Source: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/08-1200.html
Timestamp: 2017-12-17 19:55:05
Document Index: 93258186

Matched Legal Cases: ['§1692', '§1981', '§1981', '§164', '§1', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692', '§45', '§1692', '§1692', '§1692']

JERMAN v. CARLISLE, MCNELLIE, RINI, KRAMER & ULRICH LPA ET AL. | FindLaw
JERMAN v. CARLISLE, MCNELLIE, RINI, KRAMER & ULRICH LPA ET AL., (2010)
Argued: January 13, 2010 Decided: April 21, 2010
We decline to adopt the expansive reading of §1692k(c) that Carlisle proposes. We have long recognized the "common maxim, familiar to all minds, that ignorance of the law will not excuse any person, either civilly or criminally." Barlow v. United States, 7 Pet. 404, 411 (1833) (opinion for the Court by Story, J.); see also Cheek v. United States, 498 U. S. 192, 199 (1991) ("The general rule that ignorance of the law or a mistake of law is no defense to criminal prosecution is deeply rooted in the American legal system").5 Our law is therefore no stranger to the possibility that an act may be "intentional" for purposes of civil liability, even if the actor lacked actual knowledge that her conduct violated the law. In Kolstad v. American Dental Assn., 527 U. S. 526 (1999), for instance, we addressed a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 authorizing compensatory and punitive damages for "intentional discrimination," 42 U. S. C. §1981a, but limiting punitive damages to conduct undertaken "with malice or with reckless indifference to the federally protected rights of an aggrieved individual," §1981a(b)(1). We observed that in some circumstances "intentional discrimination" could occur without giving rise to punitive damages liability, such as where an employer is "unaware of the relevant federal prohibition" or acts with the "distinct belief that its discrimination is lawful." 527 U. S., at 536-537. See also W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts 110 (5th ed. 1984) ("[I]f one intentionally interferes with the interests of others, he is often subject to liability notwithstanding the invasion was made under an erroneous belief as to some ... legal matter that would have justified the conduct"); Restatement (Second) of Torts §164, and Comment e (1963-1964) (intentional tort of trespass can be committed despite the actor's mistaken belief that she has a legal right to enter the property).6
The FTC, of course, may refuse to issue such an opinion. See, e.g., 16 CFR §1.1 (providing that the Commission will issue advisory opinions "where practicable" and only when "[t]he matter involves a substantial or novel question of fact or law and there is no clear Commission or court precedent" or "is of significant public interest"). Apparently, within the past decade, the FTC has received only seven requests and issued four opinions. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 27-28; see also Federal Trade Commission,Commission FDCPA Advisory Opinions, online at http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm (as visited Apr. 19, 2010, and available in Clerk of Court's case file). Yet, should the dilemma I have described above prove serious, I would expect the FTC to receive more requests and to respond to them, thereby reducing the scope of the problem to the point where other available tools, e.g., damages caps and vicarious liability, will prove adequate. See ante, at 23-27. On this understanding, I agree with the Court and join its opinion.
Even if (contrary to my perception) the phrase could be used to refer to both these things, by what principle does the Court reject the more plausible meaning? The fact that "attorneys were excluded from the Act's definition of 'debt collector' until 1986," ibid., does not, as the Court contends, support its conclusion that errors of law are not covered. Attorneys are not the only ones who would have been able to claim a legal-error defense; non-attorneys make legal mistakes too. They also sometimes receive and rely upon erroneous legal advice from attorneys. Indeed, if anyone could satisfy the defense's requirement of maintaining "procedures reasonably adapted to avoid" a legal error, it would be a non-attorney debt collector who follows the procedure of directing all legal questions to his attorney.
The FDCPA addresses "abusive debt collection practices," §1692(e), by regulating interactions between commercial debt collectors and consumers. See ante, at 1-2. The statute permits private suits against debt collectors who violate its provisions. §1692k(a). An exception to liability is provided by the so-called bona fide error defense:
When construing a federal statute, courts should be mindful of the effect of the interpretation on congressional purposes explicit in the statutory text. The FDCPA states an objective that today's decision frustrates. The statutory purpose was to "eliminate abusive debt collection practices" and to ensure that debt collectors who refrain from using those practices "are not competitively disadvantaged." 15 U. S. C. §1692(e) ("Purposes"). The practices Congress addressed involved misconduct that is deliberate, see §1692(a) ("abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices"); §1692(c) ("misrepresentation or other abusive debt collection practices"), or unreasonable, see §1692c(a)(1) (prohibiting debt collectors from communicating with debtors at times "which should be known" to be inconvenient); §1692e(8) (prohibiting the communication of credit card information "which should be known to be false"). That explains the statutory objective not to disadvantage debt collectors who "refrain" from abusive practices--that is to say, debt collectors who do not intentionally or unreasonably adopt them. It further explains why Congress included a good-faith error exception, which exempts violations that are not intentional or unreasonable.
In referring to "abusive debt collection practices," however, surely Congress did not contemplate attorneys who act based on reasonable, albeit ultimately mistaken, legal interpretations. A debt collector does not gain a competitive advantage by making good-faith legal errors any more than by making good-faith factual errors. This is expressly so if the debt collector has implemented "procedures reasonably adapted to avoid" them. By reading §1692k(c) to exclude good-faith mistakes of law, the Court fails to align its interpretation with the statutory objectives.
The Court's responses to this point are perplexing. The Court first says that the 1980 amendment did not "obvious[ly]" change the scope of the TILA's bona fide error defense, given the "uniform interpretation" that the defense had been given in the Courts of Appeals. Ante, at 17. The Court thus prefers to make an entire statutory amendment surplusage rather than abandon its dubious assumption that Congress meant to ratify a nascent Court of Appeals consensus. Cf. Corley v. United States, 556 U. S. ___, ___ (2009) (slip op., at 9) ("[O]ne of the most basic interpretive canons [is] that [a] statute should be construed so that effect is given to all its provisions, so that no part will be inoperative or superfluous, void or insignificant" (internal quotation marks omitted; second alteration in original)). (Without any evidence, the Court speculates that perhaps the amendment was intended to codify existing judicial interpretations that excluded legal errors. Ante, at 17-18. If those judicial interpretation were truly as uniform as the Court suggests--and the presumption against mistake-of-law defenses as ironclad--there would have been no need for such a recodification.)
Liparota v. United States, 471 U. S. 419 (1985), is also inapposite. Cf. post, at 3 (Kennedy, J., dissenting). Concluding that a mistake-of-law defense is available under a provision that specifies particular conduct undertaken while " 'knowing' " that food stamp coupons had been " 'used in any manner in violation of [law],' " 471 U. S., at 428, n. 12, says little about the meaning of a "not intentional" "violation" in 15 U. S. C. §1692k(c). Indeed, the statute in Liparota bears a closer resemblance to the administrative penalty provision in §45(m)(1)(A). See supra, at 8-9.
Lower courts have taken different views about when, and whether, §1692k requires an award of attorney's fees. Compare Tolentino v. Friedman, 46 F. 3d 645 (CA7 1995) (award of fees to a successful plaintiff "mandatory"), and Emanuel, supra, at 808-809 (same, even where the plaintiff suffered no actual damages), with Graziano, 950 F. 2d, at 114, and n. 13 (attorney's fees may be denied for plaintiff's "bad faith conduct"), and Johnson v. Eaton, 80 F. 3d 148, 150-152 (CA5 1996) ("attorney's fees ... are only available [under §1692k] where the plaintiff has succeeded in establishing that the defendant is liable for actual and/or additional damages"; this reading "will deter suits brought only as a means of generating attorney's fees"). We need not resolve these issues today to express doubt that our reading of §1692k(c) will impose unmanageable burdens on debt collecting lawyers.
The page cited in the Senate Committee Report does not actually support the American Law Report's statement. It makes no mention of clarification or judicial interpretations; it merely states that the amendment is intended to "provide protection where errors are clerical or mechanical in nature," S. Rep. No. 96-368, p. 32 (1979).