MIDLAND FUNDING LLC A/P/O WEBBANK VS. ROBERTA BORDEAUX
A-0850-14T3
Plaintiff filed a civil action in small claims court to
collect the full amount of a consumer debt's alleged outstanding
balance. The issue in this appeal concerns the enforceability
of an arbitration clause that plaintiff claims was part of the
original creditor's consumer credit application form.
Plaintiff's sole evidence of the arbitration agreement's
existence consists of two single-spaced, photocopied pages that
do not bear defendant's signature or any other indicia of her
assent. The trial court enforced the arbitration clause,
relying only on a certification in which a "Legal Specialist"
employed by plaintiff attested that the two pages were in the
records of plaintiff's predecessor in interest.
We reverse. Relying on Atalese v. U.S. Legal Serv. Grp., L.P., 219 N.J. 430, 442 (2014), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 135 S. Ct. 2804, 192 L. Ed. 2d 847 (2015), we hold that plaintiff failed to prove that defendant knowingly waived her constitutional right to adjudicate this dispute in a court of law.
We reverse. Relying on Atalese v. U.S. Legal Serv. Grp., L.P., 219 N.J. 430, 442 (2014), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 135 S. Ct. 2804, 192 L. Ed. 2d 847 (2015), we hold that plaintiff failed to prove that defendant knowingly waived her constitutional right to adjudicate this dispute in a court of law.
