The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA); Statute of limitations; 15 USC § 1681p; Applicability of the FCRA; Commercial business transactions; Bacharach v Suntrust Mtg, Inc (5th Cir)

Holding that plaintiff-Thorpe’s FCRA claim was time-barred and that the FCRA did not apply in this case, which involved his seeking a commercial loan from defendant-bank (EMB), the court affirmed summary disposition for EMB. “When EMB ‘pulled’ Thorpe’s credit report, his credit score was reported as low. As such, EMB required a cosigner for the loan. This upset Thorpe, who maintained that he did not authorize EMB to request his credit report at the time that EMB did so.” He obtained “a loan from another lender. Approximately three years later,” he filed this suit alleging, among other things, that EMB violated the FCRA. On appeal, while the parties did not raise the issue, the court concluded that “Thorpe’s FCRA claim was time-barred” under § 1681p. Further, a consumer report is defined as “a report used to establish credit eligibility ‘primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.’” The court quoted a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled “FCRA does not cover reports used or expected to be used only in connection with commercial business transactions.’” In this case, Thorpe alleged, among other things, that he sought the loan to buy a drive-in theater, “that he used a commercial realtor for the transaction, he lost revenue as a result of the delay in purchasing the property, team members left the project because of the delay, and his reputation in the industry suffered.” While he asserted there is “a ‘mixed-purpose’ exception to the FCRA’s inapplicability to commercial transactions, his complaint fails to allege that his purchase of the drive-in theater was for any reason other than commercial purposes. Accordingly, the trial court properly dismissed Thorpe’s FCRA claim under MCR 2.116(C)(8).”