Yandrisovitz v. Ohio State Life Ins. Co., 5:18-cv-1036

EDWARD J. YANDRISOVITZand CHARLOTTE F. YANDRISOVITZ, Plaintiffs, v. OHIO STATE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANYand AMERICO FINANCIAL LIFE AND ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendants.

No. 5:18-cv-1036

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

August 31, 2018

OPINION

Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 3 — Granted in part

Joseph F. Leeson, Jr. United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

In this insurance dispute, the plaintiffs, a married couple, contend that the insurance company that issued their life insurance policies continued to deduct increasing premiums from their bank account after the policies expired. Defendants move to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims and argue that they acted in accordance with the policy documents. For the reasons discussed below, Defendants' motion is granted with respect to all claims except Plaintiffs' Pennsylvania state law conversion claim.

II. BACKGROUND

The following facts are taken from Plaintiffs' Complaint, ECF No. 1.

Plaintiffs Edward J. Yandrisovitz and Charlotte F. Yandrisovitz, husband and wife, each bought a $25,000 convertible term life insurance policy from Defendant Ohio State Life Insurance Company. Compl. ¶ 4. The policies were issued on September 7, 2001, and October 17, 2001, with guaranteed premiums of $25.66 and $96.30 respectively. Compl. ¶ 4. Both policies had a fifteen-year term: they expired on August 31, 2016, and September 30, 2016. Compl. ¶ 5.

When the policies expired in 2016, Ohio State Life Insurance, then known as Defendant Americo Financial Life and Annuity Insurance Company, renewed them for a year without notifying the Plaintiffs or obtaining their consent. Compl. ¶ 6. Plaintiffs allege that their insurance policies did not allow Defendants to renew the policies and continue deducting premiums from Plaintiffs' bank account. Compl. ¶ 14. Regardless, Defendants increased the policy premiums from $25.66 to $268.79 and from $96.30 to $676.34 and continued deducting these amounts from Plaintiffs' bank account. Id. A year later, in September 2017, the Defendants once again renewed the policies after the initial one-year renewal expired. Compl. ¶ 9. Again, Defendants did not notify Plaintiffs of the extension or obtain their consent to it. Compl. ¶¶ 10-11.

On December 20, 2017, Plaintiffs contacted Defendants and requested that they stop deducting funds from Plaintiffs' bank account. Compl. ¶ 17. Regardless, Defendants deducted premiums on January 9, 2018, and in February 2018. Compl. ¶ 18. Defendants deducted a total of $11,753.54 in premiums from Defendants' bank account after the policies expired in 2016 and have refused to reimburse Plaintiffs this amount. Compl. ¶¶ 19-20. As a result of Defendants' deducting the funds from Plaintiffs' account, Plaintiffs incurred overdraft fees of $2,100 and interest at 21.15%. Compl. ¶ 22.

Plaintiffs brought suit in the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, on February 16, 2018. Notice of Removal ¶ 1, ECF No. 1. Their Complaint alleges claims ofconversion, fraudulent misrepresentation, misappropriation of funds, statutory bad faith, and violations of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL), 73 P.S. §§ 201-1-201-9.3. Defendants removed the case to this Court on March 12, 2018, ECF No. 1, and have moved to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims under Rule 12(b)(6).

III. LEGAL STANDARD

In rendering a decision on a motion to dismiss, this Court must "accept all factual allegations as true [and] construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Phillips v. Cnty. of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 233 (3d Cir. 2008) (quoting Pinker v. Roche Holdings Ltd., 292 F.3d 361, 374 n.7 (3d Cir. 2002)) (internal quotation marks omitted). Only if "the '[f]actual allegations . . . raise a right to relief above the speculative level'" has the plaintiff stated a plausible claim. Id. at 234 (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 540, 555 (2007)). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). However, "the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions." Id. (explaining that determining "whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief . . . [is] a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense"). The defendant bears the burden of demonstrating that a plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Hedges v. United States, 404 F.3d 744, 750 (3d Cir. 2005) (citing Kehr Packages, Inc. v. Fidelcor, Inc., 926 F.2d 1406, 1409 (3d Cir. 1991)).

IV. ANALYSIS

A. This Court will not consider the policy documents Defendants attach to their motion to dismiss.

Defendants attach documents to their motion to dismiss that they present as Mr. and Mrs. Yandrisovitz's respective life insurance policies. Exs. 1 and 2 to Defs.' Mot., ECF Nos. 3-3 and 3-4. They argue that the policies provided for terms of twenty-six and thirty years, respectively, and expressly allowed Defendants to increase the annual premium for each year after the tenth year of the policy—in other words, that the language of the policies undermines Plaintiffs' position that their policies terminated after fifteen years in 2016, and that Defendants had no right to continue deducting premiums from their bank account after that time.

Defendants argue that this Court may consider the policy documents because the terms of the insurance policies are central to Plaintiffs' claims. "In deciding motions to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), courts generally consider only the allegations in the complaint, exhibits attached to the complaint, matters of public record, and documents that form the basis of a claim." Lum v. Bank of Am., 361 F.3d 217, 222 n.3 (3d Cir. 2004). "Documents that the defendant attaches to the motion to dismiss are considered part of the pleadings if they are referred to in the plaintiff's complaint and are central to the claim; as such, they may be considered by the court" without converting a 12(b)(6) motion into a motion for summary judgment, provided that neither party disputes the document's authenticity. Pryor v. NCAA, 288 F.3d 548, 560 (3d Cir. 2002) (quoting 27A Fed. Proc., L.Ed. § 62:466 (West 2009)).

In their response to Defendants' motion, Plaintiffs seem to dispute the authenticity of Defendants' documents.¹ They state that they requested copies of the full policies in November 2011, but that Defendants provided only certificates of insurance that summarized the terms of the policies. Plaintiffs attach both certificates to their response: Mrs. Yandrisovitz's certificate describes her policy as a "15 Year Term Life" policy with a monthly premium of $25.66, Ex. 1 to Pls.' Opp., ECF No. 4-2, and Mr. Yandrisovitz's certificate describes his policy as a "15 Year Renewable Term Life" policy with a monthly premium of $96.30, Ex. 2 to Pls.' Opp., ECF No. 4-2. Plaintiffs hint without stating outright that they have never seen the insurance policies which Defendants attach. They state that "at no further time have Defendants ever outlined the ability to increase premiums as Defendants rely on in the attached insurance policy" and assert that "it does not appear a full policy was ever issued to Plaintiffs at the time of issuance or enrollment in the life insurance plan." Pls.' Opp. 1-2.

Plaintiffs present a weak challenge to the documents' authenticity, and may face a difficult challenge at summary judgment. The certificates Plaintiffs attach display the same policy numbers and monthly premiums as the policy documents Defendants attach to their motion; the only notable discrepancy is that the certificates describe the policies as "15 Year." Additionally, the certificates both state explicitly that they do not change or modify the terms of the original policy, but only show that the policy was issued.

Although the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has not explicitly addressed the degree to which an attachment's authenticity must be in dispute before a court should not consider it, courts seem to adopt a lenient standard. A court in this district stated in Stanford v. Foamex L.P.that a plaintiff need not provide a specific reason for challenging an attachment's authenticity when opposing a motion to dismiss—as long as a plaintiff raises the issue, he is entitled to validate the authenticity of the documents. No. CIV.A. 07-4225, 2008 WL 3874823, at *4 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 20, 2008) (declining to consider attachments where the plaintiff argued he was unaware of the documents at issue until the defendant attached them to its motion) (citing Horsley v. Feldt, 304 F.3d 1125, 1134 (11th Cir. 2002)). Other courts have entertained similar general objections to authenticity. See Russo v. Navient Sols., LLC, No. 2:16-CV-00316, 2018 WL 1474354, at *5 (D. Vt. Mar. 23, 2018) (accepting plaintiff's objection that questions existed about attachments' authenticity "at face value"); Sigai v. Sedgwick Claims Mgmt. Servs., Inc., No. 11-1130-CM-KGG, 2011 WL 6151410, at *1 (D. Kan. Dec. 12, 2011) (declining to consider attachment to motion to dismiss even though the court was "skeptical of plaintiff's objection," which did not allege the document was false, altered, or counterfeit); Barberan v. Nationpoint, 706 F. Supp. 2d 408, 415, 416 n.4 (S.D.N.Y. 2010) (refusing to consider attached documents even though the plaintiffs referenced these documents in their complaint and their authenticity objections appeared "less than genuine" and "of questionable validity").²

Plaintiffs allege that they never received the policy documents Defendants attach. This Court accepts their allegation at face value and declines to consider the policy documents at this time.³ See also U.S. Renal Care, Inc. v. Wellspan Health...