The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has vacated a bankruptcy court decision in a case involving the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of a debt collector that is facing consumer class-action lawsuits.

This is the second time that the appeals court has vacated an opinion from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in this case. Both times the bankruptcy court's opinion had been upheld by the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware before going up to the Third Circuit.

When SCH Corp., a debt collection company, filed for bankruptcy in 2009, it was facing class-action lawsuits in California, Florida and Indiana brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The members of those class actions are the ones who challenged the proceedings in the bankruptcy court, bringing the case to the Third Circuit. They are referred to as the “CFI claimants”—as in California, Florida and Indiana—in court papers.