Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson

Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided January 17, 2017
Full case name	Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson
Docket no.	16-348
Citations	581 U.S. 224 ( more )
Holding
The filing of a bankruptcy proof of claim that is obviously time-barred is not a false, deceptive, misleading, unfair, or unconscionable debt-collection practice within the meaning of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy  · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg  · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito  · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer
Dissent	Sotomayor, joined by Ginsburg, Kagan
Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, 581 U.S. 224(2017), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that the filing of a bankruptcy proof of claim that is obviously time-barred is not a false, deceptive, misleading, unfair, or unconscionable debt-collection practice within the meaning of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. ^{[1] [2]}

Background

Midland Funding filed a proof of claim in Aleida Johnson's Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, asserting that Johnson owed Midland credit-card debt and noting that the last time any charge appeared on Johnson's account was more than 10 years before. The relevant statute of limitations under Alabama law is six years. Johnson objected to the claim, and the Bankruptcy Court disallowed it. Johnson then sued Midland, claiming that its filing a proof of claim on an obviously time-barred debt was "false," "deceptive," "misleading," "unconscionable," and "unfair" within the meaning of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The federal district court held that the act did not apply and dismissed the suit. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed. ^[1]

Opinion of the court

The court issued an opinion on January 17, 2017. ^[1]

References

1. Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson,No. 16-348 , 581 U.S. ___(2017).
2. Mann, Ronald (May 16, 2017). "Opinion analysis: Justices approve filing stale claims in consumer bankruptcies". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved July 22, 2025.

External links

• Text of Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson,No. 16-348, 581 U.S. ___(2017) is available from: Justia

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain .