Abdollahzadeh v. Mandarich Law Group

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-debt-collector’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-debtor’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claim, alleging that defendant wrongfully attempted to collect time-barred debt. Record showed that plaintiff had made last payment on debt in August of 2010 and attempted to make another payment in June of 2011, but said payment did not clear. Defendant, whose client purchased plaintiff’s delinquent account from original creditor, then sued plaintiff in February of 2016, and state court dismissed said lawsuit because last actual payment in August of 2010 occurred outside applicable 5-year limitation period. Dist. Ct. could properly find that bona fide error defense applied, where: (1) defendant made mere factual mistake by using wrong date of plaintiff’s last payment from data supplied to defendant by its client; (2) defendant was unaware that June 2011 payment did not clear; (3) defendant had received affidavit from client that data in report was accurate; and (4) procedures used by defendant, which included review by attorney on limitations issues, as well as automated scrub that culled out-of-statute debts, were reasonable precautions designed to prevent attempts to collect time-barred debts, even though mistake was made in instant case.