Mounia Elyazidi v. SunTrust Bank

780 F.3d 227, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 3482, 2015 WL 924101
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMarch 5, 2015
Docket14-1290
StatusPublished
Cited by62 cases

This text of 780 F.3d 227 (Mounia Elyazidi v. SunTrust Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mounia Elyazidi v. SunTrust Bank, 780 F.3d 227, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 3482, 2015 WL 924101 (4th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge THACKER wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Judge HARRIS joined.

*230 THACKER, Circuit Judge:

Mounia Elyazidi' (“Appellant”) overdrew her checking account when, despite having only a few hundred dollars in the account, she cut herself a check for nearly $10,000. A debt collector, acting on behalf of the bank, took her to court in Virginia and won. Appellant, not content to pay the judgment and let the matter drop, filed this lawsuit against the bank and its lawyers (collectively, “Appellees”). Her suit alleges that Appellees violated Maryland consumer protection laws, and that the bank’s lawyers violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). The federal district court dismissed Appellant’s suit for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We affirm.

I.

Appellant lives in Fairfax County, Virginia. In September 2010, she opened a checking account with SunTrust Bank (“SunTrust”), a Georgia-based bank with thousands of branches and ATMs across much of the South and along the East Coast. In the course of opening the account, Appellant signed an agreement stating that her banking transactions “shall be governed by the rules and regulations for this account.” J.A. 38. 1 Those rules and regulations include a provision addressing the account holder’s overdraft liability:

You are liable for all amounts charged to your Account, whether by offset, overdraft, lien or fees. If we take court action or commence an arbitration proceeding against you to collect such amounts, ... you will also be liable for court or arbitration costs, other charges or fees, and attorney’s fees up to 25 percent, or an amount as permitted by law, of the amount owed to us.

Id. at 56.

As of September 15, 2010, the account held no more than a few hundred dollars. Nevertheless, Appellant cut herself a check for $9,800. 2 She cashed the check at a SunTrust branch, resulting in a sizeable overdraft.

A.

After its own attempts to collect the money proved unsuccessful, SunTrust hired a Maryland law firm, Mitchell Rubenstein & Associates (“MR & A”), 3 to bring a debt collection suit. MR & A filed suit on SunTrust’s behalf in the general district court of Fairfax County, Virginia, on June 12, 2012. Instead of drafting a detailed complaint, MR & A utilized a warrant in debt, a standardized pleading that the Virginia courts make available to creditors. 4 This standardized pleading provides, in relevant part:

Plaintiffis) claim that Defendant(s) owe Plaintiffis) a debt in the sum of *231 $_net of any credits, with interest at _% from date of_until paid, $_ costs and $__ attorney’s fees....

J.A. 25. Appellees filled in the blanks to indicate that Appellant owed $9,490.82, plus 6 percent interest; $58 in costs; and $2,372.71 in attorneys’ fees.

To support the warrant in debt, Appellees submitted to the court an “Affidavit of Account,” in which a SunTrust officer affirmed that “[t]he amount of Nine thousand four hundred ninety and 82/100 dollars ($9,490.82) plus reasonable attorney fees of 25% and the costs of this proceeding is justly due and owing from debt to SunTrust.” J.A. 31. In addition, MR & A submitted its own affidavit, dated June 11, 2012, in support of the claim for attorneys’ fees. In that document (the “June 2012 Revesman Affidavit”), attorney Cynthia Kaplan Revesman (“Revesman”) requested “an award of 25% percent [sic] as a just and reasonable fee, which is equal to or less than the actual arrangement with client in this case.” Id. at 32. Her affidavit attests that her billable rate was $250 per hour and that she spent approximately one hour preparing the warrant in debt. The affidavit further states that Revesman “will require an additional 3 hours for Court appearances and travel,” and that, based on similar cases she has handled during her career, “counsel anticipates at least 20 additional hours in order to satisfy its judgment by execution.” Id.

Later, in response to a court order, Appellees filed a bill of particulars outlining the allegations against Appellant. Among the exhibits accompanying this filing were two monthly statements for Appellant’s checking account. Appellant’s social security number appeared on both statements. When, in December 2012, Appellant’s attorney complained about the exposure of his client’s personal financial information, the judge agreed to have the number redacted.

The general district court entered judgment “in the sum demanded for the plaintiff on the evidence.” J.A. 151. Later, at a separate hearing, counsel for SunTrust submitted an updated affidavit supporting the claim for attorneys’ fees. In this new affidavit, dated February 27, 2013, Revesman reported that she had expended approximately 13.9 hours on the case. She provided a breakdown of how she spent those hours and, based on that breakdown, calculated a billable amount of $4,025. The court — explaining that “it’s been the practice of this Court normally to award less than what [counsel] ask[s] for” — -opted to award only $2,372.71 “because I think that ... minimally more than that was spent in this entire matter.” Id. at 174-75.

B.

Appellant’s response to her defeat in the collection suit was to file a complaint against SunTrust and MR & A in circuit court in Montgomery County, Maryland. Her amended complaint asserted seven claims in all, of which five are at issue in this appeal. 5 The first four counts challenged Appellees’ efforts to recover attorneys’ fees in the Virginia suit:

• Count I accused Appellees of violating the Maryland Consumer Debt Collection Act (“MCDCA”), which bars debt collectors from attempting to “enforce a right with knowledge that the right does not exist,” Md.Code Ann., Com. Law § 14-202(8);
*232 • Count II accused SunTrust of unfair or deceptive conduct in violation of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act (“MCPA”), Md.Code Ann., Com. Law §§ 13-301(1),-408(a);
• Count III accused MR & A of making false representations in violation of the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2); and
• Count IV accused MR & A of using “unfair or unconscionable means to” collect a debt that was neither “expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt [n]or permitted by law,” in violation of the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(l).

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780 F.3d 227, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 3482, 2015 WL 924101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mounia-elyazidi-v-suntrust-bank-ca4-2015.