Court Rejects Plaintiff’s "Relation Back" Argument, Holds FCRA Claim is Time-Barred

Edwards v. Ocwen Fed. Bank, FSB, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6366 (D. N.J. Jan. 25, 2010)

Facts: Plaintiff brought claims against Defendant for violating the FCRA by improperly reporting her mortgage as a charge off. In February 2004, Plaintiff and Defendant entered into a discounted pay off agreement in connection with Plaintiff’s mortgage. As a result, Defendant began reporting the mortgage as a charge off to the CRAs. On June 24, 2005, Plaintiff first learned that the charge off was reflected on her consumer report. On June 22, 2007, Plaintiff filed a complaint in state court, but Defendant was never served. On December 11, 2007, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint. Defendant was served with Amended Complaint and subsequently removed it to the district court. Defendant moved for summary judgment on Plaintiff’s FCRA claim alleging that it was barred by limitations, the Court granted the motion.

• Statute of Limitations.  Section 1681p provides that an action to enforce any liability created under the FCRA must be brought not later than the earlier of: 1) 2 years after the date of discovery by the plaintiff of the violation that is the basis for such liability; or 2) 5 years after the date on which the violation that is the basis for such liability occurs.
• Statute of Limitations.  The Court rejected Plaintiff’s argument that her claim was not time-barred because such claim relates back to June 22, 2007, the date the original complaint was filed pursuant to FRCP 15(c)(1)(B). In order to for the relation back doctrine to apply, the Court must asses whether Defendant received timely notice of the occurrence set forth in the original complaint. The Third Circuit has interpreted the relation back doctrine as providing a notice period of 120 days after plaintiff files his original complaint. Applying this rule, the Court found Plaintiff’s FCRA claim time-barred as the Defendant was not provided notice of the dispute until six months after the two-year statute of limitations on her FCRA claim had expired.