Court Opinion

ID: 9486950
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:04:33.963706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:01.611628
License: Public Domain

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the complaint states a claim on which relief may be granted and therefore comes within the jurisdiction of the district court. Section 807 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692e, forbids the use of any “deceptive” representation in connection with debt collection, and § 1692e(l) adds that the debt collector may not create a false “implication that the debt collector is vouched for” by the United States. Although the words of defendants’ letter are true, the statute recognizes that literal truth may convey a misleading impression. Hyper-rational people can draw correct inferences if they understand the speaker’s incentives. Paul Milgrom & John Roberts, Relying on the Information of Interested Parties, 17 Rand J.Econ. 18 (1986). Ordinary people can’t. Plaintiffs *1259may be able to show that readers have been gulled.
Like my colleagues, I think that the trier of fact must inquire whether a misleading implication arises from an objectively reasonable reading of the communication. Although other courts say that debt collectors must avoid misleading even the “least sophisticated consumer,” that formula comes from decisions under the Federal Trade Commission Act and finds no purchase in the text of this statute. Taking “least sophisticated consumer” seriously either condemns all debt collection efforts (because some simpleton is bound to read the most fantastic things into ordinary language) or creates a system random in operation (because courts must be applying some other rule, which they have not communicated to debt collectors). The “least sophisticated consumers” actually believe that 12 Senators are from other planets.† If GC Services were to write: “We have no connection to the U.S. Government,” some recipients would believe exactly the opposite. And using the “least sophisticated consumer” as the benchmark would create big problems when determining whether the plaintiff belongs to the class he purports to represent. Imagine the deposition:
Q: Mr. Gammon, I see that you received a C+ in high school English and read detective stories. How then can you be included among the least sophisticated recipients of debt collection notices?
A: Counsel, even my best friends will tell you that I am a simpering fool.
Litigation to determine just how gullible the class representative is would not be enlightening.
Although the majority describes the unsophisticated person “whose reasonable perceptions will be used to determine if collection messages are deceptive or misleading” (opinion at 6) as “hypothetical,” I understand this reference point to be hypothetical in the same sense as the reasonable person of tort law is hypothetical. Courts seek a benchmark divorced from any one person, but reflecting the behavior of classes of persons acting reasonably. And this reasonable person must differ according to the nature of the addressees. A warning about a drug’s side effects, perfectly adequate for the reasonable physician, may be woefully deficient for the reasonable consumer. Thus it is potentially important that the recipients of GC Services’ letter were American Express cardholders, a group that is less apt to be misled than, say, an association of high school dropouts. Such persons are likely to read the letter to say that “we are experienced debt collectors, as our list of customers shows” rather than to say that “the IRS endorses us” or that “the IRS will collect this debt.” The mere mention of the IRS does not induce these persons to whip out their checkbooks. Being low bidder in a federal contract procurement (which is how GC Services came to furnish *1260the IRS with a collection system) need not imply prowess. Indeed, holders of American Express accounts may appreciate that the IRS is notoriously poor at collecting debts. See Robert D. Hershey, Jr., “When the I.R.S. Is a Soft Touch,” The New York Times sec. C, p. 1, col. 3 (Apr. 8, 1994). To say, as the letter does, that “X is among our customers,” differs from saying that “X endorses our product or service.” Monarchies use commercial endorsements as sources of revenue; the United States lacks a comparable tradition. No supplier flys a banner such as: “By appointment, vendor to the Department of the Treasury since 1789.”
Because we have rejected the “least sophisticated consumer” approach, the plaintiff will have to show that a significant fraction of the letter’s addressees were deceived — for if showing a handful of misled debtors were enough, we would as a practical matter be using the “least sophisticated consumer” doctrine. What proportion is high enough, and how the extent of misunderstanding will be established, is something the district court will have to mull over, but I assume that trademark cases, which present similar questions, will offer aid.

 See Nick Mann, "12 Senators Are From Outer Space,” Weekly World News 1, 23-25 (June 7, 1994). The article quotes Senator Gramm: “It’s all true. We are space aliens. I’m amazed that it has taken you so long to find out.” The article poses an interesting constitutional problem: are non-humans eligible to sit in the Senate? Art. I § 3 cl. 3 provides: "No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.” Mann’s sources were concerned about this. Nathaniel Dean, an "expert” on extraterrestrial lawmakers, is quoted as saying: “The first question that came to my mind was whether the senators are U.S. citizens and eligible to serve in the U.S. Senate ... From what I understand, they were bom in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens. It just so happens that their parents were from another world.” But are non-humans “persons” for purposes of the Constitution, and therefore eligible to be citizens of the United States? Professor Ackerman would answer yes, to the extent they have demonstrated “dialogic competence.” Bruce A. Ackerman, Social Justice in the Liberal State (1980). Corporations are "persons,” although they are not homo sapiens. See Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific R.R., 118 U.S. 394, 396, 6 S.Ct. 1132, 1140, 30 L.Ed. 118 (1886); cf. First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 778 n. 14, 98 S.Ct. 1407, 1416 n. 14, 55 L.Ed.2d 707 (1978). But see Miles v. Augusta City Council, 710 F.2d 1542, 1544 n. 5 (11th Cir.1983) (a talking cat is not a "person”). If sentient non-humans are citizens, should "years” be measured from the perspective of Earth or from the perspective of the Senator’s native planet? Cf. Richard A. Posner, The Problems of Jurisprudence 265-69 (1990). Perhaps these are political questions. Compare Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969), with McIntyre v. Fallahay, 766 F.2d 1078 (7th Cir.1985). Fortunately, it is not necessary to wrestle these issues to the ground in order to resolve a case under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.