Tenant Revives Case Against Collection Agency Over Inaccuracies

A collection agency was required to investigate a debt that a tenant said was in dispute with her landlord, the Fourth Circuit said Friday in a reversal.

To assert her claim, Shelby Roberts needed only to “allege facts that, if true, show that a credit report is inaccurate or incomplete based on information that is objectively and readily verifiable by Carter-Young as the information’s furnisher,” said Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

There is no legal/factual distinction under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Quattlebaum said, disagreeing with the district court’s finding ...