On February 12, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant credit union and dismissed all claims with prejudice. The dispute arose from three delinquent accounts — a motor vehicle loan, a line of credit, and a credit card — purportedly held by the plaintiff, a former member of the credit union. After the credit union sued to recover missed payments, the parties reached a settlement in 2022. The former member contended that the settlement required deletion of tradelines for all three accounts to prevent negative credit reporting, while the credit union maintained it applied only to one account. The plaintiff then sued, alleging the credit union: (i) violated the Texas Fair Debt Collection Act; (ii) violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act; (iii) committed fraud; (iv) engaged in negligent misrepresentation; and (v) violated the FCRA.

The opinion noted that the settlement agreement was not provided to the court, leaving the evidentiary record limited to a handful of emails between counsel and a credit union employee. Based on the evidence provided, the court found no evidence supporting any of the former member’s claims. On the FCRA claim, the judge noted that the plaintiff provided no proof that a credit reporting dispute or investigation occurred. The court also observed that the emails referred to deletion of “the tradeline” in singular form rather than in the plural form. Without evidence in the record supporting the plaintiff’s claims, the court denied as moot the credit union’s motion to excuse mediation and granted its motion to dismiss all claims.