Clark v. Trans Union LLC

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedJanuary 31, 2025
Docket2:24-cv-00783
StatusUnknown

This text of Clark v. Trans Union LLC (Clark v. Trans Union LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Trans Union LLC, (E.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 BOBBY J. CLARK, JR, No. 2:24-cv-00783 WBS CKD 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER ON MOTION TO QUASH 14 TRANS UNION, LLC, et al, (ECF No. 73) 15 Defendants. 16 17 Defendant OneMain Financial Services, LLC’s1 (“OneMain”) motion to quash third-party 18 subpoenas, filed on December 12, 2024, is before the court. (ECF Nos. 73.) OneMain and 19 plaintiff Bobby J. Clark, Jr. filed their joint statement re discovery disagreement on January 15, 20 2025.2 (ECF No. 83.) Third-party American Coradius International LLC (“ACI”) joined in the 21 joint statement. (Id.) OneMain and plaintiff appeared for a hearing on January 29, 2025. 22 Defendant Ally Financial, Inc. (“Ally”) and third-party ACI were also present. Attorney Alisa 23 Givental appeared on behalf of defendant OneMain, and Attorney Adam Hubbi appeared on 24 1 Defendant OneMain was improperly sued as “OneMain Financial Group, LLC.” (ECF No. 83 25 at 1.) 2 On December 23, 2024, plaintiff filed an opposition to the motion to quash. (ECF No. 79.) 26 However, this opposition does not comply with Local Rule 251, which requires the parties to file 27 a joint statement re discovery disagreement at least fourteen days before the hearing. See Local Rule 251. The parties properly filed a joint statement after plaintiff filed his opposition (ECF No. 28 83), therefore, plaintiff’s opposition will be disregarded. 1 behalf of plaintiff. Attorney Andrea Hicks appeared on behalf of Ally and Attorney Kenneth 2 Ohashi appeared on behalf of ACI. For the reasons set forth below, defendant OneMain’s motion 3 to quash third-party subpoenas is GRANTED in part. 4 I. Background 5 A. The Underlying Action 6 Plaintiff filed the complaint on March 14, 2024, against Defendants Equifax Information 7 Services, LLC (“Equifax”); Experian Information Solutions, Inc. (“Experian”); Trans Union, 8 LLC; (“Trans Union”) OneMain; and Ally. (ECF No. 1.) Plaintiff alleges that in July 2023, he 9 settled and/or paid off his OneMain credit card account (“Disputed OneMain Account”) and his 10 Ally account (“Ally Account”) with third-party debt consolidation company Credit9, LLC’s 11 (“Credit9”) help. (ECF No. 83 at 2.) Plaintiff also alleges that defendants Experian, Trans 12 Union, and Equifax did not report these accounts as paid. (ECF No. 83 at 2.) Plaintiff brought 13 five claims: (1) failure to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy 14 under 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b) against defendants Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union; (2) failure to 15 perform a reasonable reinvestigation under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i against defendants Equifax 16 Experian, and Trans Union; (3) failure to conduct an investigation of the disputed information and 17 review all relevant information provided by the consumer against defendants OneMain and Ally; 18 (4) failure to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy under 19 California Civil Code § 1785.14 against defendants Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union; and 20 (5) failure to conduct an investigation of the disputed information and review all relevant 21 information provided by the consumer under California Civil Code § 1785 et seq. against 22 unspecified defendants. (ECF No. 1.) 23 On June 28, 2024, defendant Experian filed a motion to compel arbitration (ECF No. 43), 24 which was granted on September 3, 2024, and the case against Experian was stayed pending 25 arbitration (ECF No. 59). On September 20, 2024, the Court stayed the action between defendant 26 OneMain and plaintiff pending arbitration pursuant to their stipulation. (ECF No. 63.) On 27 September 20, 2024, based on the settlement between defendant Trans Union and plaintiff (see 28 ECF No. 52) and pursuant to the parties’ stipulation of dismissal with prejudice (ECF No. 60), the 1 Court dismissed Trans Union with prejudice. (ECF No. 62.) On October 15, 2024, based on the 2 settlement between defendant Equifax and plaintiff (see ECF No. 55) and pursuant to the parties’ 3 stipulation of dismissal with prejudice (ECF No. 64), the Court dismissed Equifax with prejudice. 4 (ECF No. 65.) On December 12, 2024, defendant OneMain filed the instant motion to quash. 5 (ECF No. 73.) On December 31, 2024, plaintiff filed a notice of filing of a motion to compel 6 non-party’s compliance with subpoenas in the Western District of New York. (ECF No. 81.) 7 On January 24, 2025, defendant Ally filed a motion to compel arbitration and a motion to 8 stay discovery that are currently pending before Senior District Judge William B. Shubb. (ECF 9 Nos. 85, 86.) 10 B. The Discovery Dispute 11 On November 15, 2024, the pretrial scheduling order was issued in this case. (ECF No. 12 72.) The pretrial scheduling order stated that the only defendant currently participating in this 13 litigation is defendant Ally. (Id. at 2.) The discovery deadline was set to June 13, 2025. (Id.) 14 On October 15, 2024, plaintiff served a notice of intent to serve subpoenas on third parties 15 ACI, Americor Funding LLC (“Americor”), and Credit9 on defendant Ally via email. (ECF No. 16 83 at 4.) ACI handled one of plaintiff’s OneMain accounts, and Americor and Credit9 are third- 17 party debt consolidation companies that assisted plaintiff with paying off his loans. (Id. at 3.) A 18 subpoena for documents and for deposition testimony were served on each entity. (Id. at 4.) ACI 19 objected to plaintiff’s subpoena on November 4, 2024. (Id. at 16.) Defendant OneMain was not 20 served with the notice of intent to serve subpoenas, but OneMain became aware of the ACI 21 subpoena after an ACI attorney reached out to OneMain. (Id. at 4-5.) OneMain communicated 22 with plaintiff its objections to the discovery. (Id. at 5.) On November 22, 2024, plaintiff served a 23 notice of intent to serve records and deposition subpoenas on Americor and Credit9, which 24 omitted topics specifically related to the “Disputed OneMain Account.” (Id.) On November 27, 25 2024, plaintiff served amended document categories and deposition topics to the ACI subpoenas. 26 (Id.) The amended subpoenas removed topics directly related to the disputed OneMain Account. 27 (Id.) OneMain still had objections to the amended subpoenas and communicated its concerns to 28 plaintiff. (Id.) 1 Defendant OneMain filed its motion to quash on December 12, 2024. (Id. at 6.) 2 However, on that same day, Americor and Credit9 produced documents to plaintiff. (Id.) On 3 December 29, 2024, OneMain became aware that plaintiff received documents from Americor 4 and Credit9. (Id.) On December 30, 3034, Americor and Credit9 requested that plaintiff destroy 5 the documents they produced after the motion to quash was filed, but plaintiff refused. (Id.) 6 OneMain seeks to quash in full and/or in part the subpoenas, contending that they 7 improperly seek discovery into information relevant to plaintiff’s dispute with OneMain. (Id.) 8 The parties complied with Local Rule 251’s meet and confer requirements, but were unable to 9 reach a resolution. (ECF No. 83 at 1-2.) 10 II. Legal Standards 11 “Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45, any party may serve a subpoena that 12 commands a non-party ‘to produce documents, electronically stored information, or tangible 13 things . . . .’” Soto v. Castlerock Farming & Transp., Inc., 282 F.R.D. 492, 504 (E.D. Cal. 2012) 14 (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(a)(1)(C)). 15 A nonparty may be compelled to produce documents and tangible things via a Rule 45 16 subpoena. Fed. R. Civ. P.

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Bluebook (online)
Clark v. Trans Union LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-trans-union-llc-caed-2025.