Tonge v. Fundamental Labor Strategies, Inc.

277 F. Supp. 3d 809
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 29, 2017
DocketCIVIL ACTION No. 16-6310
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 277 F. Supp. 3d 809 (Tonge v. Fundamental Labor Strategies, Inc.) 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
Tonge v. Fundamental Labor Strategies, Inc., 277 F. Supp. 3d 809 (E.D. Pa. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

MCHUGH, United States District Judge

This is a putative class action on behalf of job applicants who claim that Defendant Fundamental Labor Strategies (“FLS”) violated their rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) when they applied for trucking jobs. The sole named Plaintiff is Christine Tonge. She alleges that FLS violated the FCRA first when it requested her consumer report after obtaining her consent on an inadequate disclosure form, and then a .second time when it denied her job application based on the report’s contents without first giving her a copy of the report, a .summary of her FCRA rights, and a chance to discuss and dispute the report’s contents,. which she-believes to be inaccurate. Defendant now moves to dismiss Tonge’s Amended Complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on Article III standing, relying on Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins. — U.S. —, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1546, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016), as revised (May 24, 2016). I reject FLS’s reading of Spokeo, because the Third Circuit has made clear that Spokeo reaffirmed traditional notions of standing and neither established a new standard nor erected new barriers for standing. Accordingly, and for reasons set forth below, Defendant’s Motion is .denied.

I. Background

The parties agree on most of the facts in this case. Plaintiff Tonge is a truck driver with more than a decade of experience. She applied for a position through Defendant FLS, a placement company that hires commercial truckers and outsources them to companies in need of drivers. She began by completing FLS’s online application, including agreeing to allow FLS to run her driving record. It is FLS’s policy not to hire drivers with more than two “chargeable” (ie., preventable) accidents in the last three years.

Tonge then took a road test and attended an in-person interview.1 At the interview, she completed FLS’s version of a FCRA Disclosure and Release (the “Consent Form”), purportedly agreeing to allow FLS to obtain a consumer background check that would include her consumer credit history, criminal history, and driving history.'ECF No. 21-2, Ex. 3 (“Background Inquiry Release”). In addition to disclosing the' kind of background check FLS planned to conduct, the Consent [811]*811Form included a description of Tonge’s rights under the FCRA—but both parties agree that it did not accurately describe her FCRA rights:

If FLS plans to use any information from a credit report in connection with a decision not to hire me or to make any other adverse employment decision regarding me, it will provide me with a copy of the credit report upon which its decision was based and a written summary of my rights under the [FCRA].2

A mailing address for FLS appeared at the bottom of the form.

Some time later, Tonge called FLS to check on the status of her application. An FLS representative told her that the application had been denied based on the contents of her background report—specifically, the presence of three accidents within the last three years, which made her ineligible under FLS’s rules. In the following days, Tonge obtained a copy of the consumer reporton which FLS had based its decision. The report came from a consumer background check company called Hire-Right, Inc. and contained several pieces of negative information about Tonge’s former employment at Kreilkamp Trucking (“Kreilkamp”).3

HireRight reported that Tonge had been in three accidents while at Kreilkamp and was “discharged.” Tonge believed (and continues to allege) that this information was inaccurate, and she contacted Hire-Right to dispute it. HireRight notified FLS that Tonge was disputing her employment history, and provided FLS with a corrected report, changing Tonge’s reason for leaving Kreilkamp from “Discharged” to “Resigned/Quit.” According to FLS, HireRight did not amend the accident history or make any other changes to the report.

Apart from these facts, on which there is agreement, there are two main points on which the parties disagree. Although I find neither material to the standing question before me, I highlight them because the parties—especially FLS—place great weight in them. First, Tonge insists that the accidents listed in the HireRight report did not occur. Pl.’s Resp. Def.’s Mot. Dismiss 7 [hereinafter “Pl.’s Resp.”], ECF No. 24. FLS, relying on the modified Hire-Right report, asserts that they did. Def.’s Mot. Dismiss 5-6; HireRight Email to FLS (June 21, 2016), ECF No. 21-2. Second, the parties dispute whether FLS gave Tonge a verbal summary of her FCRA rights. Tonge contends that she was never given any verbal summary of her rights and that she only learned she could dispute the report through a conversation with a colleague. PL’s Resp. 7; Tonge Decl. ¶¶ 5-9, ECF No. 24-1. FLS, on the other hand, asserts that its representative gave Tonge a verbal “summary of her rights” before requesting the report. Def.’s Mot. Dismiss 4-5 (citing Brangan Decl. ¶ 4, ECF No. 21-3). But assuming that any oral summary matched the language of FLS’s written Consent Form, it would necessarily include a statement of Tonge’s rights that the parties agree was incorrect. FLS also avers that the same representative, after telling Tonge by phone that her application had been denied, gave her “oral [812]*812notification” of HireRight’s contact information, further advising that HireRight had not taken adverse action against her, and that she could get a free copy of the report and dispute its contents. But, as explained below, no summary of rights (verbal or written) provided by FLS after it denied Tonge’s application could fulfill its obligations under FCRA. FLS does not argue otherwise. I recognize that these are disputed facts but reiterate that they do not affect my analysis.

II. The Fair Credit Reporting Act

In 1970, as the emergence of computer technology created the possibility of “a nationwide data bank covering every citizen,” Congress enacted the FCRA to ensure that the growing credit reporting industry would be “fair and accurate.” See Fair Credit Reporting Act § 1681, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1681* (1970); S. Rep. No. 91-517, at 2 (1969) [hereinafter “Senate Report”]; Spokeo, 186 S.Ct. at 1545. To achieve this goal, Congress created protections for consumers and imposed obligations on credit reporting agencies and employers (among others) to ensure that they “me[t] the needs of commerce” in a way that was “fair and equitable to the consumer with regard to the confidentiality, accuracy, relevancy, and proper utilization of [consumer credit] information.” § 1681(b); S. Rep. No. 103-209, at 2 (1993). In the FCRA, Congress intended to create a law that “acknowledge^] both the utility and dangers of the credit reporting industry.” Id. at 3. In light of the law’s “consumer oriented objectives,” the Third Circuit has held that the FCRA is “undeniably a remedial statute that must be read in a liberal manner in order to effectuate the congressional intent underlying it.” Cortez v. Trans Union, LLC, 617 F.3d 688, 722 (3d Cir. 2010).

Two separate FCRA protections are at issue in this case. Section 1681b(b)(2)(A), establishes that a person or entity may not procure a consumer report4

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Bluebook (online)
277 F. Supp. 3d 809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tonge-v-fundamental-labor-strategies-inc-paed-2017.