Price v. TRANS UNION, LLC

737 F. Supp. 2d 281, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126648, 2010 WL 4903941
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided November 23, 2010·No. 2:09-mj-01332·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

EDUARDO C. ROBRENO, Judge.

1. INTRODUCTION

This case arises under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681, et seq. (“FCRA”). Plaintiff Teresa Price (“Plaintiff or “Price”) claims Defendant Trans Union, LLC (“Defendant” or “TU”), a national consumer reporting agency (“CRA”), willfully and/or negligently violated sections 1681e(b) and 1681i of the FCRA. In particular, Plaintiff claims Defendant willfully and/or negligently violated the FCRA by failing to follow reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy of information on Plaintiffs credit report, as required by FCRA § 16816(b). 1 Additionally, Plaintiff claims Defendant willfully and/or negligently violated FCRA § 1681i by failing to permanently correct inaccuracies in Plaintiffs credit file within thirty days of disputing such inaccuracies. 2

*283 Defendant filed a motion for partial summary judgment. Defendant contests all of Plaintiffs § 1681i claims and all of Plaintiffs § 1681e(b) claims except those related to a negligent violation § 1681e(b) in connection with Plaintiffs disputed March 12, 2009 credit report. For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s motion will be denied. 3

II. BACKGROUND

Defendant generates consumer credit reports via a particularized matching procedure. (Defi’s Mot. at 15.) Defendant receives credit information from tens of thousands of sources on a monthly basis. (Id. at 16.) This information is then processed so that information associated with sufficiently similar identifying information can be stored together in electronic files. There are more electronic files than consumers because identifying information associated with a consumer can vary from creditor to creditor given that consumers move, marry/divorce, and change last names. (Id. 16-17.) When a potential creditor enters identifying information for an individual the aforementioned matching logic combines all files which meet the matching criteria and thereafter maintains only one file on the information. Because exact matches are not required, two files may mix because the two individuals represented by the file have common addresses, last names, social security numbers, etc. When files from different individuals mix, a “mixed file” is created. (Id. 17-18)

Plaintiffs claims stem from Defendant’s inaccurate matching procedure. (Id. at 15 (stating TU’s “computer system uses a matching logic which does not require an exact match of information being compared”).) Plaintiff alleges that Defendant has been mixing Plaintiffs credit information with another consumer’s credit information for the better part of a decade. (PL’s Resp. at 3.) Plaintiff states that she has disputed the fact that her file has been mixed with information from another individual with the same/similar name since as early as November 2001. Moreover, Defendant’s own witnesses and documents confirm that Plaintiff has disputed the mixed file issue for years. (Id. at 3, Ex. 1-2.) In 2005 and 2007, Plaintiff was forced to dispute certain accounts on her credit report that did not belong to her. (Id.) Despite being warned three times, in 2001, 2005, and 2007, that Defendant was including another person’s credit information in Plaintiffs credit file, Defendant continued to substantially mix Plaintiffs credit file in 2009 and 2010. (Id. at 4.) By March 2009, Plaintiffs credit file contained various public records, derogatory accounts, and inqui *284 ríes that belonged to another Teresa Price. (Id. at 5.)

Plaintiff learned of the- 2009 reporting problems on March 12, 2009, when she was denied financing for a car that she wanted to purchase for her son. (Id. at 5-6.) Plaintiff alleges that, in March 2009, once she discovered the various problems on her credit report she promptly called Defendant and disputed the information. (Id.) Additionally, Plaintiff advised Defendant that she had previously waged disputes with Defendant for this same reason. (Id.) After the March 2009 call, Defendant deleted one piece of the derogatory information — the bankruptcy, but Defendant did not investigate, delete, or correct any of the other public records, accounts, or information on Plaintiffs file which did not belong to her. (Id.) Even after Plaintiff brought suit, in July 2009, Plaintiff alleges that she learned of erroneous information on her report because her attorney was provided with a purportedly corrected credit report prior to the Rule 16 conference; however, this report showed that the majority of derogatory information belonging to another Teresa Price was still showing up on Plaintiffs report. (Id.)

Typically, when Defendant is repeatedly confronted with a mixed file problem, Defendant puts a “do not merge” tag on the files that mix. (Id. at 13.) The “do not merge” procedure works because it uses very strict matching criteria. (Id.) When a file has a “do not merge” tag placed on it then digit-for-digit matching of all nine digits of a social security number are required. Implementing the “do not merge” procedure only takes a few seconds, and it “involves the mere click of a button on a computer screen.” (Id. at 15.) Despite the repeated mixing problems with Plaintiffs file, Defendant did not employ the “do not merge” procedure in 2001, 2005, 2007, or 2009. (Id. at 16.)

Plaintiff requests actual damages arising from the loss of credit opportunities, injury to her credit reputation, and emotional distress deriving from Defendant’s conduct and Plaintiffs subsequent credit problems due to the inaccurate information shown on her credit reports.

III. MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Defendant seeks summary judgment on all of Plaintiffs reinvestigation claims under FCRA § 1681i; all of Plaintiffs willfulness claims under FCRA § 1681e(b); and Plaintiffs § 1681e(b) negligence claims except those relating to Defendant’s reporting of information, on March 12, 2009, in connection with Plaintiffs attempt to obtain a loan to help her son purchase a car. 4

Summary judgment is appropriate if there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). “A motion for summary judgment will not be defeated by ‘the mere existence’ of some disputed facts, but will be denied when there is a genuine issue of material fact.” Am. Eagle Outfitters v. Lyle & Scott Ltd., 584 F.3d 575, 581 (3d Cir.2009) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.,

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Price v. TRANS UNION, LLC, 737 F. Supp. 2d 281, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126648, 2010 WL 4903941 (E.D. Pa. 2010).

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