A District Court judge in Nevada has granted a defendant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case involving duplicative entries on the plaintiff’s credit report from a collection agency and a creditor related to the same debt, although the amounts of the debt were different.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Singer v. R.C. Willey Home Furnishings et al. can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff opened a line of credit to purchase furniture in 2010 and charged $1,531 to the account. The plaintiff failed to make payments on the debt and the creditor placed the account with a collection agency in 2016. In 2021, the plaintiff checked his credit report and noticed that both the agency and the creditor were reporting the debt to the credit reporting agencies — although the creditor was reporting the debt owed was $1,531 and the agency was reporting that the amount of the debt was $4,475. The plaintiff filed disputes with the credit reporting agencies, but none of them removed either of the tradelines.
The plaintiff filed suit, alleging the creditor, the credit reporting agencies, and the collection agency violated the FCRA and the FDCPA. The plaintiff settled with the credit reporting agencies, and the court previously dismissed the FDCPA claim against the collection agency. The creditor then filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings and the plaintiff filed a motion to submit an amended complaint.
Adopting a report and recommendation from a Magistrate judge, Judge James C. Mahan of the District Court for the District of Nevada granted the defendant’s motion and denied the plaintiff’s attempt to amend his complaint, largely because nobody objected to the R&R from the Magistrate judge.
Basing his complaint on the argument that reporting the debt on separate tradelines is inaccurate is not a matter of law, Judge Mahan noted. Nobody would be misled into believing the plaintiff owed two separately collectible debts that were currently owed, he wrote.
