On Monday, February 27, 2023, the United States Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in the case Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd., No. 22-448, agreeing to hear the appeal filed by the CFPB.
In its petition, the CFPB sought review of the opinion rendered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on October 19, 2022, in which the Fifth Circuit struck down Congress’s mechanism for funding the CFPB and, consequently, vacated the Payday Lending Rule promulgated by the CFPB in 2017 ...
On January 4, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and New York Attorney General (“NYAG”) (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York against Credit Acceptance Corporation, one of the largest subprime indirect auto financing companies in the country, for alleged misconduct in the origination and servicing of its auto retail installment contracts. While the Complaint asserts several untested legal theories, the unquestioned headliner is its allegation that Credit Acceptance incentivizes dealers to ...
On January 11, 2023, the Third Circuit held that attempting to collect on a default judgment did not constitute using "'false, deceptive, or misleading' representations in connection with collecting the judgment" if the default judgment was later vacated. Lowe v. FBCS, Inc., No. 21-3307, 2023 WL 154970, at *1 (3rd Cir. Jan. 11, 2023).
Barbara Lowe (Lowe) filed a lawsuit claiming FBCS, Inc. (FBCS) and LVNV Funding, LLC (LVNV) (collectively, Defendants) violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by calling her to collect on a default judgment later vacated and declared ...
In Mitchell v. Specialized Loan Servicing LLC, 2022 WL 17883609 (9th Cir. Dec. 23, 2022), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of FCRA and related state law claims based on a mortgage servicer’s alleged failure to report the account as current in the payment history profile on the consumer’s credit report.
Plaintiff filed a putative class action asserting FCRA and state law claims based on the mortgage servicer’s allegedly inaccurate credit reporting. In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) amended the FCRA and ...
In Macris v. Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC, 2022 WL 16727611 (2d Cir. Nov. 7, 2022), the Second Circuit upheld summary judgment for a mortgage servicer, holding that the plaintiff could not pursue claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) for the reporting and collection efforts of his mortgage note.
The plaintiff had previously jointly owned a mortgaged property with his then-wife, but upon their divorce, his ex-wife assumed sole possession of the property and removed the plaintiff from the deed. Years later, the mortgage ...
In Foster v. PNC Bank, National Association, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) claim, but determined that plaintiff lacked standing because he could not show that defendant’s conduct caused his credit score to drop.
Plaintiff filed suit alleging claims for a violation of the FCRA, breach of contract, breach of the implied duty of a good faith and fair dealing, and breach of fiduciary duty. Defendant counterclaimed seeking judgment on the loan and moved for summary judgment. The district court determined that ...
On September 8, 2022, in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. , No. 19-14434, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an en banc decision which departs significantly from the panel decision on Article III standing issues and statutory causes of action. The case has broad implications for how the Eleventh Circuit applies Article III standing analysis, particularly in consumer finance cases, but also in other cases where a statutory violation has a dubious relationship to any real harm to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff in Hunstein sued a ...
In Magdy v. I.C. Sys., Inc., No. 21-3010, 2022 WL 4075764, at *1 (8th Cir. Sept. 6, 2022), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, faced with a matter of first impression, held that a non-consumer attorney could not bring an FDCPA claim.
The facts of the case are straightforward. On July 27, 2020, Andrew Madgy (“Madgy”), a bankruptcy attorney, received a debt collection letter from I.C. System, Inc. (“ICS”). The letter identified Madgy as the attorney for a consumer named in the letter. The only problem – Madgy was not the consumer’s lawyer and the consumer had neither ...
In Tavernaro v. Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc., No. 2:20-CV-02141-KHV-ADM, 2022WL3153234 (10th Cir. Aug. 8, 2022), the Tenth Circuit recently held that violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) are to be evaluated through the perspective of a reasonable consumer rather than the “least sophisticated consumer” standard adopted by other circuits.
On May 26, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion reversing the Southern District of Florida’s denial of the appellant’s motion to compel arbitration, therein finding that the district court erred in failing to apply the arbitration agreement’s delegation clause, as agreed to by the parties. The appellate court answered the alliterative tongue-twister of “whether an arbitrator should arbitrate arbitrability” in the affirmative.
In Attix v. Carrington Mortgage Services LLC, –– F.4th ––, 2022 WL 1682237 (11th Cir. May 26, 2022), the plaintiff filed a ...