PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 22-1248

MARK ANTHONY GUTHRIE,

Plaintiff – Appellant,

v.

PHH MORTGAGE CORPORATION,

Defendant – Appellee,

and

TRANS UNION, LLC; EQUIFAX, INC.; EQUIFAX INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC; EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.,

Defendants.

------------------------------

ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER; THE NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER,

Amici Supporting Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Wilmington. Terrence W. Boyle, District Judge. (7:20−cv−00043−BO)

Argued: May 4, 2023 Decided: August 18, 2023

Before DIAZ, Chief Judge, and WYNN and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges. USCA4 Appeal: 22-1248 Doc: 49 Filed: 08/18/2023 Pg: 2 of 39

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by published opinion. Judge Quattlebaum wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Diaz joined and Judge Wynn wrote an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

ARGUED: Matthew William Buckmiller, BUCKMILLER, BOYETTE & FROST, PLLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. John Curtis Lynch, TROUTMAN PEPPER HAMILTON SANDERS LLP, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Blake Boyette, BUCKMILLER, BOYETTE & FROST, PLLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Ethan G. Ostroff, Carter R. Nichols, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Elizabeth Holt Andrews, TROUTMAN PEPPER HAMILTON SANDERS LLP, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. Megan Iorio, Christopher Frascella, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae.

2 USCA4 Appeal: 22-1248 Doc: 49 Filed: 08/18/2023 Pg: 3 of 39

QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judge:

Mark Anthony Guthrie appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to

PHH Mortgage Corporation on numerous federal and state law claims. A complicated set

of facts underlies these claims—complicated enough to make an excellent hypothetical for

a law school exam. For our purposes though, this appeal can be boiled down to two issues.

First, does the Bankruptcy Code preempt state law causes of action for a creditor’s

improper collection efforts related to debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy? Second,

are there genuine disputes of material fact with respect to Guthrie’s federal and state

claims?

I.

Guthrie filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and was granted a discharge order in 2016.

PHH, for its part, holds an interest in a property for which Guthrie’s personal liability was

discharged in the bankruptcy proceeding. Guthrie sued PHH 1 for improper collection

attempts on the discharged debt, as well as misreporting his credit status. We begin by

summarizing Guthrie’s bankruptcy proceedings and the subsequent district court

proceedings.

1 Guthrie also sued TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, but he resolved his claims against those parties out of court and voluntarily dismissed them from the case.

3 USCA4 Appeal: 22-1248 Doc: 49 Filed: 08/18/2023 Pg: 4 of 39

A.

In 2009, Guthrie and his then-wife, Tonia, took out a loan to purchase a home (the

“Prope

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