Mitchell v. Wells Fargo Bank

355 F. Supp. 3d 1136
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedDecember 21, 2018
DocketCase No. 2:16-cv-966
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 355 F. Supp. 3d 1136 (Mitchell v. Wells Fargo Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mitchell v. Wells Fargo Bank, 355 F. Supp. 3d 1136 (D. Utah 2018).

Opinion

ANALYSIS

Remaining Plaintiffs

As explained above, the Third Amended Complaint initially listed 76 named Plaintiffs, but through a series of voluntary dismissals, the number was eventually reduced to 57. (See ECF Nos. 69, 81, 83-85, & 141.) And, as also explained above, only those Plaintiffs who opted out of the Jabbari settlement can proceed in this case.

The court requested that Plaintiffs' attorneys provide a list of those Plaintiffs who opted out of the Jabbari settlement. (See ECF No. 156.) Plaintiffs' counsel provided a list, representing that 37 "individuals have withdrawn from the Jabbari litigation." (ECF No. 157 at 2-3.) As explained below, only 33 individuals involved in this case opted out of the Jabbari settlement.

Four individuals on the Plaintiffs' list of 37 should be removed-"Nedelka Martinsen," "Adrienne Thompson," "Concepcion Powell," and "Charles Jones." First, as Defendants point out, "Number 33" on that list, "Nedelka Martinsen," "was left off the Third Amended Complaint." (Tr. 18: 25; also, compare ECF No. 157 at 3 with ECF No. 69.) Without "Nedelka Martinsen," the number of Plaintiffs on Plaintiffs' counsel's list becomes 36.

Second, as the Defendants point out, Plaintiffs mistakenly "repeat" "Number 31" on their list, "Adrian Thompson," "under a different spelling"-"Adrienne Thompson." (See Tr. 18: 15-19 also, compare ECF No. 157 at 3 with ECF No. 69.) The court assumes that the person listed in the Jabbari court's Exhibit A as "Adrienne Thompson" is the "Adrian Thompson" from this case. Even under that assumption, the court must remove Plaintiffs' "Number 12." This brings the list's total to 35.

Third, Defendants also pointed out at oral argument that "Number 32" on Plaintiffs' list, "Concepcion Powell," is not listed on Jabbari's "Exhibit A" as a confirmed opt out, or Exhibit B as a possible opt out. (See Tr. 18: 22-24.) At oral argument, Plaintiffs did not respond to Defendants' argument on this point. The *1147court has independently confirmed that no one named "Concepcion Powell" is listed on the Jabbari court's Exhibit A or Exhibit B. See Jabbari , No. 3:15-cv-2159 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 20, 2017), (ECF No. 271 at 16-30.) Because the Plaintiffs did not respond to Defendants' argument, and because the court has confirmed that no one named "Concepcion Powell" is listed as having opted out, the court assumes Concepcion Powell did not opt out of the Jabbari settlement. Plaintiffs' list is reduced to 34.

Fourth, Defendants point out that "Charles Jones" "is the person who the [Plaintiffs'] parenthetical states" "does not appear on [the Jabarri court's] opt out list Exhibit A," but for whom Plaintiffs' counsel "attached what appears to be a copy of an opt out form." (Tr. 19: 7-9.) Defendants' counsel argued that Charles Jones' opt out form "is not an effective opt out because it was not sent to the settlement administrator" in Jabarri . (See Tr. 19: 16-17.) Plaintiffs' counsel did not respond to this argument. Because Plaintiffs counsel did not respond to this argument, and because "Charles Jones" is not a name that appears on the Jabbari court's Exhibit A, the court assumes Charles Jones did not opt out of the Jabbari settlement. Plaintiffs' list is reduced to 33 individuals.

The court now turns to 3 individuals that the Plaintiffs acknowledged "filed [an] opt-out and submitted [a] claim form." (ECF No. 157 at 3.) These individuals are "Reza Kamali," "Ralph McCoy," and "Travis Ashby." (See ECF No. 157 at 3.) As explained above, the court in Jabbari provided that those Plaintiffs who "filed both a claim and an exclusion," "shall not be excluded unless they subsequently communicate their intent ... to withdraw their claim and not participate in the Settlement on or before July 7, 2018."Jabbari , No. 3:15-cv-2159 (N.D. Cal. June 14, 2017), (ECF No. 271 at 9.) For the purpose of resolving the present Motion, this court assumes that those three Plaintiffs communicated their intent to withdraw their claim. The court therefore assumes that they have opted out of the Jabbari settlement. The court proceeds under the assumption that there are 33 Plaintiffs remaining in this case who opted out of the Jabarri settlement.

Article III Standing

As explained above, after the Jabarri settlement only 33 Plaintiffs remain. Defendants wrote their Motion to Dismiss prior to the settlement. At that time there were 57 Plaintiffs. In their Motion to Dismiss for lack of standing, Defendants argued that "[t]he majority of the Plaintiffs-38 of the remaining 57 Plaintiffs ... do not allege any unauthorized accounts were ever opened in the names, that their information was ever improperly used or accessed by any Wells Fargo employee, or that they were subject to any improper sales practice." (ECF No. 144 at 24.) Defendants refer to these 38 Plaintiffs as the "Bystander Plaintiffs." (ECF No. 144 at 24.) The court will refer to those individuals who did allege an unauthorized account was opened in their name as "Wrongful Account Plaintiffs." Since many of the 57 remaining Plaintiffs (those Plaintiffs named in the Third Amended Complaint who did not file a voluntary dismissal) have not opted out of the Jabbari settlement, the number of Bystander Plaintiffs is no longer 38.

At oral argument, Defendants' counsel stated that 20 Bystander Plaintiffs have opted out of the Jabbari settlement. (See Tr. 17: 14-15 ("If you look at those 33 opt outs, of those 33 opt outs 20 are bystander plaintiffs, or bystander plaintiffs as we define the term, meaning they did not allege an unauthorized account was opened in their name.").) But after reviewing the Third Amended Complaint, the court finds that there are 25 Bystander Plaintiffs and eight Wrongful Account Plaintiffs.

*1148Plaintiff's Name Bystander Wrongful Account 1. Lawrence Mitchell Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 321-25) 2. Kay Mitchell Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 316-20) 3. Matthew Bishop Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 151-58) 4. Tracy Kilgore Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 459-460). 5. Jennifer Zeleny Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 450-454) 6. Joseph Steele Bystander (TAC ¶¶ 383-87) 7. April Thomas Bystander (See TAC ¶¶ 414-20. (April Thomas does not allege that an unauthorized account was opened in her name, only that "a credit inquiry was made by Wells Fargo.").) 8. Patricia Rivas Wrongful Account (TAC ¶ 181 ("Plaintiff Patricia [Rivas] contends that a credit card was opened in her name without her authorization ....").) 9. Andrew Gorayeb Wrongful Account (TAC ¶ 261 ("Plaintiff Andrew Gorayeb indicates that Defendants opened up an investment account without his authorization.").) 10. Barbara Shadoan Wrongful Account (TAC ¶ 376 "Plaintiff Barbara Shadoan asserts that she was told that if she didn't open up other accounts, she would be charged additional fees.").) 11. Eric Talaska Wrongful Account (TAC ¶ 405 ("Plaintiff Eric Talaska asserts that he made several in person visits and phone calls relating to the fraudulent accounts which were opened up in his name.").) 12. 

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Bluebook (online)
355 F. Supp. 3d 1136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mitchell-v-wells-fargo-bank-utd-2018.