The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently held that a debt collector did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) by filing a time-barred proof of claim in a bankruptcy proceeding.  See Nelson v. Midland Credit Mgmt., Inc., 2016 WL 3672073 (8th Cir. July 11, 2016).  There, a debtor filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition, and the debt collector filed a proof of claim for a debt on which the debtor had defaulted nine years earlier.  The debtor objected and the bankruptcy court disallowed the claim.  The debtor then filed an action against the debt collector, alleging a violation of the FDCPA for falsely representing the legal status of a debt and threatening to take an action that could not legally be taken.  See 15 USC 1692e.  The district court dismissed the complaint and the debtor appealed.  The debtor argued, in part, that the Eighth Circuit should follow the Eleventh Circuit and find that the “filing of a time-barred proof of claim against [a debtor] in bankruptcy was ‘unfair,’ ‘unconscionable,’ ‘deceptive,’ and ‘misleading’ within the broad scope of [the FDCPA].”  Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, 758 F.3d 1254, 1261 (11th Cir. 2014).  The Eighth Circuit, however, rejected the debtor’s argument and affirmed the dismissal.  It held that there is a distinction between a bankruptcy claim and an actual or threatened litigation, and that a debtor in a bankruptcy has the aid of a bankruptcy trustee to object to an unenforceable claim.  This distinction, along with other protections present in the Bankruptcy Code, are sufficient to “satisfy the relevant concerns of the FDCPA.”

For a copy of the decision, please contact Michael O’Donnell at modonnell@riker.com.