Opinion ID: 2817828
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Massachusetts CCCDA Claim

Text: Like Philibotte's claim under RISSA, Philibotte's claim under Massachusetts CCCDA will only succeed if the lease meets the statutory definition of a credit sale. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140D, § 1. Unlike for RISSA, the SJC has yet to speak directly on the appropriate construction, and so we must predict how the SJC would likely rule in this case. Barton, 632 F.3d at 17. The statutory definition of credit sale includes leases if the . . . lessee contracts to pay as compensation for use a sum substantially equivalent to or in excess of the aggregate value of the property and services involved. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140D, § 1.10 Philibotte's lease clearly does not meet this 10 The relevant definition reads in full: - 15 - standard. She only contract[ed] to pay $204, a sum concededly less than half the value of the property . . . involved, and so far, far less than the value of the property and services -- which included installation. See id. For this reason, we need not reach Philibotte's argument that the original term effectively constituted a down payment, because even if the SJC declined to strictly apply the statutory definition, Philibotte's lease does not meet it. Cf. Saia v. Bay State Gas Co., 965 N.E.2d 224, 2012 WL 1145913, at -4 (Mass. App. Ct. Apr. 6, 2012) (unpublished disposition) (finding a water-heater lease may be a disguised credit sale where original three-year term required payment far exceeding value of heater). In so doing, we do not follow the district court's reasoning that, because CCCDA and RISSA share similar statutory definitions for the type of consumer transactions covered,11 the Credit sale, [is] any sale in which the seller is a creditor. The term includes any contract in the form of a bailment or lease if the bailee or lessee contracts to pay as compensation for use a sum substantially equivalent to or in excess of the aggregate value of the property and services involved and it is agreed that the bailee or lessee will become, or for no other or a nominal consideration has the option to become, the owner of the property upon full compliance with his obligations under the contract. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140D, § 1. 11 The only difference between the CCCDA definition and the RISSA definition is that CCCDA substitutes the aggregate value of the property and services involved for the value of goods involved, and owner of the property for owner of the goods. - 16 - standard articulated in Silva also applies to Philibotte's claim under the CCCDA. See Philibotte, 2014 WL 6968441, at  & n.4. We need not, and so should not, reach that issue because Philibotte's claim plainly fails to meet the first prong of the CCCDA definition. Accordingly, we need not, and so should not, decide whether Silva controls the appropriate construction of the CCCDA. Cf. Camelio, 137 F.3d at 672 (quoting United Mine Workers, 383 U.S. at 726) (counseling avoidance of [n]eedless decisions of state law).12