Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1766409.html
Timestamp: 2019-02-18 01:10:54
Document Index: 440890895

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 1681', '§ 34', '§ 1681', '§ 1681']

Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Kim McLane Wardlaw, and John B. Owens, Circuit Judges. COUNSEL Peter R. Dion-Kindem (argued), Peter R. Dion-Kindem P.C., Woodland Hills, California; Lonnie C. Blanchard, III, The Blanchard Law Group, Los Angeles, California; for Plaintiff-Appellant. Jason S. Mills (argued) and Alexis M. Gabrielson, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Los Angeles, California, for Defendant-Appellee M-I, LLC. E. Michelle Drake and John Albanese, Nichols Kaster PLLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Amici Curiae National Association of Consumer Advocates and National Consumer Law Center.
The panel held that a prospective employer violates 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A) when it procures a job applicant's consumer report after including a liability waiver in the same document as a statutorily mandated disclosure. The panel also held that, in light of the clear statutory language that the disclosure document consist “solely” of the disclosure, a prospective employer's violation of § 1681b(b)(2)(A) is “willful” when the employer includes terms in addition to the disclosure, such as the liability waiver here, before procuring a consumer report or causing one to be procured.
Syed has established Article III standing. A plaintiff who alleges a “bare procedural violation” of the FCRA, “divorced from any concrete harm,” fails to satisfy Article III's injury-in-fact requirement. Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, — U.S.—, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1549 (2016). However, Syed alleges more than a “bare procedural violation.” The disclosure requirement at issue, 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(i), creates a right to information by requiring prospective employers to inform job applicants that they intend to procure their consumer reports as part of the employment application process. The authorization requirement, § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(ii), creates a right to privacy by enabling applicants to withhold permission to obtain the report from the prospective employer, and a concrete injury when applicants are deprived of their ability to meaningfully authorize the credit check. By providing a private cause of action for violations of Section 1681b(b)(2)(A), Congress has recognized the harm such violations cause, thereby articulating a “chain[ ] of causation that will give rise to a case or controversy.” See Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549 (quoting Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 580 (1992) (Kennedy, J., concurring)). Therefore, Syed has Article III standing to bring this lawsuit. See Thomas v. FTS USA, LLC, —F. Supp. 3d—, No. 3:13–cv–825, 2016 WL 3653878, at *4–12 (E.D. Va. June 30, 2016) (holding that an improper disclosure under 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A) causes “a concrete injury sufficient to confer standing”).
M-I also argues that the statute contains an explicit exception allowing for the inclusion of a liability waiver, positing that a liability waiver is one type of authorization. But we need not speculate about how broadly Congress intended us to read the term “authorization,” because Congress told us exactly what it meant when it described the authorization as encompassing only “the procurement of [a consumer] report.” 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(ii). Further, even assuming the statute were not as clear as it is, M-I's interpretation is inconsistent with the plain meaning of the term “authorize.” To authorize is to “grant authority or power to.” American Heritage Dictionary 120. To waive is to “give up ․ voluntarily” or “relinquish.” Id. at 1947. Authorization bestows, whereas waiver abdicates. A consumer may authorize the procurement of a consumer report or waive an employer's liability, but he may not “authorize” a “waiver.” We decline to so harry the English language. See Int'l Primate Prot. League v. Adm'rs of Tulane Educ. Fund, 500 U.S. 72, 82 (1991). We thus reject M-I's argument that the statute somehow explicitly permits the inclusion of a liability waiver on the disclosure document.4
M-I also contends that its interpretation of the statute is objectively reasonable in light of the dearth of guidance from federal appellate courts and administrative agencies. No court of appeals has spoken to the issue of whether a disclosure document provided pursuant to Section 1681b(b)(2)(A) may permissibly include a liability waiver. Nor has an administrative agency promulgated authoritative guidance on the issue.5
Here, however, the term we are called upon to construe is not subject to a range of plausible interpretations. To the contrary, 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A) unambiguously forecloses the inclusion of a liability waiver in a disclosure document. Thus, we need not consider M-I's subjective interpretation of the FCRA in determining whether it acted in reckless disregard of the statutory language, and therefore willfully. Indeed, M-I concedes that this question may be resolved purely as a matter of law.6 Because the statute unambiguously bars M-I's interpretation, whether or not M-I actually believed that its interpretation was correct is immaterial. See Reardon v. ClosetMaid Corp., No. 2:08–cv–01730, 2013 WL 6231606, at *11 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 2, 2013) (holding that there was “no issue of material fact” about whether defendant violated 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A) willfully and granting plaintiff summary judgment).7 Notwithstanding that we are the first federal appellate court to construe Section 1681b(b)(2)(A), this is not a “borderline case.” See Cortez, 617 F.3d at 722. An employer “whose conduct is first examined under [a] section of the Act should not receive a pass because the issue has never been decided.” Id.
C. The complaint's factualallegations precludedismissalon statute of limitations grounds.
4. M-I's argument that the legislative history supports its interpretation of the statute is also misguided. M-I's reading is in fact inconsistent with Congress's intent, because the inclusion of a liability waiver tends to distract from the disclosure's clarity. In any event, “it is well-settled that ‘reference to legislative history is inappropriate when the text of the statute is unambiguous.’ ” United States v. Sioux, 362 F.3d 1241, 1246 (9th Cir. 2004). Thus, we look no further than the statutory text.
5. The FTC has released three informal staff opinion letters relevant to the issue at hand, each supporting Syed's interpretation of Section 1681b(b)(2)(A). See FTC, Opinion Letter, 1997 WL 33791227, at *1 (Oct. 21, 1997) (“[The] document should include nothing more than the disclosure and the authorization for obtaining a consumer report.”); FTC, Opinion Letter, 1998 WL 34323748, at *2 (Feb. 11, 1998) (disclosure may describe the “nature of the consumer reports” it covers, but otherwise should “not be encumbered with extraneous information”); FTC, Opinion Letter, 1998 WL 34323756, at *1 (June 12, 1998) (inclusion of a waiver in a disclosure form violates Section 1681b(b)(2)(A)). However, informal opinion letters do not constitute authoritative guidance. See Safeco, 551 U.S. at 70 n.19. Therefore, we do not rely on them here.
6. In Safeco, the Supreme Court did not foreclose the possibility that a party's subjective interpretation of the FCRA may be relevant in some circumstances. 551 U.S. at 70 n.20; see also In re Seagate Tech., LLC, 497 F.3d 1360, 1384 (Fed. Cir. 2007), abrogated on other grounds by Halo Elecs., Inc. v. Pulse Elecs., Inc., —U.S.—, 136 S. Ct. 1923 (2016) (a FCRA defendant's “subjective beliefs may become relevant ․ if [the plaintiff] successfully makes [a] showing of objective unreasonableness”). However, where a party's action violates an unambiguous statutory requirement, that fact alone may be sufficient to conclude that its violation is reckless, and therefore willful. We observe that, in tort law, from which the Safeco Court drew its interpretation of willfulness under the FCRA, recklessness may be determined by objective evidence alone. Keeton et al., supra, § 34 at 213–14.
7. We are persuaded by the opinions of a number of other district courts rejecting the argument that a prospective employer's inclusion of a liability waiver in a disclosure made pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A) was not willful as a matter of law. Harris v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., 114 F. Supp. 3d 868, 870–71 (N.D. Cal. 2015); Speer v. Whole Foods Mkt. Grp., Inc., No. 8:14–cv–3035–T–26TBM, 2015 WL 1456981, at *3 (M.D. Fla. March 30, 2015); Avila v. NOW Health Grp., Inc., No. 14 C 1551, 2014 WL 3537825, at *3 (N.D. Ill. July 17, 2014); see also Ramirez v. Midwest Airlines, Inc., 537 F. Supp. 2d 1161, 1171 (D. Kan. 2008) (holding that defendant could not avoid liability for willful violation as a matter of law under the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(g), because there was “no plausible alternative reading of the statute in the foundation of the statutory text”). For the reasons described in Part IV.A.4, we disagree with the contrary analysis of the court in Smith, 2012 WL 3645324, at *6.