9th Cir. Reverses Trial Court Ruling in Favor of Defendant on FDCPA Claim Related to Bankruptcy

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on the Maurice Wutscher blog and is republished here with permission.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently reversed an award of summary judgment in favor of a defendant debt collector against claims that it violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by attempting to collect a debt that was discharged in bankruptcy and no longer owed.

In so ruling, the Ninth Circuit concluded that its holding in Walls v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 276 F.3d 502 (9th Cir. 2002), which precludes FDCPA claims premised on a violation of a bankruptcy discharge order, did not apply because the FDCPA claims at issue here were premised on his full satisfaction of the debt through a Chapter 13 plan before the discharge was entered, rather than a violation of the discharge order.