ST. LOUIS – A federal court sided with a woman in her efforts to compel a purported debt collection agency she successfully sued to respond to post-judgment discovery.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted Faronda Davis’ motions to compel discovery in aid of execution against Fidelity Information Corp. on April 16.
Davis first initiated litigation against Fidelity, TransUnion LLC and Equifax Information Services in a lower court in St. Louis County, alleging that the companies violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The lawsuit was moved to federal court on March 21, 2018, by TransUnion.
Shortly after the case switched jurisdictions, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed TransUnion and Equifax. She eventually scored a default judgment against Fidelity in December 2018 and was awarded $500 in statutory damages, $5,000 in actual damages, and attorney’s fees and costs totaling $11,690. She then filed a motion seeking an order to compel Fidelity to respond to post-judgment discovery and for nonparty Tan Green III LLC to respond to her subpoena.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig explained that she agreed with Davis’ assertions in relation to the post-judgment discovery because Fidelity failed to timely and properly address an apparent misnomer.
“Here, Fidelity was properly served with process and had the opportunity to object to the misnomer,” said Fleissig in the order. “However, Fidelity defaulted and to date has not participated in this litigation. Under Missouri law, the default judgment against it is valid and binding.”
The order also stated that Fidelity’s landlord at its former Southern California location, Tan Green, “be directed to produce the records requested by the subpoena for any tenant by the name of Fidelity Capital Holdings Inc., Fidelity Creditor Service, or Fidelity Information Corp.”
Davis is represented by Matthew P. Cook.