As reported by Law 360,

The Eighth Circuit tossed a suit Tuesday that accused a data center of breaking federal credit reporting law when it rescinded a job offer based on a background check that found a criminal conviction, sending the case to Missouri state court.

The three-judge panel said in its decision that Ria Schumacher has not demonstrated that she was harmed by SC Data Center LLC’s decision to revoke the job offer, nor does she dispute the veracity of the background check. Therefore, the panel said a district court’s ruling that she has standing under the Fair Credit Reporting Act must be reversed.

Writing for the Court, Judge Ralph R. Erickson wrote that “Neither the text of the FCRA nor the legislative history provide support for Schumacher’s claim that she has a right under the FCRA to not only receive a copy of her consumer report, but also discuss directly with the employer accurate but negative information within the report prior to the employer taking adverse action.”

Law 360 added,

U.S. Circuit Judge Jane Kelly wrote in a concurring opinion that she agrees that Schumacher has not shown she experienced a concrete injury and that a dispute about information in a credit report is necessary to have standing under the FCRA. She noted, however, that the panel’s opinion goes no further than that, as the scope of a plaintiff’s right under the FCRA “is a merits question not before this court.”

She wrote that “[I]t does not create a heightened burden for standing in the context of the FCRA or rule out standing in any case where there is an alleged dispute over the information contained in the report and the report is not properly disclosed,”

The case is Schumacher v. SC Data Center Inc., U.S.C.A. (8th Cir., No. 19-3266). The 8th Cir. panel was U.S. Circuit Judges Jane Kelly, Ralph R. Erickson, and L. Steven Grasz. Schumacher is represented by C. Jason Brown and Jayson A. Watkins of Brown & Watkins LLC. SC Data Center Inc. is represented by Amy O. Bruchs of Michael Best & Friedrich.