Van Veen v. Equifax Information

844 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 556063, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21019
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 14, 2012
DocketCiv. No. 10-01635
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 844 F. Supp. 2d 599 (Van Veen v. Equifax Information) 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
Van Veen v. Equifax Information, 844 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 556063, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21019 (E.D. Pa. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

PAUL S. DIAMOND, District Judge.

On January 28, 2011, Plaintiff filed a Second Amended Complaint against AT & T Corp. and AT & T Credit Management for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting [603]*603Act. (Doc. No. 46.) I dismissed AT & T Credit Management from this action, leaving AT & T Corp. as the sole Defendant. (Doc. No. 95.) Plaintiff alleges that AT & T reported false information to credit reporting agencies, and that the information was not removed from his credit report after Plaintiff disputed its accuracy. (Doc. No. 46.)

AT & T has moved for summary judgment on the following grounds: 1) Defendant did not report inaccurate or incomplete information to the CRAs; 2) even if it reported inaccurate information, Defendant conducted a reasonable investigation when informed of Plaintiffs dispute; 3) Plaintiff cannot prove he was damaged; and 4) Plaintiffs claims should be referred to the Federal Communications Commission. Plaintiff filed a Response, and Defendant filed a Reply. (Doc. Nos. 113, 119.) For the reasons that follow, I will grant Defendant’s Motion in part and deny it in part.

I. Factual Background

The facts are largely uncontested. In late May or early June 2007, Plaintiff received a bill for $181.04 from Defendant for long distance telephone calls allegedly made from Plaintiffs home. (Doc. 110-2 at 13.) Plaintiff did not pay this bill. In late-June 2007, Plaintiff received a second bill from Defendant for $202.18—the prior bills plus charges for additional calls. (Id at 14.) Defendant subsequently re-rated the calls, and issued a credit of $139.63, leaving a $62.55 balance due.

Believing that because he never consented to Defendant’s telephone services, he owed no money, Plaintiff refused to pay the $62.55. (Doc. 113-2' at 27.) In August 2007, Defendant forwarded Plaintiffs unpaid account to a collection agency for the amount of $64.12. (Id.) On December 26, 2007, having still not received payment, Defendant wrote off Plaintiffs $64.12 balance. (Id.) On this date, Defendant reported Plaintiffs account to the CRAs as “charged off,” meaning Defendant considered the debt uncollectable. (Id.) A notation of “charged off’ can negatively affect a consumer’s credit score. (Id.) On March 12, 2009, Defendant adjusted Plaintiffs account balance to. zero and sent Plaintiff a statement notifying him that the adjustment was “due to incorrect AT & T billing.” (Id. at 31.) Because Defendant believed the underlying charges were valid and accurately reported as charged-off, Defendant did not ask the CRAs delete the tradeline related to Plaintiffs account. (110-2 at 16.) As a result of AT & T’s adjustment to Plaintiffs then-closed account, Defendant’s internal system registered the account as reinstated and issued a bill for $10.32 (representing a monthly recurring charge plus applicable taxes and fees). (Id. at 16.) Defendant adjusted the $10.32 balance to $0 before the August, 30, 2009 payment date. Defendant later requested deletion of Plaintiffs account and, by May 19, 2010, no mention of AT & ,T appeared on Plaintiffs credit report. (Id.)

Between 2007 and 2009, Plaintiff vigorously disputed his account balance through numerous channels. The AT & T Executive Appeals Department found that Plaintiff was not billed in error and affirmed the charges. (Id. at 15.) Plaintiff also filed a complaint with the FCC for wrongful billing. Relying on Defendant’s adjustment of Plaintiffs account balance, the FCC declined to consider the merits of Plaintiffs complaint. The FCC found “that AT & T has fully absolved the Complainant of all charges assessed by AT & T in a manner consistent with the Commission’s liability rules.” (Doc. No. 113-2 at 31.)

Plaintiff disputed the negative credit reporting with the CRAs. When a consumer contacts a CRA about a dispute regarding credit reporting, the agency transmits the disputed information to the furnisher of [604]*604credit information via an Automated Consumer Dispute Verification through the e-OSCAR system. Between April and May 2009, Defendant received three ACDVs regarding Plaintiffs account, which I describe in greater detail below.

II. Legal Standard

Under Rule 56(a), I must grant summary judgment if the moving Party “shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a).

“If the moving party meets the initial burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact, the burden shifts to the non-moving party to set forth specific facts showing the existence of such an issue for trial.” Shields v. Znccarini, 254 F.3d 476, 481 (3d Cir.2001). “To raise a genuine issue of material fact, however, the opponent need not match, item for item, each piece of evidence proffered by the movant. In practical terms, if the opponent has exceeded the ‘mere scintilla’ threshold and has offered a genuine issue of material fact, then the court cannot credit the movant’s version of events against the opponent, even if the quantity of the movant’s evidence far outweighs that of its opponent.” Big Apple BMW, Inc. v. BMW of N. Am., Inc., 974 F.2d 1358, 1363 (3d Cir.1992).

Summary judgment must be entered against “a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party’s case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial. In such a situation, there can be ‘no genuine issue as to any material fact,’ since a complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).

III. FCRA Claim

Plaintiff argues at length that AT & T reported inaccurate information to the CRAs because he never opened an account with AT & T. (Doc. No. 113-2 at 11-18) Whether true or not, these allegations are not germane. FCRA Section 1681s-2(a) requires furnishers of credit information, like Defendant, to provide accurate information to CRAs in the first instance. A private consumer like Plaintiff, however, may not bring a cause of action for an alleged violation of 1681s-2(a). 15 U.S.C. § 1681s—2(d); Chiang v. Verizon New England, Inc., 595 F.3d 26, 35 (1st Cir. 2010). Plaintiff undoubtedly is aware of this limitation, as demonstrated by the fact that he filed his claim under 1681s-2(b), which does permit private causes of action.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
844 F. Supp. 2d 599, 2012 WL 556063, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21019, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-veen-v-equifax-information-paed-2012.