Riccio v. Sentry Credit – 3d Cir. – March 30, 2020
A panel of this Court previously concluded § 1692g(a)(3) requires that “any dispute, to be effective, must be in writing.” Graziano, 950 F.2d at 112. Yet reading the statutory text with fresh eyes—and more importantly, with the past three decades of Supreme Court statutory- interpretation caselaw—we think § 1692g(a)(3) permits oral disputes. The plain language and meaning § 1692g(a)(3) permits a debtor to dispute a debt orally.
Other courts have reached the same conclusion. The Second, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits reject a writing requirement, openly splitting with Graziano. See Clark v. Absolute Collection Serv., Inc., 741 F.3d 487, 490-91 (4th Cir. 2014) (per curiam); Hooks v. Forman, Holt, Eliades & Ravin, LLC, 717 F.3d 282, 285-86 (2d Cir. 2013); Camacho v. Bridgeport Fin. Inc., 430 F.3d 1078, 1080-81 (9th Cir. 2005). And without noting the split, the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits have taken the same position. See Macy v. GC Servs. Ltd., 897 F.3d 747, 757- 58 (6th Cir. 2018); Evans v. Portfolio Recovery Assocs., LLC, 889 F.3d 337, 347 n.6 (7th Cir. 2018); Sayles v. Advanced Recovery Sys., Inc., 865 F.3d 246, 249-50 (5th Cir. 2017); Brady v. Credit Recovery Co., 160 F.3d 64, 66- 67 (1st Cir. 1998).
In sum, we no longer think § 1692g(a)(3) requires written disputes. Simply put, “Congress did not write the statute that way.” United States v. Naftalin, 441 U.S. 768, 773 (1979). Subsections (a)(4), (a)(5), and (b) command a written dispute; (a)(3) does not. “We would not presume to ascribe this difference to a simple mistake in draftsmanship.” Russello, 464 U.S. at 23.
In short, we conclude that debt collection notices sent under § 1692g need not require that disputes be expressed in writing. In doing so, we overrule Graziano’s contrary holding. Because Sentry Credit’s notice perfectly tracked § 1692g’s text, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.
