Collection firm wants suit moved to federal court

FAIRMONT -- An Atlanta debt-collecting firm has filed a notice of removal for a case originally filed in Monongalia Circuit Court by a Marion County woman.

Trauner, Cohen and Thomas is an Atlanta debt-collection firm for a debt-purchaser named CACH LLC. Their business in West Virginia was with the plantiff, Sonya Goff of Fairmont.

In her suit, filed on July 26, she alleges that in June 2007, the firm placed a telephone call to her place of employment, REM West Virginia in Morgantown. She had requested that she not be contacted at work.

Her supervisor, Brenda Page, answered the phone call, and Trauner, Cohen, and Thomas spoke with Page regarding the debt alleged to be owed to it and told Page that the phone call was an emergency and "urgent." It was not. Stating that the phone call was urgent when it was, in fact, not and contacting Goff at work after her request not to are violations of West Virginia law and the Consumer Credit and Protection Act (CCPA).

Filed by Juile Gower Romain of Fairmont, the suit stated that Goff was seeking a trial by jury to award damages of $1,000 adjusted for inflation from Sept. 1, 1974, for each violation of the CCPA, totaling $3,880. She was also seeking forgiveness of the debt and litigation costs.

Filed by Ryan Debski of the Morgantown firm of Spilman Thomas & Battle on July 29, 2008, Trauner, Cohen, and Thomas filed a notice of removal to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia because it believes that the laws violated fall under the jurisdiction of the United States.