Josephine P. Colletti v. Credit Bureau Services, Inc.

644 F.2d 1148, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 13270
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 14, 1981
Docket80-3260
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 644 F.2d 1148 (Josephine P. Colletti v. Credit Bureau Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Josephine P. Colletti v. Credit Bureau Services, Inc., 644 F.2d 1148, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 13270 (5th Cir. 1981).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Complaining that the jury’s verdict was contrary to the evidence and that the trial judge failed to give requested jury charges, plaintiff-appellant, Josephine P. Colletti, appeals from an adverse judgment below. Colletti sued defendant-appellee, Credit Bureau Services, Inc. (“CBS”), on September 19, 1977, for $150,000 in damages allegedly resulting from, among other things, CBS’s asserted violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“the Act”), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq. After a one-day trial, the jury found for CBS, and the court, in accordance with the jury’s verdict, dismissed Colletti’s suit.

It is undisputed that CBS is a “consumer reporting agency” within the meaning of 15 U.S.C. § 1681a(f); CBS uses the mail and telephone in interstate commerce for the purpose of preparing or furnishing consumer reports to third parties for monetary consideration; it regularly engages in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information. It is likewise undisputed that Colletti is a “consumer” within the meaning of the Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1681a(c) (“The term ‘consumer’ means an individual.”).

Colletti’s complaint against CBS was that CBS in April of 1976 and 1977 furnished Hibernia National Bank (“Hibernia”) with reports that indicated Colletti was delinquent in her payments on a bill she incurred with a furniture store, Mintz and Mintz (“Mintz”). She maintained that the information transmitted by CBS was “false, inaccurate, and incomplete” and that CBS violated the Act by not taking any steps to insure the accuracy of its reports as to Mintz after being advised by Colletti of the disputed nature of the information in April of 1977. CBS’s defense was that the reports were accurate and that Colletti specifically told its employee in April 1977 “not to take any additional action in order to determine the accuracy of this rating.”

It was established at trial that in 1973, Colletti opened a ninety-day account with Mintz for some bedroom furniture costing between $3,600 and $3,900. She agreed to pay for the furniture in three equal installments within the ninety days, but because of her professed dissatisfaction with the condition of the furniture, she stopped paying after remitting about two-thirds of the purchase price. She then allegedly told Mintz that she would pay the balance when some furniture in good condition was swapped for the damaged furniture. In November 1974, Colletti ceased all payments.

*1150 In November 1975, CBS received a report from Mintz that Colletti owed $647 on her account and was delinquent in her payments. In April of 1976, Colletti visited the CBS office to investigate an adverse report that CBS had furnished to Hibernia. During her visit, Colletti filed a notice of dispute with CBS on her Mintz account. Thereafter, in May 1976, Mintz sent CBS a new rating for Colletti indicating that she was no longer in arrears and that she had a new account. Mintz’s new rating was apparently the result of the efforts of Collet-ti’s attorney.

Despite the new credit rating provided by Mintz, Colletti did not resume payments to it until November 1976. The month before Colletti began making payments, in October of 1976, Mintz sent CBS a report showing that Colletti was again delinquent in her payments. In April of 1977, Colletti, even though she had resumed payments in November of 1976, was more than four months delinquent in her account.

Mintz did not notify CBS that Colletti had begun making payments in November of 1976. Therefore, on April 12,1977, when Colletti went to the CBS office a second time, she learned that Mintz’s current report about her was unfavorable. She did not, however, file a notice of dispute about Mintz with CBS, and she specifically instructed CBS’s employee not to call Mintz to check the accuracy of the report; she stated that she would take it up with her lawyer. Thereafter, on April 20, 1977, CBS furnished Hibernia with the information concerning Colletti’s delinquency on her account with Mintz. Hibernia denied Col-letti’s application for a loan in April of 1977 partially because of its reliance on CBS’s report.

In September of 1977, Colletti paid off her bill to Mintz and promptly filed suit against CBS in federal court and Mintz in state court. Colletti testified that she paid Mintz upon her attorney’s advice and because Mintz claimed that it would bring her the good piece of furniture; she also paid because she wanted to prove to Mintz that she did not want to cheat that concern.

CBS, but not Colletti, moved for a directed verdict after the close of the plaintiff’s case. The court granted the portion of the motion relating to “willfulness” on CBS’s part but reluctantly denied the motion as to negligence, stating: “Frankly, if I wasn’t so new and so concerned about an error or, if I was not inclined to try to err on the side of the party that would be affected by my granting the motion, I would grant it.” After counsels’ closing arguments, the court charged the jury:

[T]he Plaintiff contends that the Defendant was negligent in failing to maintain the accuracy or reliability of its reports, and thus, Plaintiff alleges that the Defendant violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to use reasonable procedures to assure accuracy of information regarding Plaintiff’s credit rating ....
Defendant, on the other hand, contends that the reports were accurate, and further, that they correctly reflected the status of Plaintiff’s credit relationship. It is up to you to decide, and that is the basic function of the Jury.

Before the jury deliberated, both parties objected to the above instruction. Colletti complained that the court did not charge on the standard CBS was to maintain to insure maximum accuracy of its reports or that the carelessness or haphazardness of CBS’s procedures was at issue; CBS that the court did not charge that it was unnecessary to reach the issue of whether CBS’s procedures were reasonable if the jurors found Colletti’s credit rating to be accurate. The court explained to counsel that it intentionally refrained from giving detailed charges because it felt the matter should be submitted on a straight negligence basis.

Appellant contends that the jury’s verdict in CBS’s favor is contrary to the law and evidence. Section 1681e(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act provides that “[w]he-never a consumer reporting agency prepares a consumer report it shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates.” Section 1681o of the Act imposes civil liabil *1151 ity on any consumer reporting agency “which is negligent in failing to comply” with the Act’s requirements.

Before discussing the merits of appellant’s contention about the verdict, we note that appellant did not move for either a directed verdict or a judgment n. o. v. in the district court. Therefore, this court cannot review the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury’s verdict. Dunn v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.,

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644 F.2d 1148, 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 13270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/josephine-p-colletti-v-credit-bureau-services-inc-ca5-1981.