Opinion ID: 777656
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendants' Alleged Misrepresentation to Licari

Text: 26 The purpose of the FDCPA is to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors, to insure that those debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses. 15 U.S.C. § 1692(e). The FDCPA establishes certain rights for consumers whose debts are placed in the hands of professional debt collectors for collection, and requires that such debt collectors advise the consumers whose debts they seek to collect of specified rights. DeSantis v. Computer Credit, Inc., 269 F.3d 159, 161 (2d Cir.2001). The legislative history of the passage of the FDCPA explains that the need for the FDCPA arose because of collection abuses such as use of obscene or profane language, threats of violence, telephone calls at unreasonable hours, misrepresentation of a consumer's legal rights, disclosing a consumer's personal affairs to friends, neighbors, or an employer, obtaining information about a consumer through false pretense, impersonating public officials and attorneys, and simulating legal process. S.Rep. No. 95-382, at 2 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1695, 1696. The FDCPA sets forth examples of particular practices that debt collectors are forbidden to employ. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692e. The list, however, is non-exhaustive, and the FDCPA generally forbids collectors from engaging in unfair, deceptive, or harassing behavior. See 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692 et seq. Kropelnicki argues that the defendants violated the FDCPA by advancing the state court action after having told Licari that they would not do so without first contacting him. Although not dispositive to our holding here, since we dismiss the appeal in regard to this issue, we would have grave reservations about concluding that this sort of claim is actionable under the FDCPA. A review of the FDCPA's purpose, as explained both in the statute and in the legislative history, and this Court's treatment of the FDCPA in other cases leads us to believe that alleged misrepresentations to attorneys for putative debtors cannot constitute violations of the FDCPA. 27 The FDCPA was passed to protect consumers from deceptive or harassing actions taken by debt collectors. To effectuate this purpose, we review claims of FDCPA violations under the so-called least-sophisticated-consumer standard in order to: (1) ensure[] the protection of all consumers, even the naive and the trusting, against deceptive debt collection practices, and (2) protect[] debt collectors against liability for bizarre or idiosyncratic interpretations of collection notices. Clomon v. Jackson, 988 F.2d 1314, 1320 (2d Cir.1993). Accordingly, we find serious flaws in Kropelnicki's argument that a violation of the FDCPA occurs where a party alleges that his attorney has been misled to the party's detriment. See Romea v. Heiberger & Assocs., 163 F.3d 111, 118 (2d Cir.1998) (explaining that we may decline to interpret the FDCPA in a manner that would thwart the obvious purpose of the statute) (citation omitted). Where an attorney is interposed as an intermediary between a debt collector and a consumer, we assume the attorney, rather than the FDCPA, will protect the consumer from a debt collector's fraudulent or harassing behavior. However, this is not an issue on which we need to rule today. 28
29 A threshold matter not raised by either party or the district court concerns our subject matter jurisdiction over a portion of this appeal, which we are obliged to raise sua sponte. Henrietta D. v. Giuliani, 246 F.3d 176, 179 (2d Cir.2001). Under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, lower federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over claims that effectively challenge state court judgments. See D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 486-87, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 415-16, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923). The doctrine reflects the principle set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 1257 that the Supreme Court is the only federal court that has jurisdiction to review state court judgments, ASARCO Inc. v. Kadish, 490 U.S. 605, 622, 109 S.Ct. 2037, 104 L.Ed.2d 696 (1989), unless otherwise provided by Congress, see, e.g., 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (habeas corpus review). This comity principle seeks to prevent state and federal courts ... [from] fight[ing] each other for control of a particular case. Atl. Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Bhd. of Locomotive Eng'rs, 398 U.S. 281, 286, 90 S.Ct. 1739, 26 L.Ed.2d 234 (1970). 30 In addition to claims that were actually litigated in state court, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars lower federal courts from exercising jurisdiction over claims that are inextricably intertwined with state court determinations. Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482-83 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. 1303. A claim is inextricably intertwined under Rooker-Feldman when at a minimum,... a federal plaintiff had an opportunity to litigate a claim in a state proceeding (as either the plaintiff or defendant in that proceeding), ... [and] the claim ... would be barred under the principles of preclusion. Moccio v. N.Y. State Office of Court Admin., 95 F.3d 195, 199-200 (2d Cir.1996). However, where the claims were never presented in the state court proceedings and the plaintiff did not have an opportunity to present the claims in those proceedings, the claims are not `inextricably intertwined' and therefore not barred by Rooker-Feldman.  Id. at 199. 31 Kropelnicki's claim regarding the misrepresentation made by defendants to Licari is inextricably intertwined with the state court judgment in the underlying debt collection action because she had an opportunity to raise this claim on her motion to open the judgment in state court. This is so even accepting as true her claim that she was kept out of the state court action in the first instance by the defendants' misrepresentation to Licari that they would not advance the litigation without first contacting him. A litigant may not rely on the deception of her opponents to demonstrate that she was not afforded a reasonable opportunity to raise her claims. Long v. Shorebank Dev. Corp., 182 F.3d 548, 559 (7th Cir.1999). Kropelnicki's claim regarding this misrepresentation sounds in fraud, yet we have never recognized a blanket fraud exception to Rooker-Feldman.  Johnson v. Smithsonian Inst., 189 F.3d 180, 186-87 (2d Cir.1999). Instead, in order to demonstrate a lack of opportunity to present her claims in state court, Kropelnicki must show some factor independent of the actions of the opposing party that precluded [her] from raising [her] federal claims. Long, 182 F.3d at 558. Kropelnicki has not identified any such factor. 32 Connecticut law provides four months from the date a judgment was rendered or passed in which to petition the court to open a default judgment. Conn. Gen.Stat. § 52-212. The judgment may be opened if a party 33 show[s] reasonable cause, or [shows] that a good cause of action or defense in whole or in part existed at the time of the rendition of the judgment or the passage of the decree, and that the plaintiff or defendant was prevented by mistake, accident or other reasonable cause from prosecuting the action or making the defense. 34 Id. In addition, Connecticut law allows for any judgment obtained through fraudulent means to be opened at any time. Kenworthy v. Kenworthy, 180 Conn. 129, 429 A.2d 837, 838 (1980) (per curiam). Accordingly, Connecticut law afforded Kropelnicki ample opportunity to raise her misrepresentation claim. 35 In fact, Kropelnicki was well aware of this opportunity because on December 10, 1999, she filed a motion to open the state court judgment, claiming that [r]easonable cause to open the judgment exists since she allegedly did not have notice of any of the proceedings until receipt of the October 28 letter. Although Kropelnicki's motion makes no mention of the defendants' alleged misrepresentation to Licari, Connecticut law nonetheless afforded Kropelnicki a full and fair opportunity to raise this claim in state court. Whether or not the claim was raised is unknown to us because, as previously noted, we were not favored with any information relating to the ongoing proceedings in the state court. 36 Moreover, if adjudication of a claim in federal court would require the court to determine that a state court judgment was erroneously entered or was void, the claim is inextricably intertwined with the merits of the state court judgment. See Jordahl v. Democratic Party, 122 F.3d 192, 202 (4th Cir.1997). Were we to accept Kropelnicki's argument that the defendants misrepresented to Licari that they would take no further steps in the state court action without first contacting him, our ruling would effectively declare the state court judgment fraudulently procured and thus void. This is precisely the result that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine seeks to avoid: The Rooker-Feldman doctrine provides that the lower federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over a case if the exercise of jurisdiction over that case would result in the reversal or modification of a state court judgment. Hachamovitch v. DeBuono, 159 F.3d 687, 693 (2d Cir.1998); see also Charchenko v. City of Stillwater, 47 F.3d 981, 983 (8th Cir.1995) ( Rooker-Feldman precludes a federal action if the relief requested in the federal action would effectively reverse the state court decision or void its ruling.). 37 Accordingly, we find Kropelnicki's claimed violation of the FDCPA on the basis of the defendant's alleged misrepresentation to Licari to be inextricably intertwined with the state court default judgment and the motion to vacate it. Since Kropelnicki had ample opportunity to raise this claim before the state court, we conclude that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars us from reviewing this claim.