IZELL REESE, RAVEN REESE, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ELLIS, PAINTER, RATTERRE & ADAMS, LLP, Defendant-Appellee. 11th Circuit. Case No. 10-14366. May 1, 2012. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (No. 1:09-cv-02435-WCO).
(Before DUBINA, Chief Judge, CARNES, Circuit Judge, and FORRESTER,* District Judge.)
(CARNES, Circuit Judge.) Izell and Raven Reese defaulted on a loan that they had secured by giving the lender a mortgage on their property. A law firm representing the lender sent the Reeses a letter and documents demanding payment of the debt and threatening to foreclose on the property if they did not pay it. The Reeses then filed a putative class action lawsuit against the law firm alleging that the communication violated the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692e. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), finding that the law firm was not a “debt collector” under § 1692a(6) and that the letter and documents it sent were not covered by § 1692e. This is the Reeses’ appeal.
I.
The Reeses currently live on a piece of property in Roswell, Georgia, that they purchased in 2004 with the help of a $650,000 loan from Provident Funding Associates, L.P.1 To get that loan, the Reeses signed a promissory note and executed a security deed giving Provident a mortgage on their property. A few years later, the Reeses defaulted on the promissory note.
On June 3, 2009, Provident’s law firm, Ellis, Painter, Ratterree & Adams LLP (“the Ellis law firm”), mailed the Reeses a collection or “dunning” notice, which consisted of a cover letter and three documents. The subject line of the cover letter states:
RE: Note, dated July 23, 2004, in the principal amount of $650,000.00 from Izell Reese and Raven Reese to Provident Funding Associates, L.P.
Security Deed, dated July 23, 2004, from Izell Reese and Raven Reese to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as nominee for Provident Funding Associates, L.P., describing certain real property known as 4037 Thessa Cove, Roswell, Georgia.
The first paragraph of the letter describes Provident as the “Lender” and “current holder of the above-referenced Note . . . and Security Deed,” and explains that the Ellis law firm represents Provident. The letter continues:
