Judge Grants Summary Judgment for Defendant in FDCPA Case Over Multiple Addresses on Payment Coupon

In a case that was defended by Rick Perr and Monica Littman of Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck, a District Court judge in New York has granted a defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a class-action Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, ruling the plaintiff lacked standing to sue because he did not suffer a concrete injury when he received a collection letter that contained multiple addresses for the defendant on the payment coupon portion of a collection letter.

A copy of the ruling in the case of Adler v. Penn Credit Corp. can be accessed by clicking here.

After initially denying a motion to dismiss that was filed by the defendant, Judge Kenneth M. Karas of the District Court for the Southern District of New York looked at the recent series of rulings related to standing, while also reviewing the plaintiff’s deposition, and decided that he did not suffer a concrete injury when he claimed to have been confused, frustrated, and worried that a negative item would be added to his credit report. The plaintiff also claimed to have suffered headaches as a result of receiving the letter, and that there were friends, or a friend, who chose not to lend him money after learning that he had an account in collections. He accused the defendant violating Sections 1692e and 1692e(10) of the FDCPA by using false representations or deceptive means to attempt to collect on a debt.

None of that convinced Judge Karas that a concrete injury was suffered. “Plaintiff’s undetailed, internally inconsistent, and uncorroborated assertions in this vein fail to withstand scrutiny,” Judge Karas wrote, declining to look at the merits of the case and instead focusing on whether the plaintiff had standing or not.