any of the No Pay codes listed below. The agent should make clear notes.

Doc. 37-4 p. 1. The no pay codes included ones for inability to pay due to personal illness or illness of a family member, inability to pay due to unemployment of the customer or his or her spouse, and a general "other" category which was to be used "when the customer states they can't pay on the account for any reason other than those" two preceding reasons. Doc. 37-4 p. 1. Another action code was "317," which stated:

317 WON'T PAY / NO DISPUTE
The agent will enter this code when the customer states their refusal to pay without any dispute or legitimate reason.

Doc. 37-4. The 317 action code was also to be used if a customer told the agent to *1327cease and desist communications or to stop calling. Doc. 28 ¶ 17; 30-1 ¶ 12.

In addition to the Collection Correspondence Log, Ginny's maintained a database, the Dialer Records, which recorded the number of attempted calls to a customer, regardless of whether the call actually connected with the number or resulted in it ringing. Doc. 30-1 ¶ 18-19. The Dialer Records also showed the duration of a call, which did not appear on the Collection Correspondence Log. Doc. 38-3. Miller stipulated that the number of calls, dates, and indications of contact contained in Ginny's records were correct, but she did not stipulate that any recorded content of the conversations contained in Ginny's records were correct. Doc. 28 ¶ 20.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
287 F. Supp. 3d 1324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-ginnys-inc-flmd-2017.