Taylor v. Screening Reports, Inc.

15 F. Supp. 3d 1360, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56657, 2014 WL 1614207
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedFebruary 27, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 1:11-CV-3426-AT-GGB
StatusPublished

This text of 15 F. Supp. 3d 1360 (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., 15 F. Supp. 3d 1360, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56657, 2014 WL 1614207 (N.D. Ga. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

AMY TOTENBERG, District Judge.

This case, pending before the Magistrate Judge, is before the Court on Defendant Screening Reports, Inc. (“SRI”) Motion for Leave to File Supplemental Response in Opposition to Plaintiff’s Renewed Motion for Class Certification [Doc. 133]. Normally, such non-disposi-tive motions can be handled by the Magistrate Judge without submission to the District Judge. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A). Here, however, Defendant’s Motion essentially seeks reconsideration of the Court’s decision not to adopt the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation that Plaintiffs claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681g, be dismissed. Accordingly, the Magistrate Judge directed the Clerk to submit this matter to the undersigned for immediate review. The Court agrees that Defendant’s Motion is properly construed as a Motion for Reconsideration. The Court’s reference to the Magistrate Judge is therefore WITHDRAWN for consideration of Defendant’s Motion.

I. Discussion

In 2010, Plaintiff applied to rent an apartment from Silverleaf Apartments (“Silverleaf’).1 Silverleaf then submitted to Defendant SRI a request to conduct a criminal background check on Plaintiff. SRI responded with a report erroneously attributing to Plaintiff a series of felony convictions, including a sex offender conviction, and Silverleaf, in turn, denied Plaintiff’s rental application. Among other actions, Plaintiff then requested his “Report” from SRI and in response, SRI sent only the report it provided to Silverleaf but not Plaintiffs entire consumer file. On this basis, Plaintiff lodged a claim that SRI violated 15 U.S.C. § 1681g (Plaintiffs “Report Claim”) and also sought to certify a class of consumers similarly harmed (“Motion for Class Certification”).

On Summary Judgment, the Court held that pursuant to § 1681g, a consumer reporting agency like SRI must provide the entire consumer file when the consumer requests his “report” without limiting his request to one particular report contained in his file. (Sept. 11, 2013 Ord., 294 F.R.D. at 684-86.) See 15 U.S.C. § 1681g(a) (“Every consumer reporting agency shall, upon request, and subject to section 1681h(a)(l) of this title, clearly and accurately disclose to the consumer: (1) All information in the consumer’s file at the time of the request....”). However, because Plaintiff identified no evidence of actual damages arising from SRI’s failure to provide the entire consumer file, the Court explained that Plaintiffs claim could only survive if he had some evidence that SRI willfully violated the statute. (Id. at 686-87 (citing, inter alia, Cahlin v. Gen. Motors Acceptance Corp., 936 F.2d 1151, [1362]*13621160-61 (11th Cir.1991); 15 U.S.C. § 1681n).)

A credit reporting agency (“CRA”) willfully fails to comply with a provision of FCRA when it knows its conduct violates the statute or when it acts with reckless disregard to its statutory duty. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am. v. Burr, 551 U.S. 47, 56-60, 127 S.Ct. 2201, 167 L.Ed.2d 1045 (2007). SRI initially argued that its reading of § 1681g(a) — that it need not provide the consumer’s entire file when the consumer simply requests his report — was reasonable and thus it could not be found to have acted willfully. (Def. Summ. J. Br. at 22-28, Doc. 122.) The Court rejected SRI’s argument, pointing to evidence in the record upon which a reasonable jury could conclude that SRI understood its obligations under the statute to provide the entire consumer file upon Plaintiffs request and nonetheless provided only a portion of his file. (Sept. 11, 2013 Ord., 294 F.R.D. at 686-87.) In particular, the record contained a training or policy document evidencing SRI’s written policy governing consumer requests for “reports.” (See DSMF Ex. D (“Huhta Dep.”) at 88-89, Doc. 122-17; see also Soumilas Decl. Ex. 9 at 2, Doc. 96-9 *SEALED*.) This document supports a finding that SRI knew the extent of its legal obligations to respond to a consumer request for a “report.” The Court relied solely on this evidence to find that a reasonable jury could conclude SRI willfully violated § 1681g.

The Court also rejected SRI’s argument that the policy in the written training materials was not actually SRI’s policy and thus not evidence of SRI’s knowledge of the law. SRI had argued that according to Carter Huhta, SRI’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, the written policy regarding requests for copies of a consumer “report” only applied in cases where the consumer requests a copy of his or her “file.” (Sept. 11, 2013 Ord., 294 F.R.D. at 687.) But the Court explained that “a reasonable jury could [still] find that by disregarding its written policy — a policy that is consistent with SRI’s requirements under § 1681g that a general request for information contained in one’s file is sufficient to trigger SRI’s obligations under this section — SRI knowingly violated § 1681g.” (Id.) Accordingly, the Court declined to adopt the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation and denied SRI’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Plaintiffs Report Claim.

Defendant now injects yet another argument. According to Defendant, the “written policy” upon which the Court relied was not in force at the time of the Defendant’s request for his report in 2010. Defendant again directs the Court to the 2012 deposition testimony of Huhta. According to Huhta, the “written policy” was part of a 2011 training on FCRA obligations conducted by a law firm. (Huhta Dep. at 17-18.) Huhta also testified that he was unaware of any trainings occurring prior to 2011, but he was not employed at SRI then. (Id. at 20.) SRI argues that this testimony supports the unequivocal conclusion that the written policy memorialized in the 2011 training document was not in force at the time of the 2010 FCRA violation that serves as the basis of Plaintiffs claim. The Court disagrees. Although a reasonable jury could conclude, based on Huhta’s testimony, that the 2011 training was the first time SRI became fully aware of its legal obligations under § 1681g(a), Huhta’s testimony says nothing about what the policy was prior to 2011.

Nonetheless, the Court agrees with SRI’s implicit argument that Plaintiff has directed the Court to no evidence of SRI’s knowledge of its legal obligations [1363]*1363under § 1681g(a) at the time of the 2010 conduct that serves as the basis of Plaintiffs claim beyond the 2011 policy or training document and its conformity with SRI’s ongoing practices. Plaintiff cannot proceed on his § 1681g(a) Report claim on a theory that SRI knowingly violated the law unless the 2011 training/policy document, (Soumilas Decl. Ex. 9 at 2, Doc. 96-9 *SEALED*), is linked to other evidence that Defendant had knowledge of its legal obligations prior to 2011.2

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Related

Safeco Insurance Co. of America v. Burr
551 U.S. 47 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Tomasini v. MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER OF FLORIDA, INC.
315 F. Supp. 2d 1252 (S.D. Florida, 2004)
Gibbons v. Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM)
108 F. Supp. 2d 1311 (M.D. Alabama, 2000)
Taylor v. Screening Reports, Inc.
294 F.R.D. 680 (N.D. Georgia, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 F. Supp. 3d 1360, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56657, 2014 WL 1614207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-screening-reports-inc-gand-2014.