Opinion ID: 2316469
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of Plaintiffs' FDCPA Allegations

Text: The FDCPA forbids a debt collector from, inter alia: communicating with a third party subject to limited exceptions, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(b); continuing to communicate with a consumer following a written request to cease communication, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c); [c]ausing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number, 15 U.S.C. § 1692d(5); and, falsely representing the amount of a debt, 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2)(A). The Bridges, in their SAC, alleged that Defendants have violated each of these provisions. The Bridges have stated a claim under the FDCPA. They allege that there is no assignment of record to establish that Deutsche is a creditor or that Ocwen Bank is a loan servicer; that Ocwen Bank made persistent efforts to collect a debt, i.e., mortgage payments; and that the Defendants used the mails as well as an instrumentality of interstate commerce, i.e., the telephone system, to do so. Thus, they have sufficiently alleged that the Defendants are debt collectors, rather than creditors or loan servicers. See Llewellyn v. Shearson Fin. Network, Inc., 622 F.Supp.2d 1062, 1073 (D.Colo.2009) (accepting for purposes of Rule 12(b)(6) an allegation that defendant was a debt collector due to its failure to legally obtain the right to collect a debt). They further allege that Defendants have impermissibly communicated with third parties concerning Lisa Bridge's asserted outstanding debt; that Defendants have ignored their repeated requests to cease communications; that Defendants have targeted their personal telephone lines with the intent to annoy, abuse or harass them; and that they have falsely reported the amount of the debt the Bridges owe (or don't owe) to the credit reporting agencies and to other parties. These allegations, which must be taken as true, are more than sufficient to state a plausible claim for relief based on the FDCPA.