Opinion
Case No. 14 C 9136
11-17-2014
MARISOL R. CASTILLO, Plaintiff, v. LVNV FUNDING, LLC; RESURGENT CAPITAL SERVICES, LP; WELTMAN, WEINBERG & REIS CO, LPA, BARRISTER INVESTIGATIONS & FILING SERVICE, INC., and BENNIE HARRIS, Defendants.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
This Court has received the chambers copy of the Complaint in which Marisol Castillo ("Castillo") invokes the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("Act") against LVNV Funding, LLC ("LVNV") and a number of other defendants and has coupled that federal claim with three state law counts advanced under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). This brief memorandum order is being issued contemporaneously with this Court's typical scheduling order that sets an initial status hearing date.
No substantive questions are raised (or implied) here as to the gravamen of Castillo's Complaint as set out at length by her counsel. Instead this memorandum order poses a question as to the basis for counsel's having included LVNV as an asserted "debt collector," given (1) the allegations in Complaint ¶¶ 5 and 6 that it is actually the owner of the debts that it pursues and (2) the Act's definition in 15 U.S.C. § 1692(a)(6) that limits the "debt collector" label to the pursuit of "debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another" (emphasis added). Castillo's counsel should be prepared to answer that question (including citations to any relevant caselaw authority) either at or before the initial status hearing date.
This memorandum order should not be misunderstood as an approval of the practice described in those paragraphs, an aspect of the merits of the litigation as to which, once again, this Court expresses no substantive views.
/s/_________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: November 17, 2014