Rather than dismiss a case as directed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a District Court judge in Tennessee has decided to allow a plaintiff to file a second amended complaint against a collection agency for allegedly violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because it did not use its true name during telephone calls and when leaving a voicemail for the plaintiff.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Ward v. NPAS can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff made two visits to a medical center, incurring an $80 balance for each visit. The accounts were placed with the defendant for collection. For each debt, the defendant sent two collection letters and left one voicemail message. The defendant used NPAS to refer to itself in the letters and voicemail messages. While he was receiving the letters and voicemails, the plaintiff retained counsel and sent a cease-and-desist letter to NPAS Solutions, an unrelated company to the defendant. The defendant continued to try and get in touch with the plaintiff because it had not received the cease-and-desist request.
The defendant won a motion for summary judgment because the debts were not in default at the time the communications were sent.
The plaintiff appealed the decision and the Sixth Circuit sided with the defendant, but ordered the District Court judge to dismiss the case instead of awarding summary judgment.
In his amended complaint, the plaintiff “substantially expands” the allegations against the defendant, and are sufficient to establish standing to sue, ruled Judge Aleta A. Trauger of the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The defendant attempted to argue that if the only injury that was suffered was the plaintiff’s confusion, then he does not have standing to pursue his lawsuit. “The court is not persuaded,” Judge Trauger wrote, “largely because a lay plaintiff’s understanding of what his quantifiable damages may be has little bearing on the question of whether he suffered an injury under the law sufficient to give rise to Article III standing.”
