FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A district judge has denied a motion to dismiss filed by a human resources company after it provided background checks to companies without authorization.
Senior U.S. District Judge John E. Steel denied a motion to dismiss Jan. 7 by Global Radar Acquisition LLC and Global HR Research that was filed November 2018 in opposition to actions filed by Shawana Sanders, Kenyatta Williams and others in U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division.
The initial complaint alleged Global HR should be held liable under Article III of the Fair Credit Reporting Act for "failing to obtain certain certifications required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.".
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Global argued that the matter should be dismissed under Article III of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure for "for lack of Article III standing. Specifically, the defendant asserted that the plaintiffs fail to allege that any of [the defendants'] actions caused the plaintiffs concrete harm that is fairly traceable to Global HR and its progeny."
Steel wrote, "The plaintiffs’ allegations are sufficient to “fairly trace” their injuries to Global HR’s actions. The plaintiffs allege that the defendant provided the consumer reports without the required authorizations [which the court accepts as true] in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Thus, the plaintiffs have satisfied this element of standing."
According to the suit, Sanders and Williams were employed with Naples Hotel Group LLC., but were terminated "based on the contents of their consumer reports [often called “background checks”] provided to the hotel by Global HR, a consumer reporting agency. "Although both Sanders and Williams don't dispute the reports, they do hold that Global HR "failed to obtain certain certifications from Naples Hotel Group required by the FCRA before providing the reports," the court documents sad. They added that their right to privacy was violated when Global HR compiled their personal, private and other sensitive information into a consumer report and furnished it to Naples Hotel Group.