Toro v. ICS Collection Service, Inc

Filing 3

MEMORANDUM Order: On or before February 6, 2015 Toro's counsel is ordered to file a brief listing of cases (not a memorandum) that in counsel's view support a claim under the auspices of the Act.1 In the interim this Court is not setting an initial status hearing date in the case. (For further details see Memorandum Order) Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 1/27/2015:Mailed notice(clw, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
GABRIELA TORO,
Plaintiff,
v.
ICS COLLECTION SERVICE
8231 185 St. Suite 100,
Tinley Park, IL 60487
Defendant.

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

Case No. 15 C 732

MEMORANDUM ORDER
This action has just been assigned to this Court's calendar via the customary random
assignment. This sua sponte memorandum order is prompted by what appears to be the
problematic nature of this action advanced under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("Act").
This Court is of course well aware of the undemanding nature of the Act's standard for
the potential actionability of communications by debt collectors, as consistently applied by our
Court of Appeals and hence by this Court and its District Court colleagues. But the collection
conduct that is complained of in the Complaint filed by counsel on behalf of plaintiff Gabriela
Toro ("Toro") appears to substitute a sort of "village idiot" standard for the admittedly generous
one prescribed by the caselaw. Complaint Ex. A is a vanilla-flavored notice to Toro by
defendant Illinois Collection Service Inc. that says it has been retained by Resurrection Health
Care for collection of an outstanding balance and then states politely:
Please remit the balance in full to our office to avoid further collection action.
Against that background, here is what Toro's lawyer asserts:
15.

By giving the vague threat of "further collection action," without stating
what this action may be, Defendant is giving Plaintiff the reasonable

impression that it is threatening either illegal action or action that it has no
intention of taking.
16.

As a direct consequence of the Defendant's acts, practices and conduct, the
Plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer from humiliation, anger, anxiety,
emotional distress, fear, frustration and embarrassment.

That "reasonable impression" does not strike this Court as at all reasonable, except perhaps from
the perspective of a lawyer seeking to take undue advantage of the generous lens through which
the Act requires collection letters to be read. This Court expresses no ultimate view on the
subject, but on or before February 6, 2015 Toro's counsel is ordered to file a brief listing of cases
(not a memorandum) that in counsel's view support a claim under the auspices of the Act. 1 In
the interim this Court is not setting an initial status hearing date in the case.

__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: January 27, 2015

1

Those listed opinions should, of course, preferably be the work product of federal
courts at the appellate level -- we are regularly (and properly) reminded by our Court of Appeals
that District Court opinions carry no precedential weight.
-2-