Moran v. The Screening Pros, LLC, No. 12-57246 (9th Cir. 2019)
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After plaintiff was denied housing due to disclosures appearing in a tenant screening report, he filed suit against TSP, alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), California's Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA), and California's Unfair Competition Law (UCL). The district court dismissed all but one cause of action and granted summary judgment on the remaining FCRA claim.
The panel held that the district court erred by concluding that the ICRAA is unconstitutionally vague as applied to tenant screening applications; the panel was bound by the holding in Connor v. First Student, Inc., 423 P.3d 953 (Cal. 2018), that the ICRAA overlaps with the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, which forecloses TSP's argument that the statutory scheme in unconstitutionally vague; and thus the panel reversed and remanded for further proceedings. The panel remanded for the district court to decide whether plaintiff stated a UCL claim predicated on TSP's ICRAA violations. Finally, the panel held that the FCRA permits consumer reporting of a criminal charge for only seven years following the date of entry of the charge. In this case, the report's inclusion of a 2000 charge fell outside of the permissible seven year window. Therefore, plaintiff stated sufficient claims under the FCRA.
Court Description: Consumer Reporting The panel reversed the district court’s judgment in favor of the defendant in an action under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and California’s Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act and Unfair Competition Law. After being denied housing due to disclosures appearing in a tenant screening report, Gabriel Moran brought suit against The Screening Pros, LLC. The district court dismissed in part and granted summary judgment in part. The district court held that the ICRAA, which regulates “investigative consumer reports,” was unconstitutionally vague as applied to tenant screening reports due to the ICRAA’s overlap with California’s Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act. The panel concluded that the district court’s holding was foreclosed by Connor v. First Student, Inc., 423 P.3d 953 (Cal. 2018), and The Screening Pros’ new arguments in favor of dismissal of the ICRAA claims were waived. The panel reversed and remanded to the district court to consider the merits of the ICRAA claims and to decide whether Moran stated a UCL claim predicated on The Screening Pros’ alleged ICRAA violations. Reversing as to the FCRA claims, the panel held that 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a) permits consumer reporting of a criminal charge for only seven years following the date of entry of the charge, rather than the date of disposition.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on November 21, 2019.
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