Opinion ID: 2997148
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Monthly Bills

Text: For Corporate Broadband to have violated § 1692j, it must have “design[ed], compil[ed], and furnish[ed]” the allegedly deceptive forms. 15 U.S.C. § 1692j(a) (emphasis added); see also Laubach v. Arrow Serv. Bur., Inc., 987 F. Supp. 625, 630 (N.D. Ill. 1997) (noting that the conjunction “and” indicates that all three are required as elements of a § 1692j offense). The only evidence proffered by plaintiffs that Corporate Broadband designed, compiled, and furnished the plaintiffs’ monthly bills is the address contained on the detachable payment coupon included with the bill, and, in the case of Gutierrez, the name of the payee. Rydel’s payment coupons directed him to make his checks payable to “AT&T Cable Services” and to send them to “AT&T Cable Services” at a Denver, Colorado post office box. After being notified of the name change from “AT&T Cable Services” to “AT&T Broadband,” Gutierrez’s payment coupon directed her to make her checks payable to “AT&T Broadband” (not AT&T Broadband, LLC) and to send them to “AT&T Broadband” (not AT&T Broadband, LLC) at the same Denver, Colorado post office box listed on Rydel’s payment coupons. It is undisputed that Corporate Broadband receives mail at the post office box listed on the bills. However, it is also undisputed that Chicago Cable’s billing system generates the information contained on cable subscribers’ bills and that Chicago Cable sends those bills to its customers. The plaintiffs request that we infer that Corporate Broadband “permitted” Chicago Cable to use its address on the bills (and in the case of Gutierrez, permitted the use of an abbreviated version of its name, “AT&T Broadband”). From this premise, the plaintiffs argue that permitting the use of its address (and, in the case of Gutierrez, its abbreviated name) meets § 1692j’s requirement that Corporate Broadband “design, compile, and furnish” the allegedly decep14 No. 03-3484 tive form. They further allege that the plaintiffs were deceived by the bills into believing a third party—Corporate Broadband—was involved in the collection of their debt. Although the record is far from clear, we will assume that the Denver address appears on the bills because Corporate Broadband “permitted” its use by Chicago Cable, and we will further assume that, to the extent the words “AT&T Broadband” appear in conjunction with the Denver address on Gutierrez’s bills, Corporate Broadband intended it to represent an abbreviated version of its name and also permitted its use. However, “permitting” the use of a post office box not obviously associated with Corporate Broadband in Rydel’s case (Corporate Broadband’s name appears nowhere on the bill, and his bills directed payment to “AT&T Cable Services”) surely does not amount to “designing, compiling, and furnishing” the bill, as is required under the Act. Rather, the undisputed evidence establishes that Chicago Cable designed, compiled, and furnished the bills to its customers. And, even though Gutierrez’s bills contained both the Denver address and the payee “AT&T Broadband,” plaintiffs present no case law that would support a finding that permitting two such pieces of information to appear on a bill designed, compiled, and furnished by the creditor amounts to a violation of § 1692j. Moreover, if the primary purpose behind § 1692j is to protect consumers from believing that their debt has been turned over to some other entity as a means of intimidating them into paying, see White, 200 F.3d at 1018, the billing practice criticized here is not the kind of behavior the law was meant to discourage. Even though their bills directed payment to an unfamiliar address, the bills listed the payees as “AT&T Cable Services” or “AT&T Broadband” and were printed on paper bearing the blue globe logo appearing next to the familiar trademark “AT&T.” The bills were consistent with the plaintiffs’ understanding of the identity of their local cable service provider—both Gutierrez and No. 03-3484 15 Rydel ordered cable in person from an individual they believed represented AT&T, and they both signed work orders bearing the AT&T logo and the name “AT&T Cable Services.” Both admit that the name “AT&T Cable Services” was later changed to “AT&T Broadband” to reflect broader services, including Internet access. The bills, referencing the only entities with which they dealt throughout their cable acquisition, could not have deceived them into believing a third party—Corporate Broadband— was attempting to collect their debt, as they claim. Put differently, where, as here, the plaintiffs’ monthly bills provided consistent information both before and after the plaintiffs fell into arrears, it makes no sense to assert that a post office box and/or a name considered benign prior to the billing dispute takes on new meaning after the dispute; that the new meaning to be imputed is that a third party has been interjected into the process where none was suspected before; and that the plaintiffs’ wills were overborne by such a revelation. See Nielson, 307 F.3d at 633 (noting that § 1692j is designed to thwart debtor intimidation); White, 200 F.3d at 1018 (noting that Congress’s concern in enacting § 1692j was to prevent deception inducing debtors to abandon legitimate defenses). Indeed, there is no evidence of any intimidation occurring here—Rydel attached no significance to the Denver, Colorado address on his bill when questioned about it during his deposition, the address wasn’t even discussed in Gutierrez’s deposition, and both plaintiffs admit that they believed they were dealing with AT&T throughout the events leading to this lawsuit. Thus, even if we decide, which we do not, that Corporate Broadband designed, compiled, and furnished the bills, no rational trier of fact could find that Corporate Broadband did so knowing that the bills would be used to deceive plaintiffs into believing that another entity, and not their cable service provider, was attempting to collect their debt, as required by the plain language of the Act. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692j. 16 No. 03-3484