St. Clair v. iEnergizer, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedJuly 21, 2021
Docket2:20-cv-01880
StatusUnknown

This text of St. Clair v. iEnergizer, Inc. (St. Clair v. iEnergizer, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Clair v. iEnergizer, Inc., (D. Nev. 2021).

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA

3 DIANE ST. CLAIR, ) 4 ) Plaintiff, ) Case No.: 2:20-cv-01880-GMN-VCF 5 vs. ) ) ORDER 6 IENERGIZER, INC., et al., ) 7 ) Defendants. ) 8 ) 9 Pending before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss, (ECF No. 23), filed by Defendant 10 Alorica, Inc. 1 Plaintiff Diane St. Clair (“Plaintiff”) filed a Response, (ECF No. 35), to which 11 EGS filed a Reply, (ECF No. 40). 12 Also pending before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss, (ECF No. 28), filed by 13 Defendant GC Services Limited Partnership (“GC Services”). Plaintiff filed a Response, (ECF 14 No. 38), to which GC Services filed a Reply, (ECF No. 47). 15 Also pending before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss, (ECF No. 29), filed by 16 Defendant Teleperformance Business Services US, LLC (“Teleperformance”). Plaintiff did not 17 file a response. 18 19 20 1 Defendant Alorica, Inc. asserts, in its Motion to Dismiss, that Plaintiff incorrectly named Alorica, Inc. as a defendant in the present action and that instead, EGS Financial Care, Inc. (“EGS”) “placed the alleged calls on 21 behalf of non-party Credit One Bank.” (EGS’s MTD at 2 n.1, ECF No. 23). Plaintiff disagrees, claiming that Alorica remains a proper defendant because Credit One’s discovery responses during arbitration in a related 22 case—St. Clair v. Credit One, 3:19-cv-00031-SLH (W. D. Penn. 2019)—specifically identified Alorica, Inc. as the proper party. (Resp. to EGS’s MTD at 2 n.2, ECF No. 35). Though EGS may not have been named in the 23 discovery response in the related case, Defendant Alorica provides a sworn declaration by Andrew Balthaser, Vice President of Compliance for EGS Financial Care, Inc., that verifies that Alorica, Inc. is the parent company 24 of EGS and that “EGS provides customer services and customer contact solutions for companies in various industries,” including Credit One Bank. (See Decl. Andrew Balthaser (“Balthaser Decl.”) ¶¶ 1, 6, 8, Ex. B to 25 EGS’s MTD, ECF No. 23-3). Plaintiff does not provide a declaration or affidavit to rebut this assertion. Accordingly, the Court finds that EGS is the proper party and accordingly addresses named defendant “Alorica, Inc.” as EGS for the remainder of this Order. 1 Also pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend, (ECF No. 31). 2 Defendants EGS and GC Services filed Responses, (ECF Nos. 43–44). Plaintiff did not file a 3 reply. 4 Also pending before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss, (ECF No. 50), filed by 5 Defendant iEnergizer, Inc. (“iEnergizer”). Plaintiff filed a Response, (ECF No. 51), to which 6 iEnergizer filed a Reply, (ECF No. 62). 7 Also pending before the Court is Defendant EGS’s Unopposed Motion for Leave to File 8 Supplemental Authority, (ECF No. 67). 9 For the reasons discussed below, the Court GRANTS the Motions to Dismiss filed by 10 Defendants EGS Financial Services, GS Services, and iEnergizer and DENIES as moot the 11 Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendant Teleperformance. The Court further DENIES as moot 12 Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend and GRANTS EGS’s Unopposed Motion to for Leave to File 13 Supplemental Authority. 14 I. BACKGROUND 15 This case arises out of alleged attempts to collect debt from Plaintiff by Defendants EGS, 16 GS Services, Teleperformance, and iEnergizer (collectively, “Defendants”). (See Compl., ECF 17 No. 1). Defendants are independent, third-party debt collectors who regularly call individuals 18 to collect or attempt to collect debts. (Id. ¶ 11). Defendants allegedly contracted with non-party 19 Credit One for their debt collection services. (Id. ¶ 11). 20 In Plaintiff maintained a credit account with non-party Credit One Bank. (Id. ¶ 18). In 21 March 2018, Plaintiff alleges that Defendants began calling Plaintiff in an attempt to collect a 22 debt associated with her account with Credit One Bank (“Account”). (Id. ¶ 22). Specifically,

23 on March 29, 2018, Plaintiff answered a collection call from one of the Defendants. (Id. ¶ 25). 24 When she answered the phone, Plaintiff heard a pause before the collection agent began to 25 speak, which she alleges indicates the use of an automated telephone dialing system. (Id.). The 1 collection agent identified itself as a Credit One representative and informed Plaintiff that it 2 was attempting to collect on a debt associated with her Account. (Id. ¶ 26). Plaintiff responded 3 that she was unable to make payment, asked Credit One to stop calling her, and requested all 4 future communication be sent via mail. (Id. ¶ 27). Plaintiff alleges that despite her requests, 5 Defendants continued to contact her. (Id. ¶ 28). Within a span of 85 days, Defendants allegedly 6 called Plaintiff at least 255 times. (Id. ¶ 29). Plaintiff suffers from fibromyalgia. (Id. ¶ 35). 7 Due to Defendants’ incessant phone calls, Plaintiff claims that her condition worsened as the 8 stress of the non-stop calls caused her fibromyalgia to flare up. (Id. ¶¶ 37-38). 9 On February 27, 2019, Plaintiff sued non-party Credit One in the Western District of 10 Pennsylvania. (See Docket Sheet, St. Clair v. Credit One Bank, N.A., 3:19-cv-00031-SLH 11 (W.D. Penn. 2019), Ex. 1 to EGS’s MTD, ECF No. 23-2). The parties stipulated to arbitration 12 in Pennsylvania. (See Decl. Steven Alpert (“Alpert Decl.”) ¶ 4, Ex. 1 to EGS’s MTD, ECF No. 13 35-2). During arbitration, Plaintiff claims that she discovered, for the first time, the identities 14 of certain vendors—specifically, Defendants—who contracted with non-party Credit One to 15 collect debts from consumers, including Plaintiff, on behalf of Credit One. (Id. ¶ 5); (see also 16 Credit One’s Resp. to Disc. Requests, Ex. 1-A to EGS’s MTD, ECF No. 35-3). 17 Plaintiff thereafter filed the instant suit on October 8, 2020. (See Compl., ECF No. 1). 18 Specifically, Plaintiff alleges the following three claims: (1) violation of the Telephone 19 Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) 47 U.S.C. § 227, et seq.; (2) violation of the Fair Debt 20 Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq.; and (3) intrusion upon 21 seclusion. (Id. ¶¶ 41–60). Defendants filed the instant Motions to Dismiss. (See EGS’s MTD, 22 ECF No. 23); (GS Services’ MTD, ECF No. 28); (Teleperformance’s MTD, ECF No. 29);

23 (iEnergizer’s MTD, ECF No. 50). Plaintiff thereafter filed a Motion for Leave to File an 24 Amended Complaint. (See Mot. Amend, ECF No. 31). 25 // 1 II. LEGAL STANDARD 2 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2) permits a defendant, by way of motion, to 3 assert the defense that a court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendant. Fed. R. Civ. P. 4 12(b)(2). When a 12(b)(2) motion is based on written materials, rather than an evidentiary 5 hearing, the plaintiff need only establish a prima facie showing of jurisdictional facts to 6 withstand the motion to dismiss. Ballard v. Savage, 65 F.3d 1495, 1498 (9th Cir. 1995). 7 District courts take the uncontroverted allegations in the complaint as true. Dole Food Co. v. 8 Watts, 303 F.3d 1104, 1108 (9th Cir. 2002). 9 When no federal statute applies to the determination of personal jurisdiction, the law of 10 the state in which the district court sits applies. Schwarzenegger v. Fred Martin Motor Co., 374 11 F.3d 797, 800 (9th Cir. 2004). Because Nevada’s long-arm statute reaches the outer limits of 12 federal constitutional due process, courts in Nevada need only assess constitutional principles 13 of due process when determining personal jurisdiction. See Nev. Rev. Stat.

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St. Clair v. iEnergizer, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-clair-v-ienergizer-inc-nvd-2021.