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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 15-10038
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 0:13-cv-62338-BB
KEVIN PRESCOTT,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
SETERUS, INC.,
Defendant-Appellee.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(December 3, 2015)
Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, WILSON, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit
Judges.
PER CURIAM:
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Kevin Prescott appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to
Seterus, Inc. on his claims alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices
Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., and the Florida Consumer Collections
Practice Act (FCCPA), Fla. Stat. § 559.55 et seq. We reverse and remand for
further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I.
In April 2004 Prescott purchased real property in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
To fund the purchase, he obtained a $160,000 loan from Bank of America secured
by a mortgage on the property. 1 A few sections of the security agreement that
Prescott signed are relevant to his appeal.
Section 9 provides, in pertinent part, that
[i]f [] Borrower fails to perform the covenants and agreements
contained in this Security Instrument, … then Lender may do and pay
for whatever is reasonable or appropriate to protect Lender’s interest
in the Property and rights under this Security Instrument, including …
(c) paying reasonable attorneys’ fees to protect its interest in the
Property and/or rights under this Security Instrument, including its
secured position in a bankruptcy proceeding … Any amounts
disbursed by Lender under this [section] shall become additional debt
of Borrower secured by this Security Instrument. These amounts shall
bear interest at the Note rate from the date of disbursement and shall
be payable, with such interest, upon notice from Lender to Borrower
requesting payment.
Section 14 provides that
1
Prescott actually obtained that mortgage jointly with his wife Debby Ann. As far as we
can tell, however, Prescott has pursued this lawsuit on his own, so we refer to him individually.
2
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Lender may charge Borrower fees for services performed in
connection with Borrower’s default, for the purpose of protecting
Lender’s interest in the Property and rights under this Security
Instrument, including, but not limited to, attorneys’ fees, property
inspection and valuation fees. In regard to any other fees, the absence
of express authority in this Security Instrument to charge a specific
fee to Borrower shall not be construed as a prohibition on the charging
of such fee. Lender may not charge fees that are expressly prohibited
by this Security Instrument or by Applicable Law.
Prescott defaulted on his mortgage on August 1, 2012. Seterus began
servicing the mortgage on October 1, 2012.2 Because Prescott was in default,
Seterus prepared to initiate foreclosure proceedings against him. Seterus retained
the law firm of Kahane and Associates to provide legal services associated with the
foreclosure.
Prescott asked Seterus to reinstate his mortgage in August 2013. Under
Section 19 of the security instrument, he was entitled to reinstatement if he
satisfied “certain conditions,” including
(a) pay[ing] Lender all sums which then would be due under this
Security Instrument and the Note as if no acceleration had occurred;
(b) cur[ing] any default of any other covenants or agreements; (c)
pay[ing] all expenses incurred in enforcing this Security Instrument,
including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees, property
inspection and valuation fees, and other fees incurred for the purpose
of protecting Lender’s interest in the Property and rights under this
Security Instrument; and (d) tak[ing] such action as Lender may
reasonably require to assure that Lender’s interest in the Property and
rights under this Security Instrument, and Borrower’s obligation to
2
Bank of America assigned Prescott’s mortgage to the Federal National Mortgage
Association on October 26, 2012. Seterus remained the loan servicer after the assignment.
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pay the sums secured by this Security Instrument, shall continue
unchanged…
On September 4, 2013, Seterus sent Prescott a letter showing the total
amount he needed to pay for his loan to be reinstated. The letter stated that the
reinstatement balance — $15,569.64 — was “good through 9/27/2013.” That
balance included property inspection and legal fees, among other charges.
Specifically, it included $165 in incurred property inspection fees and $15 in
“estimated” property inspection fees. It also included $1,125 in incurred attorney’s
fees and $3,175 in “estimated” attorney’s fees.3 The estimated fees were marked
“estimated” and were listed in a separate section of the letter labeled “Estimated
Charges Through 9/27/2013.” The letter also included the following language:
“This communication is from a debt collector as we sometimes act as a debt
collector. We are attempting to collect a debt and information obtained will be
used for that purpose.”
Prescott paid the full reinstatement balance on September 26, 2013, and
Seterus reinstated his mortgage loan. On November 14, 2013, Seterus refunded
Prescott the $3,175 in estimated legal fees because those fees were not incurred
before Seterus reinstated the mortgage. Seterus did not refund Prescott the
3
Seterus obtained this estimate from Kahane and Associates. Kahane and Associates
billed Seterus for each “step” in the foreclosure process. The firm charged $1,125 for the first
step and would have charged $3,175 for the second.
4
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estimated property inspection fees, however, because those fees were incurred
before reinstatement. 4
About a week after his loan was reinstated, Prescott filed a lawsuit against
Seterus in Florida state court, asserting that the inclusion of estimated attorney’s
fees in his reinstatement balance violated §§ 1692e(2) and 1692f(1) of the FDCPA
and § 559.72(9) of the FCCPA. Seterus removed the case to federal court, and the
parties filed motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary
judgment for Seterus on all of Prescott’s claims. He appealed. We review the
district court’s judgment de novo. See LeBlanc v. Unifund CCR Partners, 601
F.3d 1185, 1189 (11th Cir. 2010).
II.
Prescott first contends that Seterus violated §§ 1692e(2) and 1692f(1) of the
FDCPA by including estimated attorney’s fees in his reinstatement balance. We
agree.
The FDCPA “regulates what debt collectors can do in collecting debts.”
Miljkovic v. Shafritz and Dinkin, P.A., 791 F.3d 1291, 1297 (11th Cir. 2015).
Because Congress enacted the statute primarily to protect consumers, we evaluate
the circumstances giving rise to an alleged FDCPA violation from the perspective
4
Because Prescott does not address the property inspection fees in his briefs to this
Court, he has abandoned any challenge to them. See Allstate Ins. Co. v. Swann, 27 F.3d 1539,
1542 (11th Cir. 1994).
5
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of the least sophisticated consumer. See Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, 758
F.3d 1254, 1258–59 (11th Cir. 2014); Jeter v. Credit Bureau, Inc., 760 F.2d 1168,
1175 (11th Cir. 1985). The least sophisticated consumer “possess[es] a
rudimentary amount of information about the world and a willingness to read a
collection notice with some care.” LeBlanc, 601 F.3d at 1194; see also Jeter 760
F.3d at 1175 n.6 (the least sophisticated consumer is “on the low side of reasonable
capacity”). That standard protects “naïve consumers” and “prevents liability for
bizarre or idiosyncratic interpretations of collections notices by preserving a
quotient of reasonableness.” LeBlanc, 601 F.3d at 1194.
Section 1692f of the FDCPA provides that “[a] debt collector may not use
unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt,” including
“[t]he collection of any amount (including any interest, fee, charge, or expense
incidental to the principal obligation) unless such amount is expressly authorized
by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.” 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(1).
Prescott contends that he was not expressly obligated under the security agreement
to pay for estimated attorney’s fees. We agree.
The security agreement does obligate Prescott to pay for attorney’s fees and
other expenses that Seterus actually incurred as a result of his default, but nothing
in it explicitly states that Prescott must pay estimated fees for future legal services.
The question is whether the least sophisticated consumer would have nonetheless
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understood the agreement to obligate Prescott to pay such fees. See LeBlanc, 601
F.3d at 1200–01. The answer is no.
In order to reinstate his loan, Section 19 of the security agreement required
that Prescott pay all past-due amounts, including the fees and costs incurred as a
result of his default; completely cure any defaults; and “take such action as Lender
may reasonably require to assure that Lender’s interest in the Property and rights
under the Security Instrument and [Prescott’s] obligation to pay the sums secured
by [the] Security Instrument shall continue unchanged.” According to Seterus and
the district court, that quoted language allowed Seterus to charge Prescott
estimated attorney’s fees to cover any legal expenses that it might have incurred
between September 4 (when it mailed the reinstatement letter) and September 27
(when the reinstatement quote expired).
The least sophisticated consumer would not have understood the language of
Section 19 of the agreement to reach so broadly. The remainder of the agreement
obligated the borrower to pay only those fees “incurred” or “disbursed” by the
lender for “services performed in connection with [his] default.” That past-tense
language does not encompass forward-looking estimated fees. See Kaymark v.
Bank of Am., 783 F.3d 168, 175 (3d Cir. 2015) (finding that the “most natural
reading” of similar language, when viewed “through the lens of the least-
sophisticated consumer,” was “that [the lender] was not authorized to collect fees
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for not-yet-performed legal services and expenses”); see also Bradley v. Franklin
Collection Serv., Inc., 739 F.3d 606, 609–10 (11th Cir. 2014) (holding that a debt
collector violated § 1692f by charging the debtor a 33-and-1/3% “collection fee”
where the agreement at issue only demanded that he pay “all costs of collection”).
Because the least sophisticated consumer would not have understood that the
security agreement “expressly authorized” Seterus to charge estimated fees for
legal services not yet rendered, we reverse the district court’s grant of summary
judgment on Prescott’s § 1692f(1) claim.
Prescott also contends that the estimated attorney’s fees charged by Seterus
violated § 1692e of the FDCPA. We agree. That section provides that “[a] debt
collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means
in connection with the collection of any debt,” including “[t]he false representation
of (A) the character, amount, or legal status of any debt; or (B) any services
rendered or compensation which may be lawfully received by any debt collector
for the collection of a debt.” 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2).
In granting summary judgment to Seterus on that claim, the district court
focused on the fact that Seterus had not misrepresented the nature of the estimated
fees in the reinstatement letter. It is true that Seterus clearly separated the
estimated fees from those already incurred and conspicuously marked those
charges as “estimated.” Even the least sophisticated consumer would have
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understood that the estimated fees were just that — estimates. See Elyazidi v.
Suntrust Bank, 780 F.3d 227, 235 (4th Cir. 2015). So it is clear that Seterus did
not falsely misrepresent the character of those fees as prohibited by § 1692e(2)(A).
But § 1692e(2) also prohibits the false representation of any “compensation
which may be lawfully received by any debt collector for the collection of a debt.”
15 U.S.C. § 1692e(2)(B). Seterus violated that provision when it demanded that
Prescott pay estimated attorney’s fees before it would reinstate his loan, because
Seterus could not “lawfully receive” those fees under the terms of the security
agreement.5 That is true even if Seterus believed it was entitled to those fees. See
Wise v. Zwicker & Assocs., P.C., 780 F.3d 710, 713 (6th Cir. 2015) (noting that,
under § 1692e, “if a debt collector seeks fees to which it is not entitled, it has
committed a prima facie violation of the Act, even if there was no clear prior
judicial statement that it was not entitled to collect the fees”); Stratton v. Portfolio
Recovery Assocs., LLC, 770 F.3d 443, 449 (6th Cir. 2014) (describing the FDCPA
as “plac[ing] the risk of penalties on the debt collector that engages in activities
which are not entirely lawful, rather than exposing consumers to unlawful debt-
collector behavior without a possibility for relief”). We therefore reverse the
5
In its brief to this Court, Seterus insists that it included the estimated attorney’s fees in
the reinstatement balance as a “convenience” to Prescott, so that he could be certain that his
payment would satisfy his reinstatement obligations even if Seterus incurred additional fees
during the period covered by the reinstatement letter. Had he paid less, Seterus argues, it may
have nonetheless reinstated his loan. But the least sophisticated consumer could not have
gleaned that from the reinstatement letter, which clearly said that “[t]he amount required to
reinstate [the] loan” was $15,569.64 — an amount including $3,175 in estimated attorney’s fees.
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district court’s grant of summary judgment to Seterus on Prescott’s § 1692e(2)
claim.
Finally, Prescott contends that the inclusion of estimated legal fees in the
reinstatement letter violated the FCCPA, a Florida law under which individuals
collecting consumer debts cannot “[c]laim, attempt, or threaten to enforce a debt
when such person knows that the debt is not legitimate, or assert the existence of
some other legal right when such person knows that the right does not exist.” Fla.
Stat. § 559.72(9). The district court’s summary judgment order stated that it
“reached the same conclusion” with respect to this claim as it did on Prescott’s
FDCPA claims. Because Seterus is not entitled to summary judgment on
Prescott’s FDCPA claims, the summary judgment against him on his FCCPA
claim cannot stand either, at least not on the grounds stated.
Although the Florida statute is modeled after the FDCPA, see Fla. Stat.
§ 559.77(5), the two statutes are not identical. For example, the FCCPA “requires
a plaintiff to demonstrate that the debt collector defendant possessed actual
knowledge that the threatened means of enforcing the debt was unavailable.”
LeBlanc, 601 F.3d at 1192 n.12. Some evidence in the record suggests that Seterus
may not have known that it could not charge estimated fees under the security
agreement. Because the district court based its FCCPA ruling solely on its FDCPA
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rulings, however, we will allow the district court to consider that issue in the first
instance on remand.
III.
Seterus contends that even if we reach the result that we have, it should
nonetheless prevail because it is entitled to summary judgment on other grounds.
It is true that we “may affirm for any reason supported by the record, even if not
relied on by the district court.” Cochran v. U.S. Health Care Fin. Admin., 291 F.3d
775, 778 n.3 (11th Cir. 2002). But Seterus is not entitled to summary judgment on
either of the alternative grounds it suggests.
Seterus first argues that we should affirm the district court’s grant of
summary judgment in its favor because Prescott failed to present sufficient
evidence that it is a “debt collector,” as defined by the FDCPA and the FCCPA.
See 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6) (defining a debt collector as one whose “principal
purpose . . . is the collection of debts” or one “who regularly collects or attempts to
collect . . . debts owed . . . to another”); Fla. Stat. § 559.55(7) (same). The district
court did not directly address this issue, noting only that the parties had stipulated
that Seterus “acquired [Prescott’s] mortgage after it was in default.”
Although Seterus denied being a debt collector in its answer to Prescott’s
complaint, it did not move for summary judgment on that ground. We decline in
this instance to affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on a ground
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that Seterus failed to raise before that court. See Access Now, Inc. v. Southwest
Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324, 1331 (11th Cir. 2004) (“[A]n issue not raised in the
district court and raised for the first time in an appeal will not be considered by this
court.”).
Seterus also argues that its actions resulted from “bona fide error,” relieving
it of liability under the FDCPA and the FCCPA. The FDCPA “typically subjects
debt collectors to liability even when violations are not knowing or intentional,”
but it “affords a narrow carve-out to the general rule of strict liability, known as the
‘bona fide error’ defense.” Owen v. I.C. Sys., Inc., 629 F.3d 1263, 1270–71 (11th
Cir. 2011). Section 1692k(c) insulates debt collectors from liability “if the debt
collector shows by a preponderance of the evidence that the violation was not
intentional and resulted from a bona fide error notwithstanding the maintenance of
procedures reasonably adapted to avoid any such error.” 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(c); see
Fla. Stat. § 559.77(3) (same). The Supreme Court has held that the FDCPA’s bona
fide error defense does not encompass “mistakes of law” or “misinterpretations of
the requirements of the Act.” Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich
LPA, 559 U.S. 573, 581, 587, 130 S. Ct. 1605, 1611, 1615 (2010). Instead, the
bona fide error defense protects against liability for “errors like clerical or factual
mistakes.” Id. at 587, 130 S. Ct. at 1614.
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Seterus violated the FDCPA and FCCPA by charging Prescott estimated
attorney’s fees that he had not agreed to pay in the security agreement. That
violation may have resulted from a “mistaken interpretation of the legal
requirements of the FDCPA” or from a mistaken interpretation of the agreement
itself. See id. at 576, 130 S. Ct. at 1608. Either way, the violation did not result
from a factual or clerical error. Because under Jerman the bona fide error defense
does not excuse Seterus’ faulty legal reasoning, we cannot affirm the district
court’s grant of summary judgment to Seterus on that basis.
The district court’s judgment is REVERSED and the case is REMANDED
for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 6
6
Seterus’ motion to strike certain portions of Prescott’s reply brief is DENIED as moot.
13