Walton v. EOS CCA

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-debt collector’s motion for summary judgment in action by plaintiff alleging that defendant violated Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by failing to contact creditor directly to obtain verification of plaintiff’s debt, after plaintiff had disputed merits of debt. Record showed that after plaintiff had disputed merits of debt, defendant verified that plaintiff’s name, address, and last four digits of her social security number matched debt report it had received from creditor. Moreover, defendant was not required to do more, even though creditor eventually acknowledged that it had assigned wrong account number to plaintiff. Ct. further rejected plaintiff’s claim that section 1692(g) of FDCPA required defendant to contact creditor to confirm whether plaintiff actually owed instant debt.