[PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 22-11014

____________________

TANETHIA HOLDEN, 

an individual, 

Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus

HOLIDAY INN CLUB VACATIONS INCORPORATED, 

a foreign for-profit corporation, 

f.k.a. Orange Lake Country Club, Inc., 

Defendant-Appellee,

EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.

a foreign for-profit corporation, 

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2 Opinion of the Court 22-11014

Defendant.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Florida

D.C. Docket No. 6:19-cv-02373-CEM-EJK

____________________

____________________

No. 22-11734

____________________

MARK S. MAYER,

an individual, 

Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus

HOLIDAY INN CLUB VACATIONS INCORPORATED,

a foreign for-profit corporation f.k.a. Orange Lake

Country Club, Inc., 

Defendant-Appellee,

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22-11014 Opinion of the Court 3

EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.,

a foreign for-profit corporation,

Defendant.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Florida

D.C. Docket No. 6:20-cv-02283-GAP-EJK

____________________

Before BRANCH, LUCK, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

Our country’s credit reporting system relies on accurate reporting both by consumer reporting agencies and entities, known 

as furnishers, that provide information to those agencies about consumers’ debts. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 

15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2, furnishers must conduct a reasonable investigation when a consumer challenges the accuracy of the information.

In this consolidated appeal, we face the question of what

amounts to an actionable inaccuracy under the FCRA. Two consumers, Tanethia Holden and Mark Mayer, entered into purchase 

agreements for timeshares with Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc. 

Holden and Mayer stopped making monthly payments and 

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4 Opinion of the Court 22-11014

considered their agreements to be canceled. Holiday disagreed and 

reported their debts to Experian—a consumer reporting agency. 

After unsuccessful attempts to resolve their disputes with Holiday,1

Holden and Mayer filed individual FCRA actions alleging that Holiday violated § 1681s-2 by inaccurately reporting that they owed 

debts and that Holiday failed to reasonably investigate their disputes. The District Courts granted summary judgment for Holiday 

in both cases, finding the alleged inaccuracies were legal disputes 

and therefore not actionable under § 1681s-2.

After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, 

we affirm—though for a different reason. Whether the alleged inaccuracy is factual or legal is beside the point. Instead, what matters is whether the alleged inaccuracy was objectively and readily 

verifiable. Here it was not. Thus, Mayer and Holden had no actionable FCRA claims.

I. Background

Holiday is a timeshare company. Its customers pay to use 

one or more of its vacation properties for a few weeks per year. 

Holiday’s customers also agree to pay homeowner association 

dues that cover maintenance and property taxes. Like many of 

Holiday’s customers, Holden and Mayer financed their timeshares 

1 Holden and Mayer also claimed that Experian violated the FCRA by failing 

to ensure that their credit reports were accurate. Those claims are not at issue 

because Holden and Mayer settled and dismissed their claims against Experian.

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through Holiday.2 Because their cases differ slightly, we recap the 

rest of Holden’s and Mayer’s cases individually.

A. Holden’s Case

On June 25, 2016, Holden entered into a purchase agreement with Holiday to buy a timeshare in Las Vegas. The same day, 

Holden obtained a promissory note to finance most of the purchase. The note required Holden to make 120 monthly payments. 

Also on the same day, Holden executed a mortgage securing payment of the note.

Among other conditions, the closing and title provision of 

the purchase agreement stated that the transaction would not close 

until Holden made the first three monthly payments and Holiday 

recorded the declaration in Holden’s name. The purchase agreement also included a purchaser’s default provision.3 That provision 

stated, “[u]pon [Holden’s] default or breach of any term or condition of this Agreement, all sums paid hereunder by [Holden] shall 

be retained by [Holiday] as liquidated damages, not as a penalty, 

and the parties hereto shall be relieved from all obligations 

2 Technically, Holden and Mayer financed their timeshares through Wilson 

Resort Finance, LLC. However, as the District Court in Holden’s case noted, 

the parties treat Holiday and Wilson as the same entity.

3 The parties and the District Courts sometimes refer to the purchaser’s default 

provision as the “liquidated damages provision,” “liquidation provision,” or 

“liquidation clause.” We use “purchaser’s default provision” since that is how 

it appears in the purchase agreements.

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hereunder.” The agreement also said that “[a]ny Note Payments 

made by [Holden] prior to closing shall be subject to the default 

provisions.”

After making her third payment, Holden defaulted and hired 

an attorney. On March 9, 2017, Holden’s attorney notified Holiday 

that Holden “no longer intend[ed] to make further payments” because “she allege[d] her sales transaction was fraudulently represented at the time of sale and/or another reason exist[ed] for nonpayment, such as [her] inability to continue to fund the purchase.” 

Two weeks later, Holden’s attorney sent another letter. In the second letter, Holden tried to cancel the agreement citing language 

from the closing and purchaser’s default provisions.

Holiday disagreed that the agreement was canceled. On 

June 19, 2017, it recorded the timeshare deed. It also reported the 

delinquent debt to Experian. In response, Holden’s attorney sent 

three dispute letters to Holiday. Holiday investigated the dispute 

but determined that its reporting was accurate because it concluded that Holden was still obligated under the note.

Holden then sued Holiday alleging various violations of 

Florida law and the FCRA. Pertinent here is Count IV of Holden’s 

complaint. Under Count IV, Holden claimed that Holiday reported inaccurate information to Experian, failed to conduct an appropriate investigation, and failed to correct the inaccuracies—all 

of which were required under the FCRA. The parties later crossUSCA11 Case: 22-11014 Document: 69-1 Date Filed: 04/24/2024 Page: 6 of 18
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moved for partial summary judgment on Count IV—the only remaining claim against Holiday.4

The District Court granted Holiday’s motion and denied 

Holden’s. The court reasoned that

a plaintiff asserting a claim against a furnisher for failure to conduct a reasonable investigation cannot prevail on the claim without demonstrating that had the 

furnisher conducted a reasonable investigation, the 

result would have been different; i.e., that the furnisher would have discovered that the information it 

reported was inaccurate or incomplete.

Holden v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., 

No. 6:19-cv-2373-CEM-EJK, 2022 WL 993572, at *2 (M.D. Fla. Feb.

28, 2022) (quoting Felts v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 893 F.3d 1305, 

1313 (11th Cir. 2018)). And citing our unpublished opinion in Batterman v. BR Carroll Glenridge, LLC, 829 F. App’x 478, 481–82 (11th 

Cir. 2020), it reasoned that “[g]enerally, unresolved contract disputes constitute legal disputes and not factual inaccuracies.” Id. at 

*3. Because there remained a legal dispute on whether Holden still 

owed a debt, the court found that Holden’s FCRA claim must fail. 

Holden timely appealed.

4 Holiday offered judgment on Holden’s other claims under Federal Rule of 

Civil Procedure 68, which Holden accepted. On June 22, 2020, the District 

Court entered judgment for Holden on those claims.

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B. Mayer’s Case

On September 15, 2014, Mayer entered into a purchase 

agreement to buy a timeshare with Holiday in Cape Canaveral. 

That purchase agreement contained nearly identical closing and 

default provisions as Holden’s agreement. Like Holden, Mayer executed a promissory note to finance the purchase. Under the note’s 

terms, he too was required to make 120 monthly payments.

On July 13, 2015, Holiday recorded the deed in Mayer’s 

name. Meanwhile, Mayer made timely monthly payments until 

May 2017.5 When Mayer stopped making payments, Holiday reported the delinquency to Experian. Around August 17, 2019, 

Mayer obtained a copy of his credit report from Experian where he 

learned that Holiday had reported a past-due balance. In response, 

Mayer sent multiple letters to Experian disputing the debt because 

he believed the agreement was terminated under the default provision. Experian communicated each dispute to Holiday, who certified that the information was accurate.

Mayer then sued Holiday. In his sole count against Holiday, 

Mayer alleged that Holiday violated 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b) of the 

FCRA because Holiday furnished inaccurate information and failed 

to “fully and properly re-investigate” the disputes. In turn, Holiday 

moved to dismiss, and the District Court partially granted 

5 Mayer made a partial monthly payment in June 2017, but he made his last 

full monthly payment in May 2017.

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Holiday’s motion.6 In permitting Mayer’s claims to proceed, the 

District Court read our decision in Losch v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC, 

995 F.3d 937 (11th Cir. 2021), to mean that a disputed legal issue 

can change into an undisputed fact. Mayer v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., No. 6:20-cv-2283-GAP-EJK, 2021 WL 2942654, at *3 

(M.D. Fla. June 8, 2021). Given that Mayer cited two other cases 

in which courts ruled against Holiday in nearly identical circumstances, the District Court found that Mayer had “raised a meritorious factual dispute as to the accuracy of his credit report.” Id. 

Holiday then moved for partial summary judgment as to Count I.

As in Holden’s case, the District Court also granted Holiday’s motion. The court noted that although it permitted Mayer’s 

claims to proceed under Losch’s rationale, it now faced a different 

picture. Though Mayer had cited two unfavorable decisions to 

Holiday, Holiday presented “a string of cases where courts ha[d] 

sided with its interpretation of the contract” that the default provision did not excuse Mayer’s obligation to keep paying. The court 

found that the “conflicting outcomes in these cases only serve[d] to 

emphasize that the underlying issue here [was] a legal dispute, not 

a factual one.” Relying on Batterman, the court therefore found 

that Mayer’s claim was not actionable under the FCRA. Mayer 

timely appealed.

6 The District Court dismissed Mayer’s claims as they related to factual inaccuracies with payments he made in 2016 because he failed to allege that he 

disputed the accuracy of those payments with Experian.

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10 Opinion of the Court 22-11014

II. Legal Standards

“We review grants of summary judgment de novo.” Milgram v. Chase Bank USA, N.A., 72 F.4th 1212, 1217 (11th Cir. 2023) 

(per curiam). “Summary judgment is proper ‘if the movant shows 

that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’” Id. (quoting Brown 

v. Nexus Bus. Sols., LLC, 29 F.4th 1315, 1317 (11th Cir. 2022)); see also 

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). “On summary-judgment review, we view all 

evidence in ‘the light most favorable to the nonmoving party’ and 

draw ‘all justifiable inferences in that party’s favor.’” Milgram, 

72 F.4th at 1217 (quoting Brown, 29 F.4th at 1317). “Likewise, we 

exercise de novo review over questions of statutory interpretation.” Pinares v. United Techs. Corp., 973 F.3d 1254, 1259 (11th Cir. 

2020).

III. Discussion

On appeal, Holden and Mayer argue that the District Courts 

erred in finding that FCRA claims based on legal disputes—such as 

theirs—are not actionable. They contend that the District Courts’ 

interpretation of the FCRA conflicts with the statute’s text, structure, and purposes. According to Holden and Mayer, the FCRA

does not distinguish between factual and legal disputes.

Holiday asserts that disputed legal issues based on consumer 

allegations—like contractual interpretations that have not been resolved by a court—are not actionable under the FCRA. It explains 

that the existence of a legal conclusion about the invalidity of the 

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debt is a necessary condition precedent to an FCRA claim of this 

type.

Neither party has it right, though we agree with Holiday 

that Holden’s and Mayer’s claims are not actionable. We split our 

discussion into two parts. First, we describe how the FCRA operates. And second, we explain why no FCRA claims exist here.

A. The Fair Credit Reporting Act

“Congress enacted the [FCRA] to protect consumers from 

unfair reporting methods while also ensuring that the credit system 

would retain the accuracy required by the banking system to efficiently allocate credit.” Milgram, 72 F.4th at 1217; 

see 15 U.S.C. § 1681. The FCRA imposes two duties on furnishers. 

First, “furnishers have a duty not to furnish information about a 

consumer to a reporting agency if the furnisher ‘knows or has reasonable cause to believe’ that the information is inaccurate.” Milgram, 72 F.4th at 1217 (quoting 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a)(1)(A)). Second, furnishers must take certain actions once notified that a consumer disputes the accuracy or completeness of his or her furnished information. 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b).

“Consumers can dispute the accuracy of the information in 

their credit reports in one of two ways.” Milgram, 72 F.4th at 1217. 

Consumers may either dispute the information “(1) directly with 

the furnisher or (2) indirectly with the credit reporting agency.”

Id.; see also 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a)(8) (directing the CFPB to promulgate regulations for direct disputes); 12 C.F.R. § 1022.43 

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(regulations related to direct disputes); 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(2) (relating to indirect disputes).

When a furnisher is notified of such a dispute, “the furnisher 

must (1) conduct an investigation with respect to the disputed information; (2) review all relevant information provided by the 

[consumer reporting agency]; and (3) report the results of the investigation to the [consumer reporting agency].” Felts, 893 F.3d at 

1312; 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)(1). “If the furnisher finds, following an 

investigation, that an item of information disputed by a consumer 

is incomplete, inaccurate, or cannot be verified, the furnisher must 

either modify, delete, or permanently block reporting of that information.” Felts, 893 F.3d at 1312; 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)(1)(E). And, 

“with respect to information the furnisher finds to be inaccurate or 

incomplete, the furnisher also must report those results to all other 

[consumer reporting agencies].” Felts, 893 F.3d at 1312; 15 U.S.C. 

§ 1681s-2(b)(1)(D).

“Consumers have no private right of action against furnishers for reporting inaccurate information to [consumer reporting 

agencies] regarding consumer accounts. Instead, the only private 

right of action consumers have against furnishers is for a violation 

of § 1681s-2(b) . . . .” Felts, 893 F.3d at 1312 (citing 15 U.S.C. 

§ 1681s-2(c)(1)).

B. The Alleged Inaccuracies Are Not Objectively and Readily Verifiable

With that framework in mind, we now explain why 

Holden’s and Mayer’s FCRA claims are not actionable. “To succeed on an FCRA claim, a plaintiff must establish (at least) two 

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things.” Milgram, 72 F.4th at 1218. First, a plaintiff must “identify[] 

inaccurate or incomplete information that the furnisher provided 

to the reporting agency.” Id. “And second, to prove an investigation was unreasonable, a plaintiff must point out ‘some facts the 

furnisher could have uncovered that establish that the reported information was, in fact, inaccurate or incomplete.’” Id. (emphasis 

omitted) (quoting Felts, 893 F.3d at 1313). Because Holden and 

Mayer cannot identify inaccurate or incomplete information that 

Holiday provided to the consumer reporting agencies, they cannot 

prevail.7

This case turns on the meaning of “accuracy” in the FCRA. 

As we have explained, the FCRA “requires ‘maximum possible accuracy.’” Erickson v. First Advantage Background Servs. Corp., 

981 F.3d 1246, 1251 (11th Cir. 2020). “The words ‘maximum’ and 

‘possible’ mean ‘greatest in quantity or highest in degree attainable’ 

and ‘falling or lying within the powers’ of an agent or activity.” Id.

7 To be clear, Holden and Mayer do not argue in their briefs before us that the 

information Holiday reported was incomplete. At best, they make a passing 

reference that the “question before the district court on summary judgment 

should have been whether the plaintiffs demonstrated that Holiday . . . furnished inaccurate or incomplete information.” Plaintiffs-Appellants’ Consolidated Opening Br. at 29, Holden v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., No. 22-11014 

(11th Cir Dec. 9, 2022), 2022 WL 17843086, at *29. “Merely making passing 

references to a claim . . . is insufficient. Instead, the party must clearly and 

unambiguously demarcate the specific claim and devote a discrete section of 

his argument to it so the court may properly consider it.” Brown v. United 

States, 720 F.3d 1316, 1332 (11th Cir. 2013) (citation omitted). Holden and 

Mayer have therefore forfeited any argument that the information was incomplete.

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(first quoting Maximum, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

(3d ed. 1961); and then quoting Possible, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (3d ed. 1961)). “‘Accuracy,’ in turn, means ‘freedom from mistake or error.’ And being free from ‘mistake’ or ‘error’ means being free from ‘a misunderstanding of the meaning or 

implication of something’ and not deviating from ‘truth or accuracy.’” Id. at 1251–52 (first quoting Accuracy, Webster’s Third New 

International Dictionary (3d ed. 1961); then quoting Mistake, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (3d ed. 1961); and then quoting Error, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (3d ed. 1961)) 

(other citations omitted).8

We have also stated that “when evaluating whether a report 

is accurate under the [FCRA], we look to the objectively reasonable 

interpretations of the report.” Id. at 1252. Putting this altogether, 

“a report must be factually incorrect, objectively likely to mislead 

its intended user, or both to violate the maximal accuracy standard 

of the [FCRA].” Id.; see also Sessa v. Trans Union, LLC, 74 F.4th 38, 

40 (2d Cir. 2023) (“[A]n FCRA claim alleges an ‘inaccuracy’ so long 

8 12 C.F.R. § 1022.41(a) also defines “accuracy” as

meanin[ing] that information that a furnisher provide[d] to a 

consumer reporting agency about an account or other relationship with the consumer correctly:

(1) Reflect[ed] the terms of and liability for the account or other 

relationship;

(2) Reflect[ed] the consumer’s performance and other conduct 

with respect to the account or other relationship; and

(3) Identifie[d] the appropriate consumer.

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as the challenged information is objectively and readily verifiable.”).

The problem for Holden and Mayer is that the alleged inaccurate information is not objectively and readily verifiable because 

it stems from a contractual dispute without a straightforward answer. It may be true, as some of our sister circuits have reasoned, 

that “the furnisher of credit information stands in a far better position to make a thorough investigation of a disputed debt than [a 

consumer reporting agency] does.” Gorman v. Wolpoff & Abramson, 

LLP, 584 F.3d 1147, 1156 (9th Cir. 2009); accord Mader v. Experian 

Info. Sols., Inc., 56 F.4th 264, 271 (2d Cir. 2023). If so, that would 

mean that the FCRA “will sometimes require furnishers to investigate, and even to highlight or resolve, questions of legal significance.” Gross v. CitiMortgage, Inc., 33 F.4th 1246, 1253 (9th Cir. 

2022). And we agree that “furnishers are qualified and obligated to 

assess issues such as whether debts are actually due and/or are collectible,” as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stresses in 

its amicus brief. Brief for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 

as Amici Curiae Supporting Appellants at 22, Holden v. Holiday Inn 

Club Vacations Inc., No. 22-11014 (11th Cir. Dec. 16, 2022), 

2022 WL 17843088, at *22. But that is what Holiday did. Holden 

and Mayer just disagree with Holiday’s assessment that the debt 

was due and collectible.

This is not to say the furnishers “are never required by the 

FCRA to accurately report information derived from the readily 

verifiable and straightforward application of law to facts.” Mader, 

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56 F.4th at 270; see, e.g., Losch, 995 F.3d at 944–46 (holding that misreporting the clear effect of a bankruptcy discharge order on certain 

types of debt is a cognizable inaccuracy under the FCRA). “As cases 

like Losch . . . show, if a legal question is sufficiently settled so that 

the import on a particular debt is readily and objectively verifiable,

the FCRA sometimes requires that the implications of that decision 

be reflected in credit reports.” Mader, 56 F.4th at 271.

Still, contrary to Holden and Mayer’s contentions, the resolution of this contract dispute is not a straightforward application 

of law to facts. As the Mayer District Court noted, Florida state 

courts that have reviewed timeshare agreements—like the ones 

here—have come to conflicting conclusions about whether the default provisions excused a consumer’s obligation to keep paying. 

Compare Holiday Inn Club Vacations v. Granger, 

No. 2018-CA-011778-O, 2021 WL 6254518, at *3 (Fla. 9th Cir. Ct. 

Mar. 15, 2021) (awarding Holiday a deficiency judgment against defendants based on a similar timeshare agreement), with Orange Lake 

Country Club, Inc. v. Arndt, No. 2016-CA-006342-O, ¶ 5 (Fla. 9th Cir. 

Ct. Aug. 14, 2019) (finding that Holiday (formerly Orange Lake 

Country Club) was not entitled to a deficiency judgment under an 

identical provision).

Although “[t]he ultimate resolution of this case is surely frustrating for some consumers,” consumers in Holden and Mayer’s 

position are not without recourse. Milgram, 72 F.4th at 1221 (Rosenbaum, J., concurring). As noted by Judge Rosenbaum’s concurrence in Milgram, consumers in Holden’s and Mayer’s shoes could 

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22-11014 Opinion of the Court 17

sue a furnisher for a declaration that they no longer owed a debt.9 

Id. at 1222. “With that declaration in hand, [a consumer] would 

have a much stronger cudgel with which to force a furnisher to 

stop reporting [a] debt to a reporting agency.” Id. Or a consumer 

“could go directly to the reporting agency with the declaration and 

get the reporting agency to take it off [his or] her credit history.” 

Id.; see also 15 U.S.C. § 1681i.10

9 Holden and Mayer made one additional argument point at oral argument:

because there was a bona fide dispute, it was misleading for Holiday not to 

report the dispute. True, “other circuits . . . have allowed a consumer’s claim 

to proceed against a furnisher on the basis of misleading statements or omissions,” even where the information reported “was technically accurate.” Felts 

v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 893 F.3d 1305, 1318 (11th Cir. 2018). For example, 

the Fourth Circuit has stated that a consumer may have an FCRA claim against 

a furnisher who reports a debt “without any mention” that the consumer disputed the debt. See, e.g., Saunders v. Branch Banking & Tr. Co. of Va., 

526 F.3d 142, 150 (4th Cir. 2008) (“The jury could reasonably conclude that 

[the furnisher’s] decision to report the debt without any mention of a dispute 

was ‘misleading . . . .’”).

But Holden’s and Mayer’s complaints contain no such allegation. And although Holden and Mayer cited Saunders in their summary judgment briefing, 

they did not do so for this proposition. Nor does this argument appear in their 

briefing before us. Instead, Holden and Mayer made this argument for the 

first time at oral argument. In the absence of briefing on this issue—either 

before the District Courts or us—we decline to address whether such a claim 

would be viable here. See Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324, 

1331 (11th Cir. 2004) (holding that arguments that were not raised at the district court in the first instance cannot be raised on appeal); United States v. Cuchet, 197 F.3d 1318, 1321 n.6 (11th Cir. 1999) (declining to address an argument 

made for the first time at oral argument).

10 Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A), 

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IV. Conclusion

We decline to impose a bright-line rule “that only purely factual or transcription errors are actionable under the FCRA.” Sessa, 

74 F.4th at 43. “Rather, in determining whether a claimed inaccuracy is potentially actionable under [§ 1681s-2], a court must determine, inter alia, whether the information in dispute is ‘objectively 

and readily verifiable.’” Id. (quoting Mader, 56 F.4th at 269). Because the information in dispute here fails to meet that standard, 

we hold that Mayer and Holden do not have actionable FCRA 

claims against Holiday. Accordingly, we affirm the District Courts’ 

judgments.

AFFIRMED.

if the completeness or accuracy of any item of information 

contained in a consumer’s file at a consumer reporting agency 

is disputed by the consumer and the consumer notifies the 

agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller, of such dispute, the agency shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation to determine whether the disputed information 

is inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the item from the file . . . before the end 

of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the 

agency receives the notice of the dispute from the consumer 

or reseller.

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