Yergovich v. Small Cmty. Specialists LLC

337 F. Supp. 3d 635
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedSeptember 11, 2018
DocketCase No. 1:17-cv-865
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 337 F. Supp. 3d 635 (Yergovich v. Small Cmty. Specialists LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yergovich v. Small Cmty. Specialists LLC, 337 F. Supp. 3d 635 (E.D. Va. 2018).

Opinion

*640(vi) to enforce and monitor homeowners' compliance with The Village HOA's governing documents and architectural restrictions;
(vii) to inspect and maintain the physical grounds of the community;
(viii) to maintain The Village HOA's accounts by making investments on behalf of The Village HOA and determining the financial institution into which The Village HOA's funds will be deposited;
(ix) to make disbursements on behalf of The Village HOA in payment of taxes, insurance, and utilities; and
(x) to prepare and present to The Village HOA a yearly budget and monthly financial statement consisting of profits, losses, and account balances.
• Additionally, SCS provides the following services to The Village HOA:
(i) SCS provides an on-call maintenance service to the owner members of The Village HOA.
(ii) SCS prepares and files the paperwork and payment required to maintain The Village HOA's corporate status in Virginia. SCS also completes and submits The Village HOA's Community Association Annual Report with the Virginia Common Interest Community Board.
(iii) SCS facilitates the hiring of accountants and the completion of The Village HOA's annual tax filings.
• The Management Agreement authorizes a schedule of periodic routine service charges, the majority of which do not relate to delinquency processing or debt-collection activity.
• SCS took over as management company for The Village HOA effective August 1, 2016. SCS immediately assumed control over plaintiff's account, and continued collection of plaintiff's allegedly delinquent dues. The Account History Report produced by defendants showed plaintiff's account was in default by $713.94.
• From August 2016 to December 2016, SCS mailed out between eleven and forty-eight delinquency notices per month to The Village homeowners and imposed charges for delinquency status on four homeowners in November 2016 and nineteen homeowners in December 2016.
• SCS's monthly invoices to Village HOA from August to December 2016 reveal that fees for delinquency processing comprised nineteen percent of the itemized charges billed to The Village HOA and ten percent of SCS's total charges billed to The Village HOA.
• From August 2016 to October 2016, defendants sent plaintiff written notices that his account was delinquent and demanded payment of the delinquent charges and late fees.
• On October 17, 2016, defendants sent plaintiff a certified letter titled "Notice of Intent to Accelerate Assessments and File Lien." The letter demanded payment of $883.94 and stated, "If payment in full is not received by the Managing Agent within the timeframe stated in the Associations Collection Policy, the remaining installments of your annual assessment will be accelerated and declared due and payable immediately *641and a lien shall be filed against your unit...."
• In December 2016, defendants wrote off some of the charges on plaintiff's account.
• Plaintiff is employed by the United States Marshal Service, for which he has a top-secret clearance. Plaintiff has had previous employment-related problems due to credit issues, which he wanted to avoid repeating.
• Plaintiff has suffered stress, anxiety, irritation, frustration, and loss of sleep because of the potential impact the defendants' written delinquency notices may have on plaintiff's security clearance. Plaintiff has also suffered stress, anxiety, irritation, frustration, and loss of sleep due to defendants' threats to put a lien on his home and to accelerate the payments of his HOA dues. Plaintiff has taken over-the-counter medicine to help with the anxiety.

II.

It is well-settled that a plaintiff must have standing for a federal court to exercise jurisdiction over plaintiff's claim. See Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife , 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). This standing requirement has three elements: (1) plaintiff must have suffered an injury in fact, (2) the injury must be fairly traceable to defendant's alleged conduct, and (3) it must be likely that plaintiff's injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. Id. at 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130. An injury in fact must be "concrete and particularized" and "actual or imminent." Id. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130. And in the context of a putative class action, "if none of the named plaintiffs purporting to represent a class establishes the requisite of a case or controversy with the defendants, none may seek relief on behalf of himself or any other member of the class." O'Shea v. Littleton , 414 U.S. 488, 494, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). Here, plaintiff is the only named plaintiff and filed Counts I and II of his complaint on behalf of others similarly situated. Plaintiff must therefore have standing to pursue each of the Counts against defendants.

First, plaintiff asserts standing on the basis that defendants' conduct in violation of the FDCPA caused him to suffer emotional distress. This allegation is sufficient to satisfy the standing requirement. In this regard, the Fourth Circuit has recently held that, in the context of a FDCPA case, a plaintiff can establish the existence of an injury in fact by showing that she has suffered and continues to suffer from emotional distress due to the defendant's violations of the FDCPA. Moore v. Blibaum & Assocs., P.A. , 693 F. App'x 205, 206 (4th Cir. 2017) ; Ben-Davies v.

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Bluebook (online)
337 F. Supp. 3d 635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yergovich-v-small-cmty-specialists-llc-vaed-2018.