Moore v. Rite Aid HDQTRS Corp.

33 F. Supp. 3d 569, 2014 WL 3735568, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104464
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 30, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 13-1515
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 33 F. Supp. 3d 569 (Moore v. Rite Aid HDQTRS Corp.) 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
Moore v. Rite Aid HDQTRS Corp., 33 F. Supp. 3d 569, 2014 WL 3735568, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104464 (E.D. Pa. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

DuBOIS, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This putative class action arises out of defendant Rite Aid Hdqtrs Corp.’s (“Rite Aid”) alleged violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., through its use of employment-screening services provided by LexisNexis Screening Solutions, Inc. (“LexisNexis”). The putative class contains all employees or applicants for employment at Rite Aid who were subject to an adverse employ-' ment action as a result of background reports obtained from LexisNexis. Presently before the Court is Rite Aid’s Motion to Dismiss, filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Rite Aid’s Motion without prejudice to plaintiffs right to file an amended complaint within fifteen (15) days in accordance with this Memorandum if warranted by the facts.

II. BACKGROUND1

A. Facts Pertaining to Rite Aid Employment Screening and Adjudication

At all times relevant to the instant litigation, Rite Aid contracted with LexisNex-is to screen job applicants for new positions, including both current and potential employees. Compl. ¶ 31. LexisNexis provided Rite Aid with three services: (1) conducting background checks on job applicants and employees applying for new positions; (2) assessing each applicant’s eligibility for a new position based on the outcome of those background checks, which LexisNexis termed “adjudication”; and (3) delivering form letters, on Rite Aid stationary, designed to satisfy the notice requirements of the FCRA, which are applicable when a person uses background checks for employment purposes. Compl. ¶¶ 30, 36. LexisNexis provided these services as a “remote, outsourced tool” to assist Rite Aid make large numbers of employment decisions. Compl. ¶ 30.

[571]*571Rite Aid used LexisNexis background checks to, inter alia, identify applicants with a history of theft or fraud. Lexis-Nexis provided this service by allowing Rite Aid to search its proprietary Esteem database. Compl. ¶ 12. Employers such as Rite Aid were authorized to search the Esteem database after signing the “Rules of Participation,” which contractually required the employers to “contribute” new records of theft involving their own employees. Compl. ¶ 16. The Rules of Participation required that an employer-reported theft meet the following four criteria: (1) the incident involved the theft of merchandise, cash, or company property, but “loss not strictly related to theft or fraud committed by that [employee] should not get reported”; (2) the subject of the report was over sixteen years of age; (3) the dollar value of the theft was greater than five dollars; and (4) the incident was reported for criminal prosecution or the subject of the report signed a Voluntary Admission Statement (“VAS”). Compl. ¶¶ 17, 19. If an employer opted to submit a VAS, LexisNexis did not require that the participating employer explain the purpose of the VAS to its employee before requesting that he or she sign the document, nor did LexisNexis require that the reported employee be provided a complete copy of his or her VAS. Compl. ¶ 21.

If LexisNexis conducted a background check and an applicant was matched to an entry in the Esteem database, LexisNexis “verified” the match by confirming that the amount and date of the loss described in the VAS matched the Esteem report. Compl. ¶ 24. Contrary to the Rules of Participation, which proscribed submission of a VAS reporting loss not strictly related to theft or fraud, LexisNexis allegedly verified any VAS that described non-theft-related losses for which the employee took responsibility, such as losses due to carelessness, inattention, or violations of employer policy. Compl. ¶¶ 25, 26.

After conducting background checks on Rite Aid applicants, LexisNexis adjudicated each applicant’s qualifications for a given position using a scoring matrix es-. tablished by Rite Aid. Compl. ¶ 30. Lex-isNexis sorted Rite Aid applicants into three categories: eligible, non-competitive, and decisional. Compl. ¶¶ 30, 33. If an applicant had a verified match in the Esteem database, LexisNexis scored that applicant non-competitive for a position .at Rite Aid. Compl. ¶ 33.

After LexisNexis adjudicated an applicant non-competitive, LexisNexis sent an initial notice letter to the applicant on Rite Aid stationary, stating:

We have recently requested a criminal background report on you per your authorization. Attached is a copy of your background report, as well as a summary of your rights under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and any additional rights under state laws (if applicable). The background report may result in your not being offered the job for which you are applying/the termination of your employment, whichever is applicable ....
If there is any information that you believe we should consider, in light of the attached report, before we make our decision whether to employ/terminate you[,] whichever is applicable, you may contact the hiring manager with whom you have been in contact/your region[al] human resources manager....
If Rite Aid does not hear from you within five (5) business days from the date of your receipt of this letter, then you will not be offered employment/your employment will be terminated, whichever is applicable. If we hear from you [572]*572within five (5) business days from the date of your receipt of this letter, we will consider whatever information you provide to us in making our final decision whether to employ/terminate you.

Compl. Ex. A.

The LexisNexis employment-screening process was structured so that this notice letter arrived after LexisNexis completed adjudications of Rite Aid applicants. Compl. ¶ 36. LexisNexis attached the background report to the initial notice letter, and the Esteem report described only the location, date, and amount of the reportedly stolen merchandise. Compl. Ex. B. A copy of the VAS was not provided to either the applicant or Rite Aid as part of the background report. Compl. ¶ 29, The Complaint says nothing about the provisions in the initial notice letter that, within five days of receipt of the letter, Rite Aid would consider whatever additional information the applicant believed it should consider in making its final decision.

B. Facts Pertaining to Plaintiff Kyra Moore

Plaintiff, Kyra Moore, worked for CVS from 2006 to 2010. Compl. ¶¶ 37, 39. In July 2010, CVS loss-prevention agents interviewed all employees working at the store where Ms. Moore was employed. Compl. ¶ 39. During her interview, Ms. Moore denied ever stealing merchandise but admitted that, on a previous occasion, items had gone missing after she placed them on a checkout counter and left them to attend to other customers. Compl. ¶ 40. The loss-prevention agent and Ms. Moore drafted a VAS by hand, in which Ms. Moore admitted only that she intended to pay for the items that were taken from CVS as a result of her leaving them unattended. Compl. Ex. E. The loss-prevention agent did not provide a copy of the VAS to Ms. Moore and reported the incident to LexisNexis for use in its Esteem database. Compl. ¶¶40, 42.

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33 F. Supp. 3d 569, 2014 WL 3735568, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-rite-aid-hdqtrs-corp-paed-2014.