Grigoryan v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc.

84 F. Supp. 3d 1044, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181916, 2014 WL 7745883
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedDecember 18, 2014
DocketNo. CV 13-07450 MMM (PLAx)
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 84 F. Supp. 3d 1044 (Grigoryan v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grigoryan v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., 84 F. Supp. 3d 1044, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181916, 2014 WL 7745883 (C.D. Cal. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

MARGARET M. MORROW, District Judge.

On October 8, 2013, Gevork Grigoryan filed this action against Experian Information Solutions, Inc. (“Experian”), Equifax Information Services, LLC (“Equifax”), and Trans Union, LLC (“Trans Union”) (collectively, “defendants”), alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (“CCRAA”), California Civil Code § 1785.1 et seq.1 On November 7, 2014, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment.2 Grigoryan opposes the [1049]*1049motion.3

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The facts are, for the most part, undisputed.4 Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union are each “consumer reporting agencies” as defined by the FCRA and “consumer credit reporting agencies” as defined by the CCRAA.5 The parties’ dispute concerns five credit accounts or trade lines that Grigoryan contends appeared inaccurately on credit reports compiled by defendants.6

The creditor on two of the accounts was Bank of America (“BOA”).7 The first account was a mortgage on a rental property Grigoryan owned for the benefit of his real estate business; the second was a home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) secured by the same rental property as the mortgage account.8 These accounts appeared on credit reports compiled by each defendant as delinquent.9 Three other collection accounts appeared only on Gri-goryan’s Trans Union credit report: a Collection Bureau of America account (the, “CBA account”), a Sequoia Financial Services account, (the “Sequoia account”), and a Credit Management Inc. account (the “CMI account”).10 The CBA and CMI accounts both concern a debt Grigoryan purportedly owed Time Warner Cable.11 The Sequoia account involved a debt originally owed to the Department of Water and Power.12

[1050]*10501. Grigoryan’s Reporting Disputes with Experian

On May 6, 2010, Experian received a letter from Grigoryan dated May 3, 2010, disputing the reporting of his BOA mortgage account.13 Grigoryan asserted that BOA had incorrectly reported late payments on the mortgage loan for the four months from December 2009 to March 2010.14 He stated that BOA had agreed to correct the information, but indicated the adjustment could take up to ninety days.15 Because he could not “tolerate another three months of inaccurate reporting,” Gri-goryan asked Experian to correct the reporting as soon as possible.16 As proof of his statements, Grigoryan enclosed two letters he had received from BOA. The first, dated April 20, 2010, stated that Gri-goryan’s “request for a credit adjustment related to [his] 12/2009, 01/2010, 02/2010, [and] 03/2010, mortgage installments for the [BOA mortgage]” had been received, and that “corrected information [had been] submitted [the same day] to the credit reporting agencies.”17 The letter did not contain any additional information concerning the nature of the “corrected information,” and advised Grigoryan that it takes an average of sixty days for credit reporting agencies to make an adjustment.18 The second letter from BOA that Grigoryan forwarded to Experian also concerned the BOA mortgage. It stated that his “request for a credit correction ha[d] been approved ... [and that BOA] ha[d] submitted a formal request to [each defendant].” 19 The letter advised that the adjustment process could “take 60 to 90 days for completion.”20 Like the first letter, the second contained no details concerning the nature of the inaccuracy.21

Experian personnel reviewed the May 3, 2010 letter, its attachments, and Grigor-yan’s credit report, and determined that it was reporting the BOA mortgage account in good standing and not delinquent.22 In response to Grigoryan’s letter, it sent him a consumer disclosure on May 11, 2010, stating that the account had been reported as in good standing and was not shown as delinquent.23 The letter enclosed a copy of an Experian credit report dated May 11, 2010, which listed a number of “BAC Home Loans/Countywide” trade lines; all were reported “Paid” and “Never late.”24 Experian received no further disputes from Grigoryan concerning the BOA mortgage trade line.25

On' November 4, 2011, Experian received an April 4, 2011 letter from Grigor-yap disputing the reporting of a BOA account.26 The letter identified the account [1051]*1051only by its first five digits, followed by four X’s. Grigoryan asserted that he had obtained a credit report on October 25, 2011, that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information in that it stated the account was “past due 30 days” and had a past due amount of $12.27 He demanded that Experian “immediately delete the above-referenced information from [his] credit report in full, or at least revise the entry to reflect [that] no debt presently exist[ed]”; he also requested reinvestigation of the matter.28

In response to the letter, Experian reviewed Grigoryan’s credit file and found that his BOA HELOC account was in negative standing and being reported “30[ ] day[s] late.”29 Experian sent an automated consumer dispute verification (“ACDV”) to BOA regarding the account, which asked for verification of the account status and payment history.30 BOA verified the accuracy of the reported information; Ex-perian then sent Grigoryan a consumer disclosure dated November 14, 2014, indicating that BOA had verified that the 30-day late notation was accurate.31

Experian then received a letter from Renatus Credit (“Renatus”) dated December 15, 2011, which was purportedly sent on Grigoryan’s behalf.32 The letter stated that Grigoryan’s HELOC account was being inaccurately reported, and sought information concerning Experian’s policies and procedures for ensuring accurate credit reporting.33 The address listed on the envelope did not correspond to any address on file for Grigoryan; thus, Experi-an requested proof of Grigoryan’s current address for security purposes.34 No proof [1052]*1052of address was provided. Instead, Rena-■tus sent another letter dated January 10, 2012, stating that Experian had an obligation to respond to its method of verification request, and that it faced FCRA liability for failure to comply.35 The letter threatenedJegal action, but gave Experian an additional fourteen days to respond.36

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Bluebook (online)
84 F. Supp. 3d 1044, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181916, 2014 WL 7745883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grigoryan-v-experian-information-solutions-inc-cacd-2014.