CashCall Class Action Alleges Credit Reports Pulled Unlawfully

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Two plaintiffs have filed a class action lawsuit against payday loan servicer CashCall Inc. alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Plaintiffs Herbert White and James Hayes say defendant CashCall improperly acquired copies of their consumer reports in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They say CashCall got those reports under false pretenses and without a permissible purpose.

Hayes says he applied for a loan from Western Sky Financial LLC on Aug. 6, 2012. He allegedly received an email the same day from Western Sky with information about his credit score, creating the impression that Western Sky had requested his credit report.

But Hayes now says he has evidence that it was CashCall, not Western Sky that requested his Experian credit report on August 6. He alleges CashCall also procured his credit report from Decision Logic, another credit reporting agency. Hayes says he never authorized CashCall to request his Experian credit report.

White tells a similar story. He says that in May 2014 he requested a copy of his Experian consumer disclosure. That disclosure showed that Experian had provided Western Sky with a copy of White’s credit report when he applied for a Western Sky loan in November 2012, he alleges.

But documents disclosed in another lawsuit allegedly reveal that Experian provided White’s credit report to CashCall, not to Western Sky. Although White had ostensibly signed a loan application with Western Sky, he never authorized the separate entity CashCall to request his credit report, he now claims.

The plaintiffs accuse CashCall of obtaining their credit reports as part of a larger scheme to evade consumer protection laws. They say Western Sky and CashCall use an arrangement of different business entities to dodge usury, payday lending and consumer protection laws by claiming Native American tribal sovereign immunity.

Western Sky operates within the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, the plaintiffs say. The company allegedly held itself as an entity of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and as such claimed tribal sovereign immunity.

However, the tribe itself has no ownership interest in Western Sky, nor does it take part in the company’s operations or receive any profits from it, the plaintiffs claim. They allege that Western Sky was set up to act as the apparent originator of these short-term loans, while behind the scenes it was actually CashCall that was funding the loans.

In addition to the plaintiff’s class action allegations, White is also bringing his own individual claim that CashCall failed to conduct a reasonable investigation after White gave notice that he disputed the information CashCall had reported. He says that in October 2014, he wrote to Experian disputing information supposedly reported by “Delbert Services/Consumer Loan Trust.” Experian allegedly took that dispute up with CashCall, not with Delbert Services or with Western Sky.

Hayes and White propose to represent a nationwide Class consisting of everyone in the U.S. for whom either CashCall or Decision Logic provided a consumer report within five years of the filing of this CashCall class action lawsuit.

On behalf of the Class Members, Hayes and White seek an award of damages in an amount to be determined later, plus an award of attorneys’ fees and litigation costs.

Representing the plaintiffs are James W. Speer of Virginia Poverty Law Center; Kristi C. Kelly and Andrew J. Guzzo of Kelly & Crandall PLC; and Leonard A. Bennett, Susan M. Rotkis, and Craig C. Marchiando of Consumer Litigation Associates PC.

The CashCall Unauthorized Credit Report Class Action Lawsuit is Herbert White and James Hayes v. CashCall Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-00311, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.