Taylor v. Screening Reports, Inc.

289 F.R.D. 370, 2013 WL 1248335, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46446
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedFebruary 1, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 1:11-CV-03426-AT-GGB
StatusPublished

This text of 289 F.R.D. 370 (Taylor v. Screening Reports, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. Screening Reports, Inc., 289 F.R.D. 370, 2013 WL 1248335, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46446 (N.D. Ga. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

GERRILYN G. BRILL, United States Magistrate Judge.

This ease is before the Court on Plaintiff Michael Taylor’s Second Motion to Compel. (Doe. 77). Defendant Screening Reports, Inc. (“SRI”), opposes the motion. For the reasons set forth below, the motion is GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. I am granting the motion with respect to Taylor’s discovery requests for information about consumers who have requested copies of their reports, but am denying the motion with respect to Taylor’s requests for information about consumer disputes.

I. Background

Taylor’s complaint includes the following factual allegations. In August 2010, Taylor submitted a rental application to Silverleaf Apartments. (Doc. 1, Complaint ¶ 24). Silverleaf ordered a background consumer report on Taylor from SRI. {Id. ¶ 25). Unbeknownst to Taylor, another individual named “Michael Taylor” was convicted of several felonies in the 1980s and 1990s. {Id. ¶ 22). SRI discovered those convictions and erroneously included them in Taylor’s background report. {Id. ¶¶ 26-27). Taylor’s rental application was denied based on this false “criminal records match.” {Id. ¶ 30).

Taylor contends that SRI violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) in three different ways. First, he asserts that SRI failed to follow reasonable procedures to ensure the accuracy of its reports, as required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b). {Id. ¶ 47). Second, he states that SRI failed to provide a complete copy of his credit file upon request, as required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681g(a)(l). {Id. ¶ 46(a)). Finally, Taylor alleges that SRI failed to make certain disclosures required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681g(c)(2). {Id. ¶ 46(b)-©).

II. Discussion

A. Report Requests

Taylor’s motion to compel is divided into two parts. First, Taylor’s motion is seeking information about consumers who have requested copies of their “reports” from SRI.1 After Taylor’s rental application was denied, he requested a copy of his report from SRI. The company responded by sending the criminal history background report that it provided to Silverleaf Apartments. It is Taylor’s contention that this response was insufficient and that 15 U.S.C. § 1681g(a)(l) required SRI to provide him with a complete copy of his credit file. SRI’s position is that a “consumer report” is distinct from a consumer’s “file” under the FCRA and that it is not obligated to provide a consumer with a complete file when the consumer has only requested a report.

The parties’ discovery dispute reflects their positions on the merits of this issue. Taylor’s discovery requests asked for information and documents about any consumers who requested copies of their “file” from SRI. In response, SRI provided information only about those consumers who used the [372]*372word “file” in their requests. Taylor contends that SRI should also have provided information about consumers who requested copies of their “report,” while SRI argues that a “report” request is distinct from a “file” request.

Both sides point to language in Nunnally v. Equifax Information Servs., LLC, 451 F.3d 768 (11th Cir.2006), that supports then-positions. On the one hand, the Eleventh Circuit held that a consumer reporting agency is not required to produce a consumer’s complete file when it provides a “consumer report” under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(6)(B) following a reinvestigation.2 Id. at 772-74. In so holding, the Eleventh Circuit noted that Congress had defined the terms “consumer report” and “file” differently, which suggested that Congress intended for those terms to refer to different things. Id. at 772-73. On the other hand, the Eleventh Circuit observed that the term “consumer report,” as used in another section of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681m, appears to refer to the consumer’s entire credit file. Id. at 774. Section 1681m is the provision of the FCRA that requires a consumer reporting agency to provide a consumer with a copy of his or her report following an adverse action.

In light of Nunnally’s discussion of § 1681m, I conclude that Taylor’s position that a report request is the same as a file request is at least plausible. If the Court were ultimately to accept his argument, then information about other consumers who have requested their reports would be relevant to the issue of class certification. Accordingly, I will grant Taylor’s Motion to Compel with respect to Interrogatories 3, 4, and 7. Document Request 49 is granted in part. With respect to that request, Defendant should provide any form letters or other documents that it has used to respond to report requests.3 In addition, SRI should supplement its answer to Document Request 45 by producing any nonprivileged documents that it uses to answer Interrogatories 3, 4, and 7. I deny the motion to compel with respect to Document Request 47 because SRI has produced a privilege log to support its assertion of attorney-client privilege. (See Doc. 78, Exh. H).

B. Dispute Information

Taylor is also requesting information about the number of disputes that consumers have lodged with SRI.4 He argues that this information is relevant to his claim under 15 U.S.C. § 1681e(b) that SRI failed to use reasonable procedures to ensure the accuracy of its reports. Taylor also asserts that this information is relevant to the issue of numerosity on his § 1681g(a) class claim. Although SRI does not keep track of oral file requests, SRI’s president, Timothy Fortner, testified that such requests are usually “involved with” or “roll together” with a dispute. (See Doc. 77 at 7). Therefore, Taylor argues that the total number of disputes can be used to estimate the number of consumers who have orally requested their files from SRI.

Under the Federal Rules, a party may obtain discovery “regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party’s claim or defense.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(1). “Relevant information need not be admissible at the trial if the discovery appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” Id.

In this case, I conclude that information concerning disputes is not relevant to Taylor’s § 1681e(b) claim. That section of the FCRA requires a consumer reporting agency to use reasonable procedures to ensure the accuracy of its reports. Taylor contends that the number of disputes places the reasonableness of SRI’s efforts in context.

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289 F.R.D. 370, 2013 WL 1248335, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-screening-reports-inc-gand-2013.