Filed: Jul. 14, 2020
Latest Update: Jul. 14, 2020
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUL 14 2020 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT TONI GOZ, on behalf of the Estate of Lynn No. 19-15819 D. Travers, D.C. Nos. Plaintiff-Appellant, 2:16-cv-01848-RFB-PAL 2:17-cv-01591-RFB-PAL v. ALLIED COLLECTION SERVICES, INC.; MEMORANDUM* GRANT & WEBER, INC.; EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.; SILVER STATE SCHOOLS CREDIT UNION; WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States D
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUL 14 2020 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT TONI GOZ, on behalf of the Estate of Lynn No. 19-15819 D. Travers, D.C. Nos. Plaintiff-Appellant, 2:16-cv-01848-RFB-PAL 2:17-cv-01591-RFB-PAL v. ALLIED COLLECTION SERVICES, INC.; MEMORANDUM* GRANT & WEBER, INC.; EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.; SILVER STATE SCHOOLS CREDIT UNION; WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States Di..
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NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS JUL 14 2020
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
TONI GOZ, on behalf of the Estate of Lynn No. 19-15819
D. Travers,
D.C. Nos.
Plaintiff-Appellant, 2:16-cv-01848-RFB-PAL
2:17-cv-01591-RFB-PAL
v.
ALLIED COLLECTION SERVICES, INC.; MEMORANDUM*
GRANT & WEBER, INC.; EXPERIAN
INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.;
SILVER STATE SCHOOLS CREDIT
UNION; WELLS FARGO HOME
MORTGAGE,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Nevada
Richard F. Boulware II, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted June 9, 2020**
San Francisco, California
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
Before: MILLER and HUNSAKER, Circuit Judges, and SCHILTZ,*** District
Judge.
Toni Goz, as administrator of the estate of Lynn Travers, appeals from the
district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Experian and Silver State
Schools Credit Union on Travers’s claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
We affirm.
Before considering the merits, we have a duty to determine our jurisdiction
under Article III. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t,
523 U.S. 83, 95
(1998). Experian argues that Travers did not show that she suffered any concrete
harm as a result of the alleged FCRA violations. See Summers v. Earth Island Inst.,
555 U.S. 488, 496 (2009) (“[D]eprivation of a procedural right without some
concrete interest that is affected by the deprivation . . . is insufficient to create
Article III standing.”); accord Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins,
136 S. Ct. 1540, 1549
(2016). But Travers did more than allege a violation of a bare procedural right. She
showed that the inaccurate information at issue was published to third parties, see
Robins v. Spokeo, Inc.,
867 F.3d 1108, 1117–18 (9th Cir. 2017), and she testified
that the disclosure caused her emotional distress, see Drew v. Equifax Info. Servs.,
***
The Honorable Patrick J. Schiltz, United States District Judge for the
District of Minnesota, sitting by designation.
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LLC,
690 F.3d 1100, 1109 (9th Cir. 2012). Because Travers sufficiently
demonstrated a concrete injury, we turn to the merits of the FCRA claims.
We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. See
Gorman v. Wolpoff & Abramson, LLP,
584 F.3d 1147, 1153 (9th Cir. 2009). When
a consumer disputes “the completeness or accuracy of any item of information
contained in [his or her] file at a consumer reporting agency,” the FCRA requires
the consumer reporting agency, and any entity that furnished the information to the
agency, to reasonably “reinvestigat[e] . . . whether the disputed information is
inaccurate and record the current status of the disputed information, or delete the
item from the file.” 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A); see
id. § 1681s-2(b)(1); Gorman,
584 F.3d at 1154 (concluding that duties under the FCRA “are triggered ‘upon
notice of dispute’—that is, when a person who furnished information to a[n]
[agency] receives notice . . . that the consumer disputes the information”).
Here, Travers notified Experian that it was inaccurately reporting certain
information in her consumer profile and requested that: (1) the Silver State
accounts report zero balances, (2) the Silver State accounts report that they were
“discharged in Bankruptcy,” rather than “charged off” multiple times, and (3) the
Wells Fargo account reflect the correct monthly balances. There is no dispute that
Experian and Silver State timely investigated and corrected those three
inaccuracies. Nor is there any dispute that Experian, after conducting the
3
investigation, explained to Travers that if she still questioned the accuracy of the
information, then she could submit additional documents supporting her claim, add
a statement disputing the accuracy or completeness of the information, or directly
contact the entity that furnished the information.
While Travers still questioned the accuracy of the date on which her Chapter
13 bankruptcy was reported as discharged, she never again contacted Experian or
Silver State before filing this action. The district court concluded that “[a]lthough
the date of the bankruptcy may have continued to be misreported after the
conclusion of the reinvestigation,” there was no genuine dispute of material fact on
whether Travers notified Experian of that specific reporting error. See 15 U.S.C.
§ 1681i(a)(1)(A). We agree.
Nothing in Travers’s notice to Experian, or in the supporting documents that
she provided, indicated that Experian was inaccurately reporting the date on which
her bankruptcy was discharged. Travers’s failure to provide adequate notice of this
reporting error therefore “limit[ed] the scope of [Experian’s and Silver State’s]
dut[ies] . . . by excusing a more limited investigation.”
Drew, 690 F.3d at 1107
(emphasis in original) (citing
Gorman, 584 F.3d at 1157 n.11). Goz argues that we
have liberally construed the FCRA’s notice requirements, but she cites no case in
which we have permitted a consumer to prevail on an FCRA claim without first
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putting the credit reporting agency on notice of the information that is disputed.
See
id.
AFFIRMED.
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