Persinger v. Southwest Credit Systems, L.P.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-creditor’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-debtor action, alleging that defendant violated Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by initiating collection efforts on debt by acquiring type of credit information called plaintiff’s “propensity-to-pay,” under circumstances where plaintiff had previously received discharge of debt under bankruptcy. Ct. of Appeals initially found that plaintiff had standing to bring instant lawsuit, where allegations in her complaint resembled harm associated with intrusion upon seclusion that related to allegations of invasion of privacy. However, plaintiff failed to prevail on merits of her negligence claim under FCRA, where plaintiff failed to proffer evidence showing that defendant’s actions caused her to incur either pecuniary or non-pecuniary harm, since: (1) plaintiff disavowed any loss of credit, housing, employment, money or insurance that arose out of defendant’s actions; and (2) plaintiff could provide only conclusory statements that defendant’s conduct caused her stress and anger. Moreover, with respect to plaintiff’s claim that defendant willfully violated section 1681b(a)(3)(A) by procuring “consumer report” when underlying debt had been discharged, plaintiff could not establish said violation, since: (1) defendant lacked actual knowledge of plaintiff’s prior bankruptcy at time defendant had obtained plaintiff’s propensity-to-pay score; and (2) defendant could reasonably have relied on its own procedures to obtain bankruptcy information about plaintiff’s debt.