Vantu v. Echo Recovery, LLC

85 F. Supp. 3d 939, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17372, 2015 WL 571102
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedFebruary 12, 2015
DocketCase No. 3:14CV958
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 85 F. Supp. 3d 939 (Vantu v. Echo Recovery, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vantu v. Echo Recovery, LLC, 85 F. Supp. 3d 939, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17372, 2015 WL 571102 (N.D. Ohio 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

JAMES G. CARR SR., District Judge.

This case arises out of a defaulted auto loan and a botched attempt at repossessing the vehicle securing the loan.

Plaintiff Wanda Yantu alleges that defendant Ronald Maddox threatened her at gunpoint while trying to repossess a van that belonged to Vantu’s ex-husband. Vantu brings claims against Maddox and the company — defendant Echo Recovery— that engaged Maddox to repossess the van under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., and Ohio law.

Pending is Echo’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction or, alternatively, for failure to state an FDCPA claim. (Doc. 18). For the reasons set forth below, I deny the motion.

Background

One day in October, 2013, Vantu was visiting her sister’s home, which was one or two miles from Vantu’s own home, in Willard, Ohio. Maddox appeared at the door and told Vantu he intended to repossess her ex-husband’s van, which was parked in the driveway.

Vantu told Maddox there was a mistake and he had no right to repossess the van. Vantu then got into the van and tried to drive to her ex-husband’s house, so that [941]*941the ex-husband and Maddox could resolve the matter.

But Maddox blocked Yantu from leaving: he started “a confrontation and brandished a semiautomatic pistol, pointed it through the van window at Vantu’s head, shouted profanity[,] and threatened to shoot Vantu.” (Doc. 1 at ¶ 9). Fearing for her life, Vantu opened the van door. Maddox then “physically battered Vantu while trying to take the keys to the van.” (Id. at ¶ 10).

This conduct led authorities to arrest Maddox and charge him with multiple crimes; he was “convicted ... and served time in the Huron County Jail.” (Id. at ¶11).

According to the complaint, Maddox was Echo’s “employee, contractor[,] and/or agent.” (Id. at ¶ 12). Echo allegedly “controlled the means and manner of Maddox’s repossession activities by directing him where and when to perform repossession, establishing policies and procedures for doing so[,] and by otherwise directing him.” (Id.).

Analysis

Echo moves to dismiss the complaint for want of subject-matter jurisdiction under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and, alternatively, to dismiss the FDCPA claim under Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).

It contends I have no jurisdiction over Vantu’s FDCPA claim because Echo is not a “debt collector” for purposes of 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6). Alternatively, Echo argues Vantu did not allege a plausible FDCPA claim.

A. Subject-Matter Jurisdiction

Federal district courts have original jurisdiction over “all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 1331. “The presence or absence of federal-question jurisdiction is governed by the well-pleaded complaint rule, which provides that federal jurisdiction exists only when a federal question is presented on the face of the plaintiffs properly pleaded complaint.” Caterpillar, Inc. v. Williams, 482 U.S. 386, 392, 107 S.Ct. 2425, 96 L.Ed.2d 318 (1987).

These principles would seem to doom Echo’s jurisdictional challenge, as the face of Vantu’s complaint presents a claim that Echo and its “employee, contractor[,] and/or agent” Maddox violated the FDCPA by “committing an unfair and unconscionable act while attempting to collect a debt.” (Doc. 1 at ¶¶ 12, 20).

Echo tries to circumvent these rules by mounting a factual attack on the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction.

It argues I may not take Vantu’s allegations as true, but must instead “weigh evidence and decide factual disputes necessary to resolve [its] challenge[ ] to subject matter jurisdiction.” (Doc. 22 at 3). To show the absence of jurisdiction, Echo has submitted an affidavit from its principal, Steve Hubbard, asserting: 1) the primary purpose of Echo’s business is not the collection of debts; and 2) Maddox was an independent contractor, over whose activities Echo had no control.

Although Echo is generally correct that a litigant may mount a factual attack on the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, it is wrong to argue it may do so here.

A defendant can challenge jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1) either facially or factually.

“When reviewing a facial attack,” which challenges the sufficiency of the allegations, “a district court takes the allegations in the complaint as true” and, “[i]f those allegations establish federal claims, jurisdiction exists.” Gentek Bldg. Prods., Inc. v. Sherwin-Williams, Co., 491 F.3d 320, 330 (6th Cir.2007).

[942]*942But where a defendant makes a factual attack, a court does not presume the complaint’s allegations are true. Id. Rather, the party invoking the court’s jurisdiction must introduce evidence supporting federal jurisdiction, and the court must weigh the evidence and decide whether jurisdiction is secure. Id.

This kind of attack is familiar, for example, in cases where the United States’s sovereign immunity might otherwise bar suit. E.g., Ohio Nat’l Life Ins. Co. v. United States, 922 F.2d 320, 324 (6th Cir.1990). Likewise, a factual attack may be appropriate where a defendant removing a diversity case to federal court alleges the plaintiff fraudulently joined a non-diverse defendant to avoid removal. Gentek, supra, 491 F.3d at 330.

But Rule 12(b)(1) does not permit a factual attack on the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction when, as is the case here, the attack “implicated the merits of the plaintiffs claim”:

[A] district court engages in a factual inquiry regarding the complaint’s allegations only when the facts necessary to sustain jurisdiction do not implicate the merits of the plaintiffs claim. If, on the other hand, an attack on subject-matter jurisdiction also implicates an element of the cause of action, then the district court should find that jurisdiction exists and deal with the objection as a direct attack on the merits of the plaintiffs claim.

Id. (emphasis in original; internal citations and quotation marks omitted).

Whether Echo is, in fact, a debt collector goes to the merits of Vantu’s FDCPA claim, not my power to adjudicate that claim. Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946) (“it is well settled that the failure to state a proper cause of action calls for a judgment on the merits and not for a dismissal for want of jurisdiction”); Hrivnak v.

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85 F. Supp. 3d 939, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17372, 2015 WL 571102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vantu-v-echo-recovery-llc-ohnd-2015.