The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a pair of defendants accused of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not properly investigating a dispute filed by an individual.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Barron v. Equifax Information Services and Experian Information Solutions can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff had a retail credit card that was issued by a financial institution. The plaintiff claimed the institution wrongfully reported that he was late on a payment, which caused a loan application he filled out three months later to be denied. When he learned of the denial, the plaintiff filed suit against the retailer, the financial institution, and three credit bureaus. Prior to District Court granting summary judgment, the retailers, the financial institution, and one of the credit bureaus settled with the plaintiff.
Upon receipt of the notification from the defendants about the results of the dispute investigation, the plaintiff opted to file suit, rather than follow the directions provided by the defendants, which included contacting the financial institution. The plaintiff argued that the credit bureaus never contacted the retailer about the late payment, but both the District Court and the Appeals Court ruled that the steps taken by the financial institution — which included using the Automated Consumer Dispute Verification system — were adequate.
Finally, the plaintiff was unable to prove that his injury — the denial of his loan application — was a direct result of the actions of the defendants. The loan application, it turns out, was denied because of a credit report from the credit bureau which had previously settled with the plaintiff and was no longer a party in the suit.
