CAMPAGNA v. TD BANK NA, No. 4:2020cv00094 - Document 13 (M.D. Ga. 2020)
Court Description: ORDER granting 10 Motion to Dismiss Complaint Ordered by US DISTRICT JUDGE CLAY D LAND on 12/04/2020 (CCL)
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CAMPAGNA v. TD BANK NA Doc. 13 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 1 of 9 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA COLUMBUS DIVISION NATALIE CAMPAGNA, * Plaintiff, * vs. * TD BANK, N.A., * Defendant`. CASE NO. 4:20-CV-94 (CDL) * O R D E R Natalie Campagna alleges that TD Bank, N.A., the issuer of her secured credit card, engaged in improper business practices in connection with her account. She asserts a breach of contract claim against TD Bank, along with other claims under Delaware and New York law. Contending that she is not the only victim of TD Bank’s unlawful conduct, Campagna pursue class individuals. action claims on behalf of also hopes to similarly situated Neither Campagna nor TD Bank reside in Georgia. More importantly for purposes of the present order, TD Bank does not have sufficient minimal contacts with the Peach State to meet the exercise discussed constitutional of personal below, TD due process jurisdiction Bank’s motion over to requirements it. for Accordingly, dismiss for lack the as of personal jurisdiction (ECF No. 10) is granted. Dockets.Justia.com Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 2 of 9 FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS The Court accepts Campagna’s factual allegations Complaint as true for purposes of the pending motion. is a New York citizen. in her Campagna TD Bank is a Delaware national banking association with its executive offices in New Jersey. Compl. ¶ 11, ECF No. 1-2 (alleging that TD Bank is headquartered in New Jersey); Compl. Ex. 1, Personal Credit Card Agreement ¶ 1, ECF No. 1-2 at 28 (stating that TD Bank is “a national bank with its Campagna went to a New York main office located in Delaware”). TD Bank branch to apply ¶¶ 10, 29, ECF No. 1-2. for a secured credit card. Compl. TD Bank told her that she would be able to graduate to an unsecured credit card after maintaining her account in good standing for seven billing cycles. Id. ¶ 29. When Campagna subsequently contacted a TD Bank customer service specialist via telephone to ask about her graduation to an unsecured credit card, she was told that the process would take far longer than seven months. allegations regarding the Id. ¶¶ 34-37. location of this Campagna makes no customer specialist or where the graduation decision was made. service Campagna does note that her credit card agreement with TD Bank states that certain written customer service correspondence should be sent to a post office box in Columbus, Georgia, and her credit card statements had a return address of that same post office 2 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 3 of 9 box. Id. ¶ 12. 1 Campagna does not allege that she ever sent correspondence to the Georgia address. Campagna has made no request to conduct jurisdictional discovery to determine whether TD Bank has additional contacts with Georgia. DISCUSSION In this diversity case, the Court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant like TD Bank only if (1) jurisdiction is appropriate under the long-arm statute of Georgia (the state where the Court sits) and (2) the exercise of jurisdiction does not violate the Due Process Clause Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. of the Diamond Crystal Brands, Inc. v. Food Movers Int’l, Inc., 593 F.3d 1249, “A plaintiff seeking the exercise of 1257-58 (11th Cir. 2010). personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant bears the initial burden of alleging in the complaint sufficient facts to make out a prima facie case of jurisdiction.” Id. at 1257 (quoting United Techs. Corp. v. Mazer, 556 F.3d 1260, 1274 (11th Cir. 2009)). challenging Campagna’s Here, TD Bank jurisdiction. allegations, taken did not Rather, as TD true, submit Bank are any evidence argues that insufficient to establish a prima facie case of personal jurisdiction. While the statements did have a Columbus, Georgia return address, they directed that payments be mailed to a post office box in Columbia, South Carolina. Viswanathan Decl. Ex. 1, Jan. 2020 Statement, ECF No. 10-2 at 4. 1 3 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 4 of 9 TD Bank skips the first step of the personal jurisdiction analysis--whether personal jurisdiction Georgia’s long-arm statute. would be proper under Instead, it relies entirely on the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Due Process Clause clearly resolves this matter, the Court likewise finds it unnecessary analysis. to conduct a Georgia long-arm statute The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires that “individuals have ‘fair warning that a particular activity may subject [them] to the jurisdiction of a foreign sovereign[.]’” Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 472 (1985) (first alteration in original) (quoting Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 218 (1977) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment)). includes two Due process types jurisdiction, and of compliant jurisdiction: specific or personal “general jurisdiction or case-linked all-purpose jurisdiction.” Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, 564 U.S. 915, 919 (2011). Here, the Court may exercise general jurisdiction over TD Bank if it has contacts with Georgia that “are so ‘continuous and systematic’ Georgia. as to render [it] essentially at home in” Id. (quoting Int’l Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 317 (1945)). corporation is “The ‘paradigm all-purpose forums’ in which a at home are the corporation’s incorporation and its principal place of business.” 4 place of Waite v. Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 5 of 9 All Acquisition Corp., 901 F.3d 1307, 1317 (11th Cir. 2018); accord Daimler AG v. Bauman, 571 U.S. 117, 137 (2014) (noting that the paradigm corporation are the bases for general corporation’s place jurisdiction of over incorporation a and principal place of business). Campagna’s Complaint does not allege sufficient facts to establish general jurisdiction over TD Bank in Georgia. Rather, the in Complaint alleges that TD Bank is headquartered New Jersey, and the credit card agreement attached as Exhibit 1 to the Complaint states that TD Bank is “a national bank with its main office located in Delaware.” Personal Credit Card Agreement ¶ Compl. ¶ 11; Compl. Ex. 1, 1, ECF No. 1-2 at 28; see Arthur v. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA, 569 F. App’x 669, 673 (11th Cir. 2014) (stating that a national banking association is a citizen of the state where it is designated to have its main office). Accordingly, TD Bank is a citizen of Delaware and may also be considered “at home” in New Jersey. Campagna suggests that TD Bank should also be considered “at home” in Georgia because TD customer Bank service directed customers inquiries to a post to mail office certain box in written Georgia. This strained interpretation of existing precedent would expand the places jurisdictional boundary. at which purposes a corporation beyond any is “at reasonably home” for decipherable The Court acknowledges that the Supreme Court has not 5 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 6 of 9 held that a corporation may be subject to general jurisdiction only in a forum where it is incorporated or has its principal place of Supreme business. Court has See 571 Bauman, that cautioned it U.S. at would 137. be But the “unacceptably grasping” to “approve the exercise of general jurisdiction in every State in which a corporation engages in a substantial, continuous, and systemic course of business.” Id. at 138. The Court is unconvinced that simply maintaining a customer service mailbox in Georgia, without more, means that TD Bank is fairly regarded at home in Georgia. Therefore, Campagna’s allegations do of not support the exercise general jurisdiction over TD Bank. The next question is whether Campagna alleged facts to establish specific jurisdiction. sufficient While general jurisdiction would permit the Court to hear “any claim” against the defendant, “even if all the incidents underlying the claim occurred in a different State,” specific jurisdiction is “very different.” Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco Cty., 137 S. Ct. 1773, 1780 (2017). To exercise specific jurisdiction, the suit must arise out of or relate to the defendant’s contacts with the forum. there must be an affiliation “‘between the forum Id. and So, the underlying controversy,’ principally, activity or an occurrence that takes place in the forum State and is therefore subject to 6 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 7 of 9 the State’s regulation.” Mehren & Trautman, Goodyear, 564 U.S. at 919 (quoting von Jurisdiction To Adjudicate: A Suggested Analysis, 79 Harv. L. Rev. 1121, 1136 (1966)) (noting that North Carolina courts controversy lacked arising specific out allegedly caused by a of is bus wreck defective tire corporations outside of the jurisdiction a jurisdiction confined to in France that a was manufactured by foreign Thus, “specific United States). to adjudicate adjudication of issues deriving from, or connected with, the very controversy that establishes jurisdiction.” Bristol-Myers 137 Squibb, (quoting Goodyear, 564 U.S. at 919). S. Ct. at 1780 “When there is no such connection, specific jurisdiction is lacking regardless of the extent of a defendant’s unconnected activities in the State.” Id. at 1781. Court In Bristol-Myers Squibb, for example, the Supreme concluded that although a non-California manufacturer’s contacts with California could confer specific jurisdiction over claims brought by California residents who alleged that they were injured by the manufacturer’s medication in California, the California court could not exercise specific jurisdiction over claims brought by nonresidents who were not prescribed the medication in California, did not ingest it in California, and were not injured in California. Id. at 1780-81. Here, Campagna alleges that she is a New York citizen who went to a local TD Bank branch in New 7 York to apply for a Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 8 of 9 secured credit card. She further alleges that despite TD Bank’s representation she unsecured that credit card would after be able to maintaining her graduate account to in an good standing for seven billing cycles, a telephone customer service representative told Campagna that longer. this would take far Campagna makes no allegations regarding the location of customer decision the process was service made. 2 specialist The only Campagna’s claims and Georgia agreement with TD Bank or alleged is that states where that the graduation connection Campagna’s certain between credit card written customer service correspondence should be sent to a post office box in Columbus, Georgia, and her credit card statements had a return address of that same post office box. Campagna does not even allege that she ever sent correspondence to the Georgia address or that this action arises out of any activity or occurrence that took place in Georgia. Put simply, the present Complaint alleges a a dispute between Delaware/New Jersey bank with New York plaintiff no indication and her that the dispute arises from anything that happened in Georgia. Campagna has failed to allege a sufficient connection between Georgia and her controversy with TD Bank to establish specific jurisdiction over Campagna’s claims against TD Bank. 2 She also did not request any jurisdictional discovery on this issue. 8 Case 4:20-cv-00094-CDL Document 13 Filed 12/04/20 Page 9 of 9 CONCLUSION The Court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over TD Bank in this action would violate United States Constitution. dismiss for lack of the Due Process Clause of the Accordingly, TD Bank’s motion to personal jurisdiction (ECF No. 10) granted. IT IS SO ORDERED, this 4th day of December, 2020. S/Clay D. Land CLAY D. LAND U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA 9 is
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