Collins v. Equable Ascent Financial, LLC
Docket: No. 14-11111-AA
Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; March 19, 2015; Federal Appellate Court
On January 15, 2015, the court reversed the district court’s finding that third-party publication is necessary for a consumer to claim actual damages under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which mandates that consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) perform a reasonable reinvestigation of disputed information in a consumer's credit file. The case of Curtis J. Collins was remanded for further proceedings concerning his claim of negligent violation of § 1681i(a). However, the court upheld the district court's summary judgment concerning Collins' assertion that Experian Information Solutions, Inc. willfully failed to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation under the same statute. Collins requested a rehearing on the willfulness aspect of the ruling, arguing that based on Safeco Insurance Co. of America v. Burr, if a CRA had prior judicial guidance indicating its conduct was unreasonable, this creates a jury question regarding willfulness. He cited previous circuit court cases that suggested merely contacting the creditor to verify debt without addressing other consumer-provided information could be unreasonable. The court denied Collins' petition for rehearing, noting that he did not present the argument in his initial appeal brief and based his entire argument on a single unquoted sentence, interpreted through cases he failed to cite. The court clarified that it did not address the issue raised in the rehearing petition nor would it do so now, as it was not included in Collins’ reply brief.