Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc.

194 F.R.D. 244, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7764, 2000 WL 713780
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 30, 2000
DocketNo. CIV.A. 97-971
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 194 F.R.D. 244 (Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc., 194 F.R.D. 244, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7764, 2000 WL 713780 (E.D. La. 2000).

Opinion

ORDER AND REASONS

BERRIGAN, District Judge.

Before the Court are Plaintiff Peggy Malb-rough’s Motion to Sever Individual Action and for Summary Judgment (Rec.Doc. 247), Defendants Equifax, Inc.’s (“Equifax”) and Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.’s (“ECIS”) (sometimes referred to collectively as “the Equifax defendants”) Motion for Summary Judgment (Rec.Doc. 267), and Defendant CSC Credit Services, Inc.’s (“CSC”) Motion for Summary Judgment (Rec.Doc. 280). For the reasons explained below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiff Peggy Malbrough’s Motion to Sever but DENIES her Motion for Summary Judgment and GRANTS the Motions for Summary Judgment filed by the Defendants.

I. FACTS

In 1997, Mrs. Malbrough, along with five other named representative plaintiffs, filed a class action complaint against Defendants CSC, Equifax, and ECIS.1 The Plaintiffs alleged that the Defendants, consumer reporting agencies and their affiliates,2 had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq.,

by furnishing credit reports to insurers [specifically State Farm Insurance Company (“State Farm”)] for the impermissible purpose3 of claims investigating;
by failing to maintain reasonable procedures designed to limit the furnishing of credit reports to the purposes listed under subsection 15 U.S.C. [§ ]1681b; and [3] by failing to require that prospective users of credit reports certify the purposes for which the information is sought and that [246]*246the information would be used for no other purpose.

Complaint, Rec. Doc. 1, at 116.

This Court later certified a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2), see Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc., 178 F.R.D. 95, 103 (E.D.La.1998) (Rec.Doc. 47), and alternatively under Rule 23(b)(3), see Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc., 180 F.R.D. 309, 312-16 (E.D.La.1998) (Rec.Doc. 77). The final class definition was as follows:

all persons whose credit reports have been furnished to an insurance company during the period from April 2, 1995 to the present, by computer access, by defendants CSC Services, Inc., or Equifax, Inc., or any of their subsidiaries, or by access to databases owned by any of them, where the consumer reporting agency assembling and/or furnishing the report(s) did not receive:

1) an initial blanket certification from the insurance company stating

i) a permissible purpose for which the credit report is sought,
ii) that the credit report will be used for no other purpose, and
iii) that the insurance company is expressly prohibited from sharing the credit report or providing it to anyone else, other than the subject of the report or a joint user having the same purpose, and

2) a separate certification from the insurance company for each credit report requested stating that the report was only to be used for a permissible purpose.

180 F.R.D. at 315-16.

The Defendants sought review of the class certification in an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b) to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit reversed certification under Rule 23(b)(2) and vacated and remanded certification under Rule 23(b)(3). See Washington v. CSC Credit Services, Inc., 199 F.3d 263 (5th Cir.2000). The appellate court reversed certification under Rule 23(b)(2) because it found (1) that injunctive relief for private litigants was improper because the FCRA limits the power to pursue injunctive relief to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), see id. at 268; and (2) that declaratory relief was improper because it “would frustrate the FCRA’s limitation of injunctive relief to the FTC” and because declaratory relief does not predominate over monetary relief in this case, id. at 269. More germane to the instant motion, the Fifth Circuit vacated certification under Rule 23(b)(3) and remanded the case to this Court because it found that “the actionable harm the FCRA envisions is improper disclosure, not the mere risk of improper disclosure that arises when ‘reasonable procedures’ are not followed and disclosures are made.” Id. at 267. Accordingly, the appellate court held that a plaintiff bringing a claim that a reporting agency violated the FCRA’s “reasonable procedures” requirement must first show that the reporting agency released the report in violation of the FCRA.4 See id.

After the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion and rulings, the Plaintiffs informed this Court that they intended to petition the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certio-rari to appeal the Fifth Circuit’s decision.5 The Plaintiffs then moved this Court to stay proceedings on this case during the pendency of the petition and possible Supreme Court appeal. See Rec. Doc. 245. Soon thereafter, Plaintiff Peggy Malbrough filed the instant motion to sever her individual action from the class action and for summary judgment on her individual claim.

II. ANALYSIS

Mrs. Malbrough contends that her claim is proper for individual adjudication after the [247]*247Fifth Circuit’s ruling because her claim differs from those of the other plaintiffs such that the issues of common fact supporting class action adjudication do not apply to her individual complaint. Mrs. Malbrough claims, as do the other plaintiffs, that the Defendants released her report for the purpose of claims investigating, but she further claims, unlike the other plaintiffs, that she never gave "written consent to any insurance company to obtain her credit report. Thus, she argues, she has proved that the Defendants released her credit report without her consent for an impermissible purpose in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1681b. She further claims that the Defendants failed to employ reasonable procedures, as required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681e, to prevent the improper disclosure of her credit report. Therefore, she contends that she has proven her case as required by the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.

The Defendants6 oppose Mrs. Malbrough’s motion to sever and for summary judgment and have filed a cross-motion for summary judgment on these same issues. First, the Defendants argue that the Court should decline to rule on Mrs. Malbrough’s motion during the pendency of the class’s petition for a writ of certiorari because the Court’s decision of certain issues 7 now would unfairly prejudice the Defendants in dealing with the continuing litigation. In the alternative, if the Court should decide to consider Mrs. Malbrough’s motion, the Defendants urge first that Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
194 F.R.D. 244, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7764, 2000 WL 713780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/washington-v-csc-credit-services-inc-laed-2000.