WILLIS v. CHASE HOME FINANCE

Filing 27

MEMORANDUM OPINION and ORDER... all claims and causes of action brought by plaintiff against defendant are hereby dismissed with prejudice. See Order for further specifics. (Ordered by Judge John McBryde on 3/14/2013) (krg)

U.S. DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

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FILED

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tfR I 4 2013

N THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTE·
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TE S
FORT WORTH DIVISION

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CLERK, U.S.

DONALD WILLIS,

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iff,

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vs.

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NO. 4:13-CV-167-A

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CHASE HOME FIN

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MEMORANDUM OPINION

and
ORDER

Came on fo

consideration the motion to dismiss pursuant to

Rule 12(b) (6) o

the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 1 filed in

the above-capti ned action by defendant, Chase Home Finance. 2
Plaintiff, Dona
reply.

Having

filed a response, and defendant filed a
onsidered all of the parties' filings,

plaintiff's com laint, and applicable legal authorities, the
court concludes that the motion to dismiss should be granted. 3

1

Plaintiff initiate
District of Columbia. In
venue. The District of C
prejudice, the motion to
response, and instead is

this action by filing his complaint in the United States District Court for the
esponse to the complaint, defendant filed the motion to dismiss or transfer
lumbia court granted the motion to transfer venue and denied, without
ismiss. The court can see no reason to have the parties reurge the motion and
ling on the motion to dismiss that is currently on file.

2

The motion is b ught by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., identified as the successor-by-merger to
Chase Home Finance, LL . In this memorandum opinion and order the court will identify defendant as
named in plaintiffs comp aint.
3

The court questi ns whether plaintiff has adequately established the basis of the court's subject
matter jurisdiction. Neve heless, the court concludes that dismissal of the action is warranted.

I.

Back round and Alle ations of the Com laint
The compla nt by which plaintiff initiated this action
contains four h adings, titled "Allegations."

The first

allegation is t at defendant denied plaintiff the opportunity "to
own and refinac

[sic] his home because of predatory lending

policies" and " ngaged in a scheme to defraud the plaintiff out
of his home."

ompl. at 2.

Allegation 2 states that defendant

tried to dissua e plaintiff "from keeping his home by conducting
predatory lendi

policies" against him and "other black

individual home owners."

Id. at 3.

Allegation 3 contains a laundry list of conduct in which
defendant purpo tedly engaged, including discriminating against
borrowers on th
gender."

basis of "race, national orgin [sic], age and

The f urth allegation is that defendant "is part of a

mortgage decept'on and predatory lending scheme to defraud"
plaintiff out o
Included under

the opportunity to own a home.

Id. at 5.

llegations 1 and 3 are a list of practices in

which plaintiff contends defendant has participated.
The basis

f the motion to dismiss is that plaintiff has

failed to state a claim for relief through any of the
"allegations" i

the complaint.

2

II.
licable to Motion to Dismiss
Rule 8(a) ( ) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
provides, in a
It requires tha
of the claim

eneral way, the applicable standard of pleading.
a complaint contain "a short and plain statement
wing that the pleader is entitled to relief,"

Fed. R. Civ. P.
notice of what

"in order to give the defendant fair
claim is and the grounds upon which it rests,

Bell Atl. Cor . v. Twombl , 550

u.s.

544, 555 (2007)

quotation marks and ellipsis omitted) .

(internal

Although a complaint need

not contain det iled factual allegations, the "showing"
contemplated by

8 requires the plaintiff to do more than

simply allege 1

conclusions or recite the elements of a cause

of action.

555 & n.3.

Thus, while a court must accept

all of the

al allegations in the complaint as true, it need

not credit

legal conclusions that are unsupported by any

factual underpi
(2009)

("While

complaint, they
Moreover,

See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 679
conclusions can provide the framework of a
be supported by factual allegations.")
o survive a motion to dismiss for failure to

state a claim u der Rule 12(b) (6), the facts pleaded must allow
the court to in
plausible.

that the plaintiff's right to relief is

Id. at 678.

To allege a plausible right to relief,
3

the facts plead d must suggest liability; allegations that are
merely consiste t with unlawful conduct are insufficient.
Twombly, 550 U.

at 566-69.

"Determining whether a complaint

states a plausi le claim for relief . . . [is] a context-specific
task that requi es the reviewing court to draw on its judicial
experience and

ommon sense."

Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679.
III.

Analysis
The court

inds the complaint devoid of any factual

allegations as

ould give defendant fair notice of plaintiff's

claims against

t.

As far as the court is able to discern, the

complaint conta ns no facts, but is comprised only of generalized
assertions and

egal conclusions.

For example, although the

complaint alleg s that defendant engaged in a "scheme to defraud"
plaintiff out o

his home, it contains no facts supporting that,

nor any of plai tiff's other contentions.
tactics

Similarly, the list of

legation 1 and Allegation 3 are really

generalized sta ements or conclusions, rather than facts.
Additional
assert a claim

although plaintiff is apparently attempting to
or predatory lending, the court can find no

authority recog izing such a cause of action in Texas.

Plaintiff

has also failed to plead his fraud claim with the particularity
expected by Rul

9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
4

which requires
be fraudulent,

laintiff to "specify the statements contended to
'dentify the speaker, state when and where the

statements were made, and explain why the statements were
fraudulent."
F.3d 552, 564-6

rrmann Holdin s Ltd. v. Lucent Techs. Inc., 302
(5th Cir. 2002)

(internal quotation marks and

citations omitt d) .
Nowhere in the complaint has the court located anything more
than legal cone usions or "unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfullyharmed-me accus tion[s] ."

Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.

Plaintiff has

alleged nothing as would raise his right to relief above the
speculative lev 1.

Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555.

As discuss d in the motion to dismiss, plaintiff on December
2, 2010, filed
Division of thi

n almost-identical complaint in the Dallas
court.

After being transferred to the Fort

Worth Division, that complaint was dismissed on February 11,
2011, for failu e of plaintiff to pay the required filing fee.
The instant act'on thus represents plaintiff's second attempt to
state his claim
see nothing to

against defendant.

Accordingly, the court can

e gained by allowing plaintiff to amend his

complaint and g've him a third bite at the apple.

5

IV.

Order.
Therefore,
that defendant's motion to dismiss be, and

The court
is hereby, gran ed.
The court
action brought

ORDERS that all claims and causes of
y plaintiff, Donald Willis, against defendant,

Chase Home Fina ce, be, and are hereby,
SIGNED Mar

6

rejudice.