Edwards v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC

313 F. Supp. 3d 618
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 20, 2018
DocketCIVIL ACTION No. 18–1077
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 313 F. Supp. 3d 618 (Edwards v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Equifax Info. Servs., LLC, 313 F. Supp. 3d 618 (E.D. Pa. 2018).

Opinion

McHugh, United States District Judge

This action arises under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Plaintiff Thomas Edwards is a Pennsylvania resident who initiated this action in state court, alleging that Defendant Equifax violated FCRA by failing to provide contact information for entities that accessed his credit information. Equifax removed the case, and now seeks to transfer it some eight hundred miles south to the Northern District of Georgia, where it is headquartered. In Jumara v. State Farm Insurance Company , 55 F.3d 873 (3d Cir. 1995), the Third Circuit instructed district courts to consider the "interests of justice" in deciding motions under 28 U.S.C. § 1401(a). Given that the FCRA is remedial legislation, Cortez v. Trans Union, LLC , 617 F.3d 688, 722 (3d Cir. 2010), this is a motion that has significant *620implications for consumers' access to the courts. If Defendant's reasoning is adopted, virtually any FCRA plaintiff could be forced to bring claims in a district far from home, a burden that would inevitably undermine enforcement of federal consumer protection laws under the system of private litigation that Congress sought to incentivize. For that reason, and others that follow, the Motion to Transfer will be denied.

I. Motion to Remand

As a preliminary matter, I must address Plaintiff's Motion to Remand to State Court on the basis that removal was untimely. The Motion will be denied, as Equifax filed its notice of removal within thirty days of being served with the complaint. Under Pennsylvania law, a plaintiff may initiate an action by filing either a praecipe for a writ of summons or a complaint with the prothonotary. Pa. R.C.P. 1007. Plaintiff initiated this litigation by filing a praecipe for writ of summons with the Bucks County prothonotary on August 2, 2017. But Plaintiff did not file his Complaint in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas until February 22, 2018, Pl.'s Ex. G, ECF No. 10-7, serving Defendant's counsel on February 26, 2018. Pl.'s Ex. H, ECF No. 10-8. Defendant then filed its notice of removal on March 12, 2018, well within thirty days of service. Pl.'s Ex. I, ECF No. 10-9.

For some period of time, the Third Circuit considered service of a writ of summons writ an "initial pleading" for purposes of triggering the time for removal under 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b)(1). Foster v. Mut. Fire, Marine & Inland Ins. Co. , 986 F.2d 48, 54 (3d Cir. 1993). In 2005, however, the Third Circuit concluded that Murphy Brothers v. Michetti Pipe Stringing, Inc. , 526 U.S. 344, 119 S.Ct. 1322, 143 L.Ed.2d 448 (1999), had implicitly overruled Foster , holding that the "literal wording of Murphy Bros. requires the filing or receipt of a complaint before the 30-day period begins." Sikirica v. Nationwide Ins. Co. , 416 F.3d 214, 221 (3d Cir. 2005) (emphasis in original).

Here, the notice of removal was filed well within the applicable time period, rendering Plaintiff's Motion meritless.

II. Motion to Transfer Venue

Having found that federal jurisdiction exists, I will now consider Defendant's Motion to Transfer Venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Equifax argues that the Northern District of Georgia provides a more convenient venue for the adjudication of this dispute. Because Equifax is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, venue there would be proper. In support of transfer, Equifax asserts that it adopted the policies giving rise to Plaintiff's claims at its headquarters, and that all documents, data, and witnesses pertinent to the claim are also located there. Assuming for purposes of discussion that all of that is true, I nonetheless find the argument for transfer unpersuasive.

Under § 1404(a), district courts are to consider the "convenience of parties and witnesses," and "the interest of justice." Within the Third Circuit, the classic formulation of the analysis under § 1404 is set forth in Jumara v. State Farm Ins. Co. , 55 F.3d 873, 879 (3d Cir. 1995), and involves a series of private and public interest factors. Private-interest factors include (1) the "plaintiff's forum preference as manifested in the original choice," (2) "the defendant's preference," (3) "whether the claim arose elsewhere," (4) "the convenience of the parties as indicated by their relative physical and financial condition," (5) "the convenience of the witnesses-but only to the extent that the witnesses may actually be unavailable for *621trial in one of the fora," and (6) "the location of books and records (similarly limited to the extent that the files could not be produced in the alternative forum)." Id. Public factors include: (1) "the enforceability of the judgment," (2) "practical considerations that could make the trial easy, expeditious, or inexpensive," (3) "the relative administrative difficulty in the two fora resulting from court congestion," (4) "the local interest in deciding local controversies at home," (5) "the public policies of the fora," and (6) "the familiarity of the trial judge with the applicable state law in diversity cases." Id.

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313 F. Supp. 3d 618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-equifax-info-servs-llc-paed-2018.