Midland Funding LLC v. Johnson
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 15, 2017 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 15, 2017
- Term
- October Term 2016
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 91 Stat. 874, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., prohibits a debt collector from asserting any “false, deceptive, or misleading representation,” or using any “unfair or unconscionable means” to collect, or attempt to collect, a debt, §§ 1692e, 1692f. In this case, a debt collector filed a written statement in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding claiming that the debtor owed the debt collector money. The statement made clear, however, that the 6-year statute of limitations governing collection of the claimed debt had long since run. The question before us is whether the debt collector’s filing of that statement falls within the scope of the aforementioned provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. We conclude that it does not. 1 — i In March 2014, Aleida Johnson, the respondent, filed for personal bankruptcy under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code (or Code), 11 U.S.C. § 1301 et seq., in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Two months later, Midland Funding, LLC, the petitioner, filed a “proof of claim,” a written statement asserting that Johnson owed Midland a credit-card debt of $1,879.71. The statement added that the last time any charge appeared on Johnson’s account was in May 2003, more than 10 years before Johnson filed for bankruptcy. The relevant…
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