The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a Fair Credit Reporting Act suit after the plaintiff alleged the defendant reported inaccurate information on his credit report. Like the lower court, the Appeals Court determined each of the plaintiff’s arguments lacked merit.
The Background: The plaintiff sued one of the credit reporting agencies alleging it was including inaccurate information on his credit report. But the plaintiff did not specify how or what information was inaccurate. All he referenced was that the inaccurate information included a credit card from a specific Pennsylvania credit union. The plaintiff also did not include any information detailing what the credit reporting agency did wrong. A District Court judge granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
The Ruling: On appeal, the plaintiff argued that he stated a claim under the FCRA, that the District Court judge should have allowed him to amend his complaint, and that he also stated claims under the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and the Pennsylvania Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act.
But the Appeals Court disagreed with the plaintiff on all three fronts.
- The plaintiff failed to allege what information in his credit report was inaccurate or how the defendant should have reported it. In a footnote, the Appeals Court noted that the plaintiff did not specify whether the credit union account was inaccurate because the plaintiff did not have a balance on the account, because he had not made a late payment, or because the account wasn’t really his.
