Barkley v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Incorporated et al

Summary:

Timeshare owner Daryl Barkley alleges that HICV improperly attempted to collect a debt against her that it knew was illegitimate in violation of the FCCPA and FCRA. First, she alleges that HICV breached its timeshare contract with her by failing to timely record the deed to an HICV timeshare that was the subject of the alleged debt, rendering the timeshare contract voidable, and that she properly rescinded the timeshare contract via February 9, 2017 [ECF 1-2] and March 10, 2017 [ECF 1-3] letters from her counsel, Mike Flynn, and thus owed no further payments after that date. Second, Ms. Barkley alleged that she defaulted on the timeshare contract by stopping payments before the deed was recorded, so the obligations under the contract ended and HICV’s remedy was limited to liquidated damages of the money that Ms. Barkley had already paid HICV. She alleges that, notwithstanding the timeshare owners’ notices of rescission, HICV improperly recorded the deed in Nevada in her name.

Ms. Barkley alleges that Experian violated the FCRA by inaccurately reporting the disputed debt, even after Ms. Barkley advised the credit reporting agency of the debt’s illegitimacy.

The timeshare owner alleges that notwithstanding his counsel’s letter to HICV advising of the illegitimacy of any debt, HICV sent over fifty written communications to his counsel demanding payment on the debt. She alleges that in addition to consequential damages, she suffered actual damages, inter alia, in the form of damage to her credit reputation, higher credit costs.

In their respective answers, HICV and Experian deny liability, on the basis, inter alia, that the collection and debt reporting activities were directed at a debt that was not illegitimate.