Hinton v. Trans Union, LLC

654 F.Supp.2d 440

Kenneth HINTON, Plaintiff, v. TRANS UNION, LLC, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:09cv170.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

August 11, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Kenneth Hinton, Arlington, VA, pro se.

Grant Edward Kronenberg, Morris & Morris, John Willard Montgomery, Jr., Montgomery & Simpson, LLLP, David Neal Anthony, Troutman Sanders LLP, Richmond, VA, Mary Catherine Zinsner, Syed Mohsin Reza, Troutman Sanders LLP, McLean, VA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T.S. ELLIS, III, District Judge.

In this Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA")¹ suit, plaintiff, proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis, claims that defendant consumer reporting agencies violated the FCRA and Virginia state-law credit reporting laws, thus damaging plaintiff and entitling him to monetary and injunctive relief. Defendants move to dismiss plaintiffs first amended complaint, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), Fed.R.Civ.P., for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. By Order dated July 31, 2009, defendants' motion to dismiss was taken under advisement pending defendants' submission of a supplemental memorandum in support of the motion. See Hinton v. Trans Union, LLC, No. 1:09cv170 (E.D.Va. July 31, 2009) (Order). Defendants complied, and the matter is now ripe for disposition. Oral argument is dispensed with, as the facts and legal contentions are adequately set forth in the existing record and oral argument would not aid the decisional process.

I.

Plaintiff Kenneth Hinton, a Virginia resident, is no stranger to federal civil litigation. Indeed, a review of federal district court dockets² around this country reveals that since 2000, plaintiff has filed at least forty-three other federal civil lawsuits; three of those lawsuits remain pending,³ at least fourteen have been dismissed as frivolous or by orders indicating that any appeal by plaintiff would be considered in bad faith,⁴ and the remaining twenty-six have been dismissed without granting plaintiff any relief—often for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted.⁵ In those lawsuits, plaintiff has filed frivolous complaints against a wide range of defendants, including well-known corporations such as McDonald's, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motors, Avis Rent-a-Car, Bridgestone/Firestone, and Enron.⁶ For example, in 2001 plaintiff filed a complaint in the District of Maryland alleging that McDonald's violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by selling him french fries that were not, as plaintiff claimed had been advertised, "cooked in one hundred percent pure vegetable oil." Hinton v. McDonald's Corp., No. 8:01cv1400, at 2 (D. Md. June 27, 2002) (Mem. Op.) (dismissing complaint for failure to state a claim). Notably, in 2004 plaintiff filed an FCRA claim against the same three defendants he has sued here,⁷ and in 1994 plaintiff filed an FCRA claim against one of the three defendants in this case.⁸ In addition, plaintiff has previously invoked the FCRA in at least one other dismissed lawsuit⁹ and two lawsuits that are currently pending in other federal district courts.¹⁰ In sum, as one federal district court explained in denying a motion by plaintiff to proceed in forma pauperis, plaintiff "has a lengthy history of filing frivolous suits in various federal courts throughout the country" and has, "[d]espite [repeated] warnings, . . . continued to clog the federal court system with frivolous lawsuits." Hinton v. Supportkids, Inc., No 1:09cv284, 2009 WL 1650483, at *2 (W.D.Tex. June 11, 2009) (Order).

On February 12, 2009, plaintiff filed his original complaint in this case, claiming he is entitled to monetary relief because of various FCRA violations by defendants Trans Union, LLC ("Trans Union"), Equifax Information Services, LLC ("Equifax"), and Experian Information Solutions, Inc. ("Experian"). More specifically, plaintiffs original complaint alleged, inter alia, (i) violations of 15 U.S.C. § 1681b, by all defendants; (ii) violations of 15 U.S.C. § 1681e, by all defendants; (iii) violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1681g, by Trans Union; and (iv) violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1, by Equifax. As a result of these alleged violations, plaintiffs original complaint sought actual, statutory, and punitive damages of at least $380,000, in addition to costs and attorney's fees. Plaintiff also filed an application to proceed, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915, without prepaying fees or costs, which application was granted. See Hinton v. Trans Union, LLC, No. 1:09cv170 (Mar. 26, 2009) (Order). On June 8, 2009, Trans Union filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs original complaint, and on June 12, 2009, Experian filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings.¹¹

On June 18, 2009, plaintiff filed a motion for leave to file a first amended complaint and more definite statement, which motion was granted on June 23, 2009, by the U.S. Magistrate Judge in this case. See Hinton, No. 1:09cv170 (E.D.Va. June 23, 2009) (Order). Accordingly, plaintiffs first amended complaint was deemed filed on June 23, 2009. In his first amended complaint, plaintiff purports to "incorporate[] all allegations, claims, assertions, statements, and theories set forth or attempted to be set forth in the Original Complaint." First Am. Compl. ¶ 1. Plaintiffs first amended complaint also includes additional allegations, including (i) violations of numerous other FCRA provisions, namely 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681h, 1681i, 1681j, and 1681m; (ii) violation of Virginia credit reporting laws, namely Va.Code § 18.2-186.3 et seq.; (iii) a claim for unspecified injunctive relief; and (iv) a request for an order directing defendants to "[a]ccept and act on all communications from [p]laintiff's [sic] and any of his designated authorized [sic] representatives." First Am. Compl. ¶ 41(e).

Thereafter, on July 6, 2009, all three defendants filed the instant motion, seeking to dismiss plaintiffs first amended complaint, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. More specifically, defendants contend that plaintiffs first amended complaint is "completely devoid of specific factual averments to support his alleged claims and is insufficient to notify [defendants as to the basis of the claims asserted against them." Defs.' Mem. in Supp. 2. In addition, defendants seek in the alternative to dismiss plaintiffs claims for equitable relief on the basis that the FCRA does not provide for such relief. Plaintiff filed a response in opposition to defendants' motion, arguing that his first amended complaint properly sets forth a claim for relief under the FCRA. Alternatively, plaintiff has also filed a motion requesting leave to file a second amended complaint.¹² Plaintiffs proposed second amended complaint, attached to the motion, seeks wholesale incorporation of both the original and the first amended complaints. In addition, the proposed second amended complaint attaches a number of letters which appear to be credit denials from third-party vendors.

On July 8, 2009, defendants' motion to dismiss was noticed for a hearing at 10:00 a.m., Friday, July 31, 2009. On July 28, 2009, plaintiff filed a motion requesting leave to appear telephonically at the July 31 hearing, which motion was denied by Order dated July 29, 2009. See Hinton, No. 1:09cv170 (E.D.Va. July 29, 2009) (Order). On July 31, defendants appeared, by counsel, and plaintiff did not appear, nor did plaintiff file any motion to continue the hearing or otherwise setting forth good cause for his failure to appear.¹³ In the course of the hearing, defendants were granted leave to file a supplemental memorandum in support of their motion, and defendants' motion was taken under advisement. Thereafter, an Order issued reflecting the July 31 proceedings and advising plaintiff that defendants' motion to dismiss would be decided on the papers without further oral argument. See Hinton, No. 1:09cv170 (E.D.Va. July 31, 2009) (Order). Defendants filed their supplemental memorandum in support, arguing therein that in light of plaintiffs litigious history, an Order should issue enjoining him from filing any further lawsuits in this jurisdiction without first obtaining leave to do so. Accordingly, the matter has been fully briefed and is now ripe for disposition.

II.

Rule 8(a)(2) requires that a complaint contain "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Rule 8(a)(2), Fed. R.Civ.P. (emphasis added). Of course, a complaint cannot show entitlement to relief without referencing in some way the legal basis for the relief requested and the factual basis for the claim. Indeed, the Supreme Court has recently and sensibly declared that threshold dismissal pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) must be granted unless the complaint "contain[s] sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to `state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). It follows that to survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain "more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation." Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949. And in this respect, it is also true that "the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions." Id. (emphasis added). Thus, "[t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice." Id., quoted in Walker v. Prince George's County, Md., 575 F.3d 426, 431 (4th Cir.2009) (O'Connor, J.). Justice Kennedy succinctly summarized these principles by noting that

a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are no more than conclusions, are not entitled to the assumption of truth....