McMullen v. Synchrony Bank
McMullen v. Synchrony Bank
Opinion of the Court
As we enter a new year, a top priority is often to get in better shape. Plaintiff Valerie McMullen had that same goal in 2010 and (unlike so many of us) actually followed through. After her favorite trainer left her gym, however, she sought a refund for unused sessions. What she received instead were two bills with new personal-training charges she claims she never incurred. After unsuccessfully trying to straighten out these alleged errors, Plaintiff brought this action against the two creditor banks-Chase and Synchrony-as well as various individuals and companies associated with the gym. The Court previously granted in part the banks' Motion to Dismiss, but left intact McMullen's counts against them alleging fraud, conspiracy to defraud, and violations of D.C. consumer-protection law. See McMullen v. Synchrony Bank,
*298I. Background
In cross-moving for summary judgment here, the parties largely agree on the material facts. The Court, accordingly, recounts those that are undisputed, while noting specific disagreements about others.
A. Factual History
Although Chase is the only Defendant implicated in this Opinion, some background regarding the others is helpful. In 2008, Chase rolled out a program, ChaseHealthAdvance, which offered a revolving line of credit "for the purpose of financing and facilitating the payment of the medical costs of various ... procedures." Def. MSJ, Exh. 1-B (2008 Chase Provider Agreement) at 1;
On November 10, 2008, Chase entered into a provider agreement with Bullen Wellness, a joint venture between two business associates, Karim Steward and Wayne Bullen. See Def. MSJ, Attach. 2 (Defendant's Statement of Undisputed Material Facts), ¶ 3. Steward owned a gym, One World Fitness, and Bullen owned a chiropractic practice, Washington Chiropractic. See Pl. MSJ, Attach. 3 (Plaintiff Statement of Undisputed Material Facts), ¶ 17. Bullen Wellness's provider-enrollment form listed Dr. Bullen's chiropractor license number and the same address and phone number associated with One World Fitness. Id., ¶¶ 22, 24. It should be noted, however, that Chase had no official relationship with the gym. See Def. SUMF, ¶ 78; Def. Reply, Exh. 19 (Deposition of Valerie McMullen) at 259-60.
In September 2010, McMullen began attending personal-training sessions at One World Fitness. See Pl. SUMF, ¶ 63. She purchased 54 sessions in advance at a cost of $5,040 and decided to apply for a ChaseHealthAdvance account to pay for them. Id., ¶ 63. Steward asked her a series of questions, answers to which he entered into the electronic application on his computer's Chase portal. See McMullen Depo. at 78. McMullen was approved with a credit limit of $12,000 and signed a purchase-verification form, per Chase policy. Id. at 82-83. The following month she received a billing statement from Chase with a charge of $5,040 from Bullen Wellness. See McMullen Depo. at 109-10. Plaintiff made payments on her balance without issue. Having exhausted her 54 sessions by December 2010, she then purchased 150 additional training sessions (50 weeks), which she charged on a personal credit card. See Pl. SUMF, ¶ 72.
All was well until September 2011. On September 21, McMullen had a conversation with Steward wherein she stated that *299she would renew her membership for another year so long as her preferred trainer was working there. See McMullen Depo. at 156:13-18, 161:5-22. (Defendant Steward disputes that this conversation happened, but Chase-the only Defendant in these Motions-does not.) The next day, however, One World Fitness terminated this trainer. See McMullen Depo. at 147. Plaintiff promptly informed the gym the following day that she wished to cancel her membership and requested a refund for the remaining three months for which she had prepaid in December 2010. See Pl. SUMF, ¶ 73. Instead of obtaining a refund, however, when McMullen received her Chase bill the following month, she saw a new charge for $1,000 from Bullen Wellness. See McMullen Depo. at 174:2-5, 182:9-22. Believing this was unauthorized, Plaintiff called Chase on November 1, 2011, to dispute it. See Heald Decl., Exh. U (Call Log). (The parties disagree as to whether McMullen authorized the charge in the first instance. See Def. Reply, Attach. 1 (Response to Plaintiff Statement of Undisputed Material Facts), ¶ 1.) The Chase representative asked her for her email address so that he could email her a dispute form, which he did on November 4. See Def. SUMF, ¶¶ 54, 58. McMullen never returned the dispute form or submitted to Chase any other written grievance. Id., ¶¶ 61, 64. She continued making payments to Chase and paid off the $1,000 balance on June 8, 2012. Id., ¶ 65.
B. Procedural History
On September 12, 2014, Plaintiff filed this suit in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. See ECF No. 1 (Notice of Removal) at 1. She named Steward and Bullen; their companies (One World Fitness, Bullen Wellness, and Washington Chiropractic); two banks, Synchrony and Chase; and a handful of unnamed individuals and corporate entities as Defendants. Id., Attach. 1 (Complaint), ¶¶ 1, 6-14. The Complaint raised a bevy of claims against these Defendants-viz. , violations of the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, civil conspiracy, common-law fraud, conversion, breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, vicarious liability, and punitive damages. Id., ¶¶ 36-83. McMullen later amended her Complaint to include class-action claims, seeking relief on behalf of a putative class of "all One World Fitness customers who received financing from the Bank Defendants." Notice of Removal at 2. Chase then successfully removed the suit to federal court pursuant to the diversity-removal provisions of the Class Action Fairness Act. See ECF No. 55 (Memorandum Opinion and Order denying remand).
On September 23, 2015, Chase moved to dismiss the claims asserted against it-specifically, violations of the CPPA, fraud and conspiracy under D.C. common law, and punitive damages. See ECF No. 57 (MTD). Defendant Synchrony also joined this Motion. See ECF No. 63 (Notice of Joinder). Plaintiff opposed the Motion and sought leave to amend her Complaint a second time. See ECF Nos. 65 (Opposition to MTD), 70 (MTA). On February 16, 2016, the Court granted Plaintiff leave to amend her Complaint, but also granted Chase's Motion to Dismiss as to Count VII (punitive damages). See McMullen,
*300II. Legal Standard
"When faced with cross-motions for summary judgment, th[e C]ourt must review each motion separately on its own merits 'to determine whether either of the parties deserves judgment as a matter of law.' " Family Trust of Mass., Inc. v. United States,
Summary judgment is appropriate "only if one of the moving parties is entitled to judgment as a matter of law upon material facts that are not genuinely disputed." Airlie Foundation v. IRS,
In considering a motion for summary judgment, "[t]he evidence of the non-movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in [its] favor." Liberty Lobby,
III. Analysis
Plaintiff alleges fraud based on the $1,000 charge from Bullen Wellness that appeared on her October 2011 billing statement. The same transaction also underlies *301her claim that Chase violated multiple sections of the D.C. CPPA. The Court addresses each count in turn.
A. Fraud
To establish fraud, a plaintiff must show, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant made "(1) a false representation (2) in reference to a material fact, (3) [ ] with knowledge of its falsity [and] (4) the intent to deceive, and (5) action is taken in reliance upon the representation." Va. Acad. of Clinical Psychologists v. Grp. Hospitalization & Med. Servs., Inc.,
1. False Representation
False representations encompass both affirmative misstatements and willful omissions "when a duty to disclose that fact has arisen." Saucier v. Countrywide Home Loans,
a. False Statements
Plaintiff first contends that, by sending her a billing statement listing the September 21, 2011, $1,000 charge from Bullen Wellness, Chase falsely represented that she had authorized such charge and was legally obligated to pay. See SAC, ¶ 75; Pl. MSJ at 23. The undisputed facts say otherwise. Both sides agree that: (1) Bullen Wellness submitted a charge for $1,000 on September 21, 2011, and (2) Chase sent a billing statement to McMullen reflecting that charge. See Pl. SUMF, ¶¶ 78, 84; Heald Decl., Exh. T (October 2011 Billing Statement); Def. SUMF, ¶¶ 42-43, 46. Nowhere, however, does the bill state that McMullen authorized the charge. In fact, she admitted as much in her deposition. See McMullen Depo. at 181:19-21 ("Q: Does it say anywhere [on the billing statement] that you authorized this charge? A: No.").
A typical credit-account statement simply sets out "the amount of the purchases ... charged to [an] account[ ] that month, the total balances outstanding in the account[ ] and any 'finance charges' levied on the balances." Bryson v. Bank of N.Y.,
Plaintiff additionally maintains that Chase "falsely represented to [her] through its marketing materials that One World Fitness was approved as a Chase Health Advance provider when it was not," based on a letter Steward gave her upon joining One World Fitness. See Pl. MSJ at 26,
b. Omissions
According to McMullen, not only was the $1,000 charge itself a false representation, but Chase's handling of her dispute also led to several "willful omissions," including that: (1) it "had issued a line of credit" in her name; (2) it did not "possess any signed documentation permitting Chase to issue" the second line of credit and process the $1,000 charge; (3) it ran a credit check on [her] on September 21, 2011, without her authorization; (4) "One World Fitness was not an approved provider" and; (5) "personal training session could not be financed through the Chase Health Advance program." Pl. MSJ at 26-27. These allegations hold no water.
As a threshold matter, none of these purported omissions are included in the Second Amended Complaint. Although Plaintiff pled willful omissions by Defendants Bullen and Steward, she listed only affirmative misrepresentations by Chase. See SAC, ¶ 75. Adding omissions as a source of fraud via her Cross-Motion-which claim requires as an additional element a duty to disclose-"amounts to a fundamental change in the nature of" this count. Teltschik v. Williams & Jensen, PLLC,
Even if Plaintiff had properly alleged such conduct, she would still come up short on the merits. The first two purported omissions-that Chase opened a second unauthorized line of credit in her name and did so without any signed documentation-are the bases for several of McMullen's claims throughout the Complaint. The record, however, does not support that Chase approved, opened, or authorized a second line of credit. Plaintiff premises this allegation largely (if not solely) on a document generated from the ChaseHealthAdvance portal to Bullen Wellness (but not to her) on September 21, 2011, stating that her "application for credit has been approved" in the amount of $10,293. See Pl. MSJ, Exh. 15 (Credit Approval Notification). Given that she denies ever giving authorization for a line of credit on that date and that Chase has been unable to produce any document with her signature showing that she did, the claim seems plausible at first blush. Indeed, the Court so found in the prior Opinion, noting that she had "alleged enough facts to clear the motion-to-dismiss standard." McMullen,
Chase's designee testified that, though the document uses the word "application," it was not a "new credit application." Heald Depo. at 81:15-20. Instead, because McMullen had an existing account older than 90 days, Chase "would check the [customer's] credit before" a new transaction would be processed.
McMullen authorized Steward to apply for a ChaseHealthAdvance account in her name in September 2010. See Pl. SUMF, ¶ 63; McMullen Depo. at 75-79. Chase approved her for an account with a limit of $12,000 and assigned an account number ending in 5058. See Heald Decl., Exhs. F (McMullen Approval), M (September 2010 Billing Statement). In September 2011, before Bullen Wellness submitted the $1,000 charge, her previous balance on the open account was $1,707, leaving her an available credit amount of $10,293.
The question remains, however, of why Bullen Wellness received a credit-approval notification. Creditors may request a consumer credit report for their current accountholders without their permission before processing certain transactions, which is what the record shows happened here. See 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(a)(3)(F) (credit-reporting *304agencies may provide consumer-credit reports when requested "(i) in connection with a business transaction that is initiated by the consumer, or (ii) to review an account to determine whether the consumer continues to meet the terms of the account"). The only reasonable inferences to draw from the undisputed facts are that the notification to Bullen Wellness was the result of a credit check by Chase in response to the $1,000 charge, and that the only ChaseHealthAdvance account Plaintiff had was the one she authorized ending in 5058. The (perhaps inartfully titled) "credit approval" represents the bank approving the transaction, not a separate account. See Heald Depo. at 111. Given that there is no "unauthorized" line of credit from Chase, there can be no willful omission of such line.
Plaintiff's second alleged omission also appears to include a claim that Chase failed to tell her that it did not have documentation showing that she had authorized the $1,000 charge. Her position that the bank representative should have disclosed this information during the November 1 phone call with her, see Pl. MSJ at 27, is, however, incorrect. Under Chase's policies, the provider was responsible for retaining a signed copy of the receipt, which the bank would request in the event it received a written dispute. See Heald Depo. at 166:4-10. Because McMullen never submitted her billing dispute in writing, any duty Chase had to disclose a receipt was never triggered. Id. at 166:18-22; cf. Dawkins v. Sears Roebuck & Co.,
McMullen's third alleged omission is similarly deficient. Her claim that Chase committed fraud by omitting that it had checked her credit before approving the $1,000 transaction fails because the bank had no duty to disclose that information. See Sundberg v. TTR Realty, LLC,
Plaintiff's two remaining omissions claims-i.e. , that One World Fitness was not an approved provider, and gym services could not be financed through ChaseHealthAdvance-are equally unsuccessful. As to the former, Chase does not have a duty to disclose every entity with which it does not have a business relationship. Chase's contractual relationship was with Bullen Wellness, not One World Fitness.
*305See Heald Decl., Exh. A (Bullen Wellness Provider Enrollment Form). Bullen Wellness was the provider listed on ChaseHealthAdvance accounts, and all remitted money was deposited into Bullen Wellness's accounts. See Pl. MSJ, Exh. 16 (Chase Funding Report for Bullen Wellness); Steward Depo. at 34:1-12. Chase testified that it had no relationship with One World, see Heald Decl., ¶ 22, and McMullen has not put forth anything beyond speculation from which a reasonable juror could infer one. As to the latter, Chase stated that fitness training was not an impermissible use of a ChaseHealthAdvance account. See Heald Depo. at 188:8-21. Plaintiff's willful-omission claims regarding One World Fitness, therefore, fail as there was nothing for Chase to omit. Because no reasonable jury could conclude that the bank made an affirmative misstatement or willful omission, it is entitled to summary judgment on that count. See Bennett v. Kiggins,
2. Statement of Fact
Additionally, her claim that "Chase falsely represented that [she] was legally obligated to pay it a total of $1,000," SAC, ¶ 75, is independently deficient because this statement was legal, not factual. As a general rule, "fraud cannot be predicated on misrepresentations as to the legal effect of a written instrument." Ellis v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., No. 12-3897,
3. Knowledge
Yet another infirmity in this count lies with proof of Chase's knowledge. Fraud liability under D.C. law does not require actual knowledge; rather, a plaintiff can prevail by showing that the defendant made "a false representation recklessly without knowing" its veracity. Remeikis v. Boss & Phelps, Inc.,
4. Intent
Neither does the record bear any evidence that Chase intended to deceive McMullen. Intent can be "inferred *306from 'reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of a statement combined with the sheer magnitude of the resultant misrepresentation.' " Djourabchi v. Self,
First, Chase testified that it ensured that a doctor with a valid medical license submitted Bullen Wellness's application, and it re-verified that information annually. See Heald Depo. at 61:14-16, 199:5-7. Plaintiff does not dispute that Dr. Bullen's chiropractic license was valid, see Pl. SUMF, ¶ 22, but maintains that Chase should have conducted a more thorough background investigation. That hardly equates to recklessness or an intent to deceive.
There is also no evidence to support Plaintiff's assertion that Chase ignored complaints from Bullen Wellness customers. She bases her argument on a random selection of ten ChaseHealthAdvance accountholders that Chase produced for litigation. See Pl. MSJ at 29. Although five Bullen Wellness customers requested refunds, none of them alleged that they had not initially authorized the charge. See Heald Decl., ¶ 66. The four people who submitted their grievance in writing (as required under the account agreement) requested refunds because they never received or no longer needed the charged services. Id., ¶¶ 67-70. And they all got their money back. Id. In fact, McMullen testified that she never believed that "Chase intended to harm her." McMullen Depo. at 16:7-9. Defendant had no reason to be on notice regarding any alleged fraud by Bullen Wellness, and no reasonable jury could find that it intended to deceive McMullen.
Finally, McMullen cannot use Chase's dispute policies as evidence of intent to defraud. Chase, like many credit-account issuers, requires that customers submit any disputes in writing. Federal law also sanctions this practice. See
5. Reliance
Last, Chase is entitled to summary judgment on the fraud count because Plaintiff's reliance (if any) on the billing statement in these circumstances was unreasonable. See Regan v. Spicer HB, LLC,
B. Conspiracy
Count III also includes a claim for conspiracy to commit fraud. Common-law conspiracy in D.C. requires "(1) an agreement between two or more persons (2) to participate in an unlawful act, and (3) an injury caused by an unlawful overt act performed by one of the parties to the agreement pursuant to, and in furtherance of, the common scheme." Paul v. Howard Univ.,
C. D.C. CPPA
Next up is Count I, which alleges that Chase violated eight provisions of D.C. consumer-protection law. Unlike common-law fraud, a plaintiff need not prove scienter or intent to show a violation of the CPPA. See Fort Lincoln Civic Ass'n v. Fort Lincoln New Town Corp.,
1. § 28-3904(b)
Section 28-3904(b) prohibits a merchant from representing that it "has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, certification, or connection" that it does not actually have. Arguing that Chase violated this section by representing a relationship with One World Fitness that it did not have, McMullen points to the welcome letter she received from Steward when she joined the gym. See Pl. MSJ at 20-21. As described above, however, that letter-which Defendant did not approve or have knowledge of-is not evidence that Chase *308represented any affiliation with One World. See Section III.A.1.a, supra.
Plaintiff nonetheless attempts to find a way to pin Steward's letter on Chase by stating that the bank stood idly by even as customers complained about unauthorized charges from One World. See Pl. MSJ at 21-22. Unfortunately for her, she has her chronology backwards. Steward gave her the letter when she applied for the ChaseHealthAdvance account in 2010. None of the disputes appearing in the record regarding other complaints, however, appear before 2011-the same year that Plaintiff brought her own claim. See Heald Decl., Exhs. Z-GG. McMullen cannot impute a duty on Chase to investigate unauthorized uses of its logo a full year before any recorded disputes.
Plaintiff next tries to tie her October 2011 billing statement to a § (b) claim, alleging that "Chase represented ... in the ... billing statement that the personal training services were approved of by the Chase Health Advance program, despite the clear internal mandate that personal training services could not be financed through the [program]." Pl. MSJ at 22. The record is devoid of any "clear internal mandate" prohibiting gym services from being financed through ChaseHealthAdvance. Indeed, Chase testified to just the opposite. See Heald Depo. at 188:12-14. Simply put, there is no genuine dispute for trial that Chase made a false representation of affiliation or approval.
2. §§ 28-3904(e), (e-1), (f-1), (p), (u)
The Court groups the next set of violations together, as they all deal with the same underlying issue: the October 2011 billing statement. Section 3904 imposes liability on a merchant who:
(e) misrepresent[s] as to a material fact which has a tendency to mislead;
(e-1) [r]epresent[s] that a transaction confers or involves rights, remedies, or obligations which it does not have or involve, or which are prohibited by law; ...
(f-1) [u]se[s] innuendo or ambiguity as to a material fact, which has a tendency to mislead; ...
(p) falsely state[s] or represent[s] that repairs, alterations, modification, or servicing have been made and receiving remuneration therefor when they have not been made ...; [or]
(u) represent[s] that the subject of a transaction has been supplied in accordance with a previous representation when it has not.
McMullen levels much the same argument here as with her common-law fraud claim discussed above. According to her, Chase misrepresented (1) "in the October 2011 billing statement that [she] authorized a charge for 'Bullen Wellness Washington DC' on September 21, 2011, in the amount of $1,000"; (2) "that the charge was authorized and payment [was] due on that charge"; (3) that she had "received goods and services from Bullen Wellness on September 21"; and that (4) it would help her "disput[e] the charge and that a fraud investigation had been opened." Pl. MSJ at 17-23. As with the fraud claim, the allegations here rest on an inaccurate depiction of what a bill represents. A credit statement only details what charges have been submitted to the lender. It does not represent that the accountholder authorized a charge or that services were rendered, only that a merchant charged the borrower's account. If all bills simply were indisputable representations of obligations, there would be no need for billing-dispute mechanisms and procedures. True, the Court did note in the prior Opinion that a bill listing unauthorized charges "undoubtedly tend[s] to mislead, as consumers generally *309assume that the charges listed in billing statements they receive represent debt they previously authorized and now owe." McMullen,
McMullen's bill stated-as did the Chase representative with whom she spoke-that the only way for Chase to investigate a billing dispute is by Plaintiff's submitting it in writing. It strains credulity to think that a reasonable consumer would be misled by the billing statement in the way McMullen alleges given Chase's clear and visible dispute-resolution policies. The bank is thus entitled to summary judgment on Plaintiff's §§ 28-3904(e) and (e-1) claims. See Saucier,
3. § 28-3904(f)
Subsection (f) prohibits merchants from "fail[ing] to state a material fact if such failure tends to mislead." Here, Plaintiff relies on seven omissions Chase purportedly made, all of which the Court has already discussed. See Sections III.A.1, III.C.1, supra. Specifically, she claims that Chase failed to disclose that it: (1) processed and approved the "unauthorized line of credit"; (2) did not have a signed application or written authorization for the "unauthorized line of credit"; (3) did not have "documentation validating the" line of credit and charge; (4) performed a credit check; (5) had not approved One World Fitness as a provider; (6) had approved Bullen Wellness to provide chiropractic services; and (7) had not approved personal-training services under the ChaseHealthAdvance program. See Pl. MSJ at 20.
Unlike common-law fraud, "
The third omission also alleges that Chase never produced authorization for the $1,000 charge. Factually, McMullen is correct that Chase has not been able to provide documentation showing that she approved the charge. See Heald Depo. at 106-107. As discussed above, however, a *310disputed charge in the context of the entire statement does not "tend[ ] to mislead." D.C. Code 28-3904 § (f). Chase had clear procedures that accountholders could use to dispute charges, of which Plaintiff was aware but inexplicably did not follow. There is no genuine dispute for trial, therefore, about the first three alleged omissions.
Next, Chase did check Plaintiff's credit without her permission before approving the $1,000 charge-which it is legally permitted to do. Again, however, McMullen never specifies what exactly was misleading about that practice. See Pl. MSJ at 20 (noting only that "[i]t is undisputed that Chase failed to disclose these material facts, all of which have a tendency to mislead"). Conclusory allegations without more cannot defeat a motion for summary judgment. See Meijer, Inc. v. Biovail Corp.,
Plaintiff's final three omissions concern the relationship between One World Fitness and Chase. As the Court has already detailed, the bank never had, nor purported to have, such a relationship. It was Bullen Wellness that signed the provider agreement and submitted charges to Chase. In such a circumstance, there is nothing misleading about Chase's not stating that One World was not an approved provider. Similarly, McMullen does not explain how Chase's failure to disclose to her that Bullen Wellness had been approved to provide chiropractic services was material or misleading. Last, as discussed above, personal-training services could be approved under ChaseHealthAdvance, so the allegation about this purported omission is unfounded.
4. § 28-3904(q)
Plaintiff's final endeavor to establish a cause of action under the CPPA rests on § 28-3904(q), which requires a merchant to "supply to a consumer a copy of sales or service contract ... or other evidence of indebtedness which the consumer may execute." Chase first attempts to tread the well-worn path that it did not need to produce any documents regarding the second line of credit because it did not exist. That, however, does not completely resolve the issue, as Plaintiff also alleges that Chase violated § (q) by not providing a signed receipt for the $1,000 charge. Setting aside that the plain language of this CPPA section mentions nothing about signed authorization, there is no dispute that Chase policy requires a customer to sign a purchase-acknowledgment form and receipt, see Provider Handbook at 6-7, and neither party has been able to locate a receipt for the $1,000 charge. ChaseHealthAdvance providers like Bullen Wellness were supposed to retain for at least four years a signed copy of every receipt. Id. at 7. If there were any disagreement about whether a customer authorized a charge, Chase would request a copy from the provider. Id."[F]ailure to deliver it promptly w[ould] require the provider to immediately refund the total amount of the transaction in accordance with the refund policy." Id. Chase avers that it never requested a receipt from Bullen Wellness because Plaintiff never submitted her dispute in writing. See Heald Depo. at 166: 18-22. Under a plain reading of the CPPA, nevertheless, Defendant's failure to produce the receipt is at least arguably a violation of § (q). The Court need not hack its way through this thicket, however, because it concludes that McMullen's proposed interpretation of § (q) is federally preempted.
Plaintiff's reading of § (q) would require that credit issuers like Chase procure and retain signed receipts whenever charges are made against a customer from a point-of-sale merchant. The bank retorts that any such obligation is preempted by the federal National Bank *311Act. Under the Supremacy Clause, federal law may expressly or impliedly preempt state law. Implied preemption can take two forms, conflict and field preemption. Conflict preemption, the type argued here, occurs when compliance with state and federal law is impossible or where state law may "stan[d] as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress." Barnett Bank of Marion Cty. v. Nelson,
Barnett Bank provides a good starting point for venturing into the preemption terrain. There, the Supreme Court had to decide whether a federal law that generally permitted national banks to sell insurance in small towns preempted a state statute that expressly prohibited them from doing so.
Defendant argues that an interpretation of § (q) requiring it to "receive a signed authorization for each charge as a condition of lawfully extending credit would substantially interfere with [its] exercise of federally authorized lending powers." Def. MSJ at 27. Indeed, consumers frequently make purchases over the phone or electronically without providing any signed verification. Chase policy and the CPPA are not in direct conflict but, as in Barnett Bank, federal law "authorizes national banks to engage in activities that the State Statute expressly forbids."
IV. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Chase summary judgment and denies Plaintiff's Cross-Motion. A contemporaneous Order to that effect will issue this day.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Valerie MCMULLEN v. SYNCHRONY BANK
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published