Savage v. Hatcher

109 F. App'x 759
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 7, 2004
DocketNo. 03-3437
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 109 F. App'x 759 (Savage v. Hatcher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Savage v. Hatcher, 109 F. App'x 759 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

RYAN, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692-92(o), and Ohio law. The plaintiff, Lonnie J. Savage, alleges that two collection letters sent to him by the Hatcher Defendants on behalf of their client, Express Payroll Advance, violated Sections 1692e-g and 1692j of the FDCPA. He also alleges that the defendants violated the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, Ohio Rev.Code § 1345.01. The district court granted the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings with respect to Savage’s FDCPA claims, and it declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Savage’s state law claim. Savage now appeals from the court’s grant of the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings; he also appeals from the lower court’s order denying his motion to reconsider or to alter or amend. For the reasons set forth below, the judgment of the district court must be reversed in part and affirmed in part.

I.

When ruling on a motion for judgment on the pleadings, federal courts look only to the facts contained in the pleadings. See Weiner v. Klais & Co., 108 F.3d 86, 88 (6th Cir.1997). As the parties and their counsel are thoroughly familiar with the case, including the facts alleged in the pleadings, it is unnecessary to fully recount those allegations in this unpublished opinion; a brief overview will suffice.

Savage alleges that he entered into a loan agreement with Express Payroll Advance in June 2000, and that “[ujnder that agreement, Express solicited and accepted a personal, postdated check from plaintiff in the amount of $517.50, at a time when Express knew plaintiff and the account upon which that check was drawn lacked sufficient funds for its payment.” The plaintiff claims that, “[d]ue to personal financial problems, [he] was unable to pay off the loan from Express or to redeem the check held by it for security.” When Express presented Savage’s check for payment, it was returned for insufficient funds.

Express turned Savage’s account over to the Hatcher Defendants for collection, and the Hatcher Defendants sent two letters to Savage in their attempt to collect on the debt. Savage alleges that these “collection activities ... violated the prohibitions and requirements of the F.D.C.P.A. including but not limited to § 1692e, 1692f, 1692g, and a violation of 1692j.” Each of these sections, e, f, g, and j, is lengthy and need not be reproduced here. It suffices to say that e deals with “false or misleading representations,” f, with “unfair practices,” g, with “validation of debts,” and j, with “furnishing certain deceptive forms.”

II.

Savage contends that the district court committed “clear legal error” in granting the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings. He asks this court to reverse.

A.

We review a district court’s decision to grant a defendant’s motion for judgment [761]*761on the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c) under the same standard we use to review a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b). United States ex rel. Bledsoe v. Cmty. Health Sys., Inc., 342 F.3d 634, 643 (6th Cir.2003). That is, our review is de novo. Id.

B.

In reviewing this case, “we must construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, accept all of the complaint’s factual allegations as true, and determine whether the plaintiff undoubtedly can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle him to relief.” Ziegler v. IBP Hog Mkt., Inc., 249 F.3d 509, 512 (6th Cir.2001). We must also consider whether the plaintiff has complied with the pleading requirements set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8. See E.E.O.C. v. J.H. Routh Packing Co., 246 F. 3d 850, 851 (6th Cir.2001). Rule 8 provides that a complaint must include “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). While this pleading standard is quite liberal, a plaintiff must “ ‘allege a factual predicate concrete enough to warrant further proceedings.’ ” Found., for Interior Design Educ. Research v. Savannah Coll. of Art & Design, 244 F.3d 521, 530 (6th Cir.2001) (citation omitted). In other words, the “complaint ... must contain either direct or inferential allegations respecting all the material elements to sustain a recovery under some viable legal theory.” Lewis v. ACB Bus. Servs., Inc., 135 F.3d 389, 406 (6th Cir.1998) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). With these principles in mind, we turn to Savage’s complaint.

1.

With respect to Savage’s allegation that the two letters sent by the defendants violated Section 1692e of the FDCPA— “false or misleading representations” — we have carefully reviewed the pleadings and the law, and we are satisfied that, with two exceptions, the district court’s grant of the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings must be affirmed. As to the first exception, Savage may be able to prove that the amount of the debt represented in the letters was incorrect. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2)(A). Specifically, it is unclear whether the $25 “Administrative Charge(s)” was/were authorized by the loan agreement or state law. See Ohio Rev.Code § 1315.40(B). The district court’s conclusions with respect to the other portions of Section 1692e(2)(A), however, are affirmed. The court correctly concluded that the letters falsely represented neither the character nor the legal status of the debt. As to the second exception, Savage may be able to show that the absence of a disclosure in the second letter, stating that the communication was from a debt collector, was a violation of Section 1692e(ll). See 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(ll). Accordingly, we conclude that judgment on the pleadings with respect to the entirety of Savage’s claim made pursuant to Section 1692e was error.

2.

With regard to Savage’s allegation that the two letters sent by the defendants violated Section 1692f — “unfair practices” — it is not “beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S.

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109 F. App'x 759, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savage-v-hatcher-ca6-2004.