Grigoryan v. Experian Info. Solutions, Inc.

• Citation: 84 F.Supp.3d 1044
• Decision Date: 18 December 2014
• Docket Number: No. CV 13–07450 MMM PLAx.,CV 13–07450 MMM PLAx.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Central District of California
• Parties: Gevork GRIGORYAN, an individual, Plaintiff, v. EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC., an Ohio corporation; Equifax Information Services, LLC, a Georgia limited liability company; and Trans Union, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Defendants.

84 F.Supp.3d 1044

Gevork GRIGORYAN, an individual, Plaintiff

v.EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC., an Ohio corporation; Equifax Information Services, LLC, a Georgia limited liability company; and Trans Union, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Defendants.

No. CV 13–07450 MMM PLAx.

United States District Court, C.D. California.

Signed Dec. 18, 2014.

Gevork Grigoryan, Van Nuys, CA, pro se.

Aidan W. Butler, Aidan W. Butler Law Offices, Los Angeles, CA, for Plaintiff.

Angela M. Taylor, Katherine A. Klimkowski, Jones Day, Irvine, CA, Sabrina M. Fernandes, Jones Day, Los Angeles, CA, Thomas P. Quinn, Jr., Nokes and Quinn APC, Laguna Beach, CA, Brian J. Olson, Lewis P. Perling, King and Spalding LLP, Atlanta, GA, Donald E. Bradley, Musick Peeler and Garrett LLP, Costa Mesa, CA, Paul W. Sheldon, Strasburger and Price LLP, Frisco, TX, for Defendants.

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

MARGARET M. MORROW, District Judge.

On October 8, 2013, Gevork Grigoryan filed this action against Experian Information Solutions, Inc. (“Experian”), Equifax Information Services, LLC (“Equifax”), and Trans Union, LLC (“Trans Union”) (collectively, “defendants”), alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (“CCRAA”), California Civil Code § 1785.1 et seq.¹ On November 7, 2014, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment.² Grigoryan opposes the motion.³

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The facts are, for the most part, undisputed.⁴ Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union are each “consumer reporting agencies” as defined by the FCRA and “consumer credit reporting agencies” as defined by the CCRAA.⁵ The parties' dispute concerns five credit accounts or trade lines that Grigoryan contends appeared inaccurately on credit reports compiled by defendants.⁶

The creditor on two of the accounts was Bank of America (“BOA”).⁷ The first account was a mortgage on a rental property Grigoryan owned for the benefit of his real estate business; the second was a home equity line of credit (“HELOC”) secured by the same rental property as the mortgage account.⁸ These accounts appeared on credit reports compiled by each defendant as delinquent.⁹ Three other collection accounts appeared only on Grigoryan's Trans Union credit report: a Collection Bureau of America account (the “CBA account”), a Sequoia Financial Services account (the “Sequoia account”), and a Credit Management Inc. account (the “CMI account”).¹⁰ The CBA and CMI accounts both concern a debt Grigoryan purportedly owed Time Warner Cable.¹¹ The Sequoia account involved a debt originally owed to the Department of Water and Power.¹²

1. Grigoryan's Reporting Disputes with Experian

On May 6, 2010, Experian received a letter from Grigoryan dated May 3, 2010, disputing the reporting of his BOA mortgage account.¹³ Grigoryan asserted that BOA had incorrectly reported late payments on the mortgage loan for the four months from December 2009 to March 2010.¹⁴ He stated that BOA had agreed to correct the information, but indicated the adjustment could take up to ninety days.¹⁵ Because he could not “tolerate another three months of inaccurate reporting,” Grigoryan asked Experian to correct the reporting as soon as possible.¹⁶ As proof of his statements, Grigoryan enclosed two letters he had received from BOA. The first, dated April 20, 2010, stated that Grigoryan's “request for a credit adjustment related to [his] 12/2009, 01/2010, 02/2010, [and] 03/2010, mortgage installments for the [BOA mortgage]” had been received, and that “corrected information [had been] submitted [the same day] to the credit reporting agencies.”¹⁷ The letter did not contain any additional information concerning the nature of the “corrected information,” and advised Grigoryan that it takes an average of sixty days for credit reporting agencies to make an adjustment.¹⁸ The second letter from BOA that Grigoryan forwarded to Experian also concerned the BOA mortgage. It stated that his “request for a credit correction ha[d] been approved ... [and that BOA] ha[d] submitted a formal request to [each defendant].”¹⁹ The letter advised that the adjustment process could “take 60 to 90 days for completion.”²⁰ Like the first letter, the second contained no details concerning the nature of the inaccuracy.²¹

Experian personnel reviewed the May 3, 2010 letter, its attachments, and Grigoryan's credit report, and determined that it was reporting the BOA mortgage account in good standing and not delinquent.²² In response to Grigoryan's letter, it sent him a consumer disclosure on May 11, 2010, stating that the account had been reported as in good standing and was not shown as delinquent.²³ The letter enclosed a copy of an Experian credit report dated May 11, 2010, which listed a number of “BAC Home Loans/Countywide” trade lines; all were reported “Paid” and “Never late.”²⁴ Experian received no further disputes from Grigoryan concerning the BOA mortgage trade line.²⁵

On November 4, 2011, Experian received an April 4, 2011 letter from Grigoryan disputing the reporting of a BOA account.²⁶ The letter identified the account only by its first five digits, followed by four X's. Grigoryan asserted that he had obtained a credit report on October 25, 2011, that contained inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information in that it stated the account was “past due 30 days” and had a past due amount of $12.²⁷ He demanded that Experian “immediately delete the above-referenced information from [his] credit report in full, or at least revise the entry to reflect [that] no debt presently exist[ed]”; he also requested reinvestigation of the matter.²⁸

In response to the letter, Experian reviewed Grigoryan's credit file and found that his BOA HELOC account was in negative standing and being reported “30 [ ] day[s] late.”²⁹ Experian sent an automated consumer dispute verification (“ACDV”) to BOA regarding the account, which asked for verification of the account status and payment history.³⁰ BOA verified the accuracy of the reported information; Experian then sent Grigoryan a consumer disclosure dated November 14, 2014, indicating that BOA had verified that the 30–day late notation was accurate.³¹

Experian then received a letter from Renatus Credit (“Renatus”) dated December 15, 2011, which was purportedly sent on Grigoryan's behalf.³² The letter stated that Grigoryan's HELOC account was being inaccurately reported, and sought information concerning Experian's policies and procedures for ensuring accurate credit reporting.³³ The address listed on the envelope did not correspond to any address on file for Grigoryan; thus, Experian requested proof of Grigoryan's current address for security purposes.³⁴ No proof of address was provided. Instead, Renatus sent another letter dated January 10, 2012, stating that Experian had an obligation to respond to its method of verification request, and that it faced FCRA liability for failure to comply.³⁵ The letter threatened legal action, but gave Experian an additional fourteen days to respond.³⁶ Experian reviewed the letter, found it duplicative of the December 15, 2011 request, and took no further action in light of the outstanding request for verification of address.³⁷

On April 30, 2012, Grigoryan contacted Experian via telephone and asked that the consumer dispute comment be removed from his BOA HELOC.³⁸ Experian advised him that the dispute comment could only be removed if he confirmed the accuracy of the account information. He did so, and Experian removed the comment from the account and sent Grigoryan confirmation that it had done so.³⁹ On June 6, 2012, Experian received a four-page fax requesting that the BOA HELOC account be updated to current and that the consumer dispute comment be deleted.⁴⁰ The request included documentation from BOA showing that payments on the HELOC were “never late” and that “corrected information was submitted on 5/30/2012 to the credit reporting agencies.”⁴¹ There is no evidence in the record as to whether BOA began to re-report the account as disputed after it removed the comment on April 30, 2012. Based on Grigoryan's request and the accompanying information, Experian updated the BOA HELOC account to current, never late, and no longer disputed.⁴²

2. Grigoryan's Reporting Disputes with Equifax

Grigoryan first contacted Equifax regarding his BOA mortgage on May 3, 2010, when he faxed a letter stating that BOA had reported erroneous late payments for the period from December 2009 to 2010.⁴³ As he did with Experian, Grigoryan included two letters he had received from BOA that indicated his request for a “credit report adjustment” had been approved.⁴⁴ Equifax prepared and sent an ACDV to BOA regarding the mortgage account. In the FCRA section of the ACDV, Equifax noted it received documentation indicating that BOA had completed an adjustment concerning the allegedly late payments.⁴⁵ BOA instructed Equifax to delete the late payment history from Grigoryan's credit file,⁴⁶ and Equifax did so.⁴⁷ The results of the reinvestigation were sent to Grigoryan on May 5, 2014.⁴⁸

On October 30, 2011, Equifax received a letter from Grigoryan in which he disputed another BOA account. This letter, like a similar letter to Experian, was erroneously dated April 4, 2011; it also failed to identify the BOA HELOC account as the one being questioned.⁴⁹ Equifax determined that the BOA HELOC was reporting past due, and sent an ACDV to BOA regarding the account.⁵⁰ BOA verified the accuracy of the information.⁵¹ As a result, Equifax made no changes to the account, which was reported past-due with a balance of $12.⁵² Equifax mailed the results of the reinvestigation to Grigoryan on November 7, 2011.⁵³ Prior to December 18, 2011, BOA updated the HELOC account so that it no longer reported a past-due status or any balance.⁵⁴ No consumer reports regarding Grigoryan...