State ex rel. Frieson v. Isner
| Decision Date | 18 December 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 15109,15109 |
| Citation | 285 S.E.2d 641,168 W.Va. 758 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. Woodie FRIESON. v. Robert A. ISNER, Magistrate, et al. |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Under the provisions of W.Va.Code § 50-4-1 (1980 Replacement Vol.), which sets forth the requirements of filing a complaint by a commercial creditor to recover debts owed by the defendant, it is improper for the creditor to bring an action to recover on several separate and distinct accounts by consolidating them into one claim. The creditor must set forth in the complaint the amount of each original obligation, including which parts of that amount represent the principal and the interest, the amount and dates of any payments or credits to each separate account and the amount alleged to be due on each account.
2. Under fundamental concepts of due process the defendant in a civil action is entitled to be apprised from the outset of the nature of the claim against him with such definiteness that a person of reasonable intelligence is able to understand the allegations and respond to the complaint. A magistrate court complaint, filed by one with whom the defendant has never done business, which seeks recovery of amounts due several of the defendants' creditors and which does not set forth specific and detailed allegations of fact which clearly and definitely inform the defendant of the specific nature of each separate, overdue account, does not satisfy the notice requirements of due process.
3. A non-lawyer who undertakes, for pay, to bring lawsuits on the claims of third persons and to perform the necessary legal services incident to such lawsuit, such as preparing and filing complaints, affidavits and other legal documents, and appearing in court, is engaged in the unauthorized practice of law.
4. W.Va.Code § 50-4-4a (1980 Replacement Vol.), authorizing appearance of parties to civil litigation in magistrate court by lay agent, does not permit the unauthorized practice of law. Rather the statute anticipates the appearance of a party by a non-lawyer agent on a casual, non-recurring, non-pay basis as a means of assisting the party appearing pro se.
Charles R. Garten, Charleston, for relator.
No appearance for respondents.
W. Va. State Bar by Robert H. Davis, Jr., Charleston, amicus curiae.
Associated Collection Agencies of W. Va. and its President Ross A. White, by George P. Sovick, Jr., Charleston, amicus curiae.
The petitioner, Woodie Frieson, seeks a writ of prohibition under the original jurisdiction of this Court to restrain enforcement of a judgment entered against him in the Magistrate Court of Boone County. The petitioner contends that the magistrate court acted outside the scope of its jurisdiction in entering a default judgment in favor of South Charleston Adjustment Bureau, Inc., for the recovery of debts owed by the petitioner to various creditors. The petitioner also contends that South Charleston Adjustment Bureau was engaging in the unauthorized practice of law by asserting the claims of the petitioner's creditors in the magistrate court. We find merit in these contentions and we award the writ.
The petitioner, Woody Frieson, lives in Sang Creek, Boone County, with his wife and six children. He is employed by the Department of Highways and earns $690 per month. South Charleston Adjustment Bureau, Inc., is a West Virginia corporation engaged in the business of collecting debts. In October 1980, the collection agency filed a complaint in the Magistrate Court of Boone County, seeking to recover three separate debts owed by the petitioner to Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc., C & P Telephone Co., Inc., and Associated Radiologists, Inc., respectively. The complaint consolidated these three unpaid accounts into a single claim for a total amount of $434.14, of which $386.73 represented the total amount of principal due, $34.41 represented the total amount of accrued interest, and $13.00 represented court costs. The complaint did not set forth separately the amount of each original debt or the amount of interest owing on each. The complaint was prepared and filed by the manager of South Charleston Adjustment Bureau, a non-lawyer, and neither of the parties was represented by counsel in the proceedings below. The petitioner did not respond to the complaint, and a default judgment was entered against him and garnishment proceedings were commenced.
The petitioner contends that because the complaint filed by South Charleston Adjustment Bureau did not set forth separately the amount of each of the original claims of his creditors, it is not a proper statement of the nature of the cause of action, and, thus, an insufficient pleading to invoke the jurisdiction of the magistrate court under the provisions of W.Va.Code § 50-4-1 (1980 Replacement Vol.). The petitioner also contends that South Charleston Adjustment Bureau engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in that it instituted legal proceedings and appeared in magistrate court to prosecute the claims of the petitioner's creditors. Upon proper motion, we granted leave to the West Virginia State Bar and to the Associated Collection Agencies of West Virginia to file briefs as amici curiae.
We will first address the issue of whether the failure of South Charleston Adjustment Bureau to itemize in the complaint the amount of principal and interest due each of the petitioner's creditors invalidated the proceedings in the magistrate court.
W.Va.Code § 50-4-1 (1980 Replacement Vol.) states that civil actions in magistrate court shall be commenced by the payment of the required fees and providing the magistrate court clerk, magistrate deputy clerk, or magistrate assistant with specific, detailed information as to the nature of the cause of action. In the case of a commercial creditor
the statement [of the nature of the cause of action] shall include, but not be limited to, a setting forth of the amount of the original obligation, the portion thereof which constitutes principal, the portion thereof which represents interest, the date and amount of payments thereon, the amount, if any, credited for the sale of repossessed collateral, and the amount alleged to be due .... (emphasis added). W.Va.Code § 50-4-1
The obvious intent of this provision is to insure the fundamental concept of due process that a defendant in any such action shall have proper notice of the nature of the claim against him. By requiring that the complaint set forth a detailed description of the amount originally owed, the amount alleged to be due, and the amount of any payments or credits to the account, the statute anticipates that the statement of the nature of the cause of action will provide the defendant with sufficient information to enable him to understand the specific nature of the claim against him and to present any defenses which he might have.
The complaint filed by South Charleston Adjustment Bureau does not fulfill the requirements of the statute. It does not state the amount of the original debt on any of the three unrelated claims against the petitioner. It does not state the amount of principal and the amount of interest due on each claim. Rather, the complaint consolidates all three accounts into one claim for a total amount alleged to be due, broken down into a total amount of principal due and a total amount of interest accrued, plus court costs, on "[u]npaid account for Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc., C & P Telephone and Associated Radiologists."
The complaint here did not adequately inform the petitioner of the nature of the separate, unrelated claims against him. Indeed the consolidation of the three overdue accounts into one lump sum claim for recovery appears to foster exactly the sort of confusion and ambiguity that the statute is intended to avoid. The defendant has no way of discerning from the complaint whether the claims of the complainant are bona fide debts or whether his account has been credited with any payments previously made. Any specific legitimate defense he may have cannot be ascertained from the facts stated in the complaint. For example, the petitioner here alleges that two of the claims against him were to be paid by his insurance company and that he was unable to determine from the facts stated in the complaint the amount due on those claims and what payments, if any, had been made by the insurance company.
Such a situation demonstrates that the failure to plead specifically the nature of the cause of action is almost always to the disadvantage of the debtor, who may be unable to determine from insufficient allegations the appropriate course to take in his defense. The statutory procedures for magistrate courts are designed to eliminate such difficulties for the layman and to provide a fair and relatively informal forum for the resolution of disputes consistent with the principles of due process. The failure of either party to follow these rather simple procedures can cause complexities which act to the unfair disadvantage of the other. We conclude, therefore, that under the provisions of W.Va.Code § 50-4-1, which sets forth the requirements for filing a complaint by a commercial creditor to recover debts owed by the defendant, it is improper for the creditor to bring an action to recover on several separate and distinct accounts by consolidating them into one claim. The creditor must set forth in the complaint the amount of each original obligation, including which parts of that amount represent the principal and the interest, the amount and date of any payment or credit to each separate account and the amount alleged to be due on each account.
The Associated Collection Agencies of West Virginia assert in their amicus curiae brief, that it is standard procedure for collection agencies to correspond with people in Mr. Frieson's position before any legal action is taken, indicating to them the...
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