Tenant Can File Class Action Against Landlord-Tenant Reporting Company

Tenant sued a consumer credit company that prepared reports for landlords to consider when evaluating rental applications, and sought to certify the lawsuit as a class action. Tenant was unaware that she had been sued in housing court in 2002 after she moved out of her apartment. More than eight years later in 2010, a rental application by tenant was denied because of information supplied to landlord about the 2002 proceeding. Tenant claimed, among other things, that the company issued over 8,000 reports containing outdated information in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The company claimed that, at most, 95 consumers may actually have had their rental applications rejected because of outdated court judgments. The court ruled for tenant and allowed the case to go forward as a class action by all persons who were the subject of a consumer report, prepared within two years before the case was started, which contained either: (a) civil court action records filed anywhere in the country that didn’t result in a judgment and which were commenced more than seven years before the report; (b) a judgment arising from a judicial eviction proceeding in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, or Mississippi that predated a report by more than seven years; or (c) a New York judgment arising from a judicial eviction proceeding that contained no monetary award and predated the report by more than seven years.

Massey v. On-Site Manager, Inc.: No. 11 Civ. 2612(BMC), 2012 WL 3641367 (EDNY; 8/23/12; Cogan, DJ)