The credit reporting bureau Equifax and a Florida woman have settled her lawsuit alleging her family suffered massive fallout because the company furnished mixed up credit information.
The settlement, in Tampa federal court, partially caps an emotionally fraught case involving a man who was incorrectly listed as dead on his credit report. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The case originated in 2017, when James Rennick, the father of plaintiff Michele Malverty, was trying to apply for a $125,000 home equity loan to aid his dying wife. Rennick wanted the money for home renovations and anticipated burial costs.
But Rennick said he had trouble getting the money because his Equifax and Experian credit reports stated he was dead.
Rennick’s credit information had merged with a New York man named James Palmer who died in 2016, according to Malverty’s lawsuit.
Experian EXPGY, -1.14% quickly fixed the problem — and later settled for an undisclosed sum — but Malverty and Rennick had a tougher time getting the Equifax EFX, +0.79% report corrected, court papers argued.
Rennick submitted Social Security Administration paperwork stating that he was alive, but the credit file still had information about a delinquent mortgage belonging to the deceased man.
Rennick never secured the home equity loan and his wife, Angela, died of cancer in June 2017 at age 68. Rennick sued in July 2017 and died less than a year later, at age 70.
The couple had to be cremated because burial was too expensive, according to the lawsuit. Malverty said Equifax “and actually destroyed their lives” during a 2018 deposition.
But lawyers for the credit bureau said Equifax quickly addressed Rennick’s disputes and handled the matter with due diligence. The sides had clashing accounts of how many times, and when, Rennick and Malverty started disputing the credit information. There also wasn’t any guarantee Rennick would have received the loan, even if the report was correct, Equifax previously argued.
Malverty’s case was nearing a trial date, but court papers show the sides reached a deal to end the case on Nov. 13. Middle District of Florida Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli mediated a settlement conference that lasted three hours, according to a filing that didn’t elaborate on the deal’s specifics.
Daniel Zemel, Malverty’s lawyer, declined to discuss the settlement. He also represents Palmer’s estate in the related lawsuit against Equifax in the Northern District of New York. That case is pending, he noted.
A separate “mixed file” case against Equifax went to trial in 2013 and ended with a $18.6 million jury award. The sum was reduced to $1.62 million in damages and $300,000 in legal fees during post-trial proceedings.
During that trial, an expert for Equifax testified mixed files could happen in 1% to 2% of all credit files. More than 200 million Americans are on file with at least one of the three major credit bureaus, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.
An Equifax spokesman declined to comment on the settlement.
Shares of Equifax are up more than 48% from the start of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.72% is up 19% and the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.64% is up more than 25% in that same time.