South Carolina High Court Will No Longer Rule On Debt Collector Case

On April 30, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed course by declining to issue a ruling on debt-collection practices. The state high court issued an order dismissing the case, ruling that a writ of certiorari was improvidently granted and declined to review the South Carolina Court of Appeal’s prior ruling. The state Supreme Court’s decision followed oral argument on April 23. The central issue on appeal was whether the assignee of a national bank is required to send a notice of right-to-cure to a credit card debtor when the account it purchased was charged off prior to the assignment of debt.

The case stemmed from a South Carolina appellate court order which affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded a lower court’s decision in a case involving a consumer’s charged-off credit card account. The consumer argued the assignee failed to send a required right-to-cure notice under the South Carolina Consumer Protection Code — which the court agreed was necessary, thus reversing the lower court’s decision on this point. The court also upheld the dismissal of the consumer’s counterclaims related to the FDCPA, finding them time barred.