AHMED HAMMOUD,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
EQUIFAX INFORMATION SERVICES, LLC,
Defendant,
EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.,
Defendant-Appellee. |
No. 21-2859 |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit.
No. 2:19-cv-13262—Mark A. Goldsmith, District Judge.
Argued: May 5, 2022
Decided and Filed: November 4, 2022
Before: COLE, BUSH, and NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judges.
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OPINION
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COLE, Circuit Judge. Mohamad and Ahmed Hammoud—father and son, respectively—filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions just over a year apart using the same attorney. Both
petitions contained their similar names, identical address, and—mistakenly—Ahmed’s social
security number. Although the attorney corrected the social security number on Mohamad’s
bankruptcy petition the day after it was filed, Experian Information Solutions, Inc. failed to catch
the amendment and erroneously reported Mohamad’s bankruptcy on Ahmed’s credit report for
nine years.
In 2019, Ahmed sued Experian and Equifax Information Services, Inc., alleging that each
had violated § 1681e(b) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to “follow reasonable
procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” of his reported information. 15 U.S.C.
§ 1681e(b). Equifax and Ahmed settled. The remaining parties—Experian and Ahmed—cross-moved for summary judgment, and the district court granted Experian’s motion. We agree with
the district court that Ahmed has standing to bring this action, but also agree that he cannot
establish that Experian’s procedures were unreasonable as a matter of law. We therefore affirm. |