Facts

In October 24, 2019, Jaci Hutto and Jennifer Melnyk filed a lawsuit in the District of Idaho, alleging that Albertsons Companies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Albertsons Companies, one of the country's largest food and drug retailers, is affiliated with two other grocery store chains, Safeway and Vons. Prior to Hutto and Melnyk's suit, on June 6, 2019, Johanna Mathews and Sharmarray Ross filed a class action complaint in Alameda Superior Court alleging similar violations of the FCRA and the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) against Safeway and Albertsons. Safeway removed that case to the California Northern District Court and on August 20, 2019, those parties stipulated to dismiss Safeway's parent company, Albertsons, without prejudice. A day after Mathews and Ross filed their complaint, on June 7, 2019, another set of plaintiffs, Kendra Sullivan and Marianna Williams, filed a class action complaint in the Northern District against Safeway asserting, like the Mathews case, violations of the FCRA and ICRAA, but also included individual claims for the named plaintiffs for its case. The court thereafter related the Sullivan and Mathews actions and the plaintiffs in those two cases filed a consolidated amended class action complaint in the Northern District. On February 20, 2020, another similar complaint was filed by another set of plaintiffs against Vons and Safeway for violations of FCRA and ICRAA. As Vons and Safeway share the same parent company, Albertsons, and they all provided disclosure/authorizations that were essentially identical, there were now four related actions. The Albertsons action with Hutto was transferred from the District of Idaho to the Northern District in order to facilitate the settlement process. The Safeway action was the lead case driving resolution of the related Albertsons and Vons action as the Safeway action was filed first. After the parties in the Safeway and Vons actions settled, the parties in the Albertsons action used that settlement's constructs to reach a similar resolution.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs contended that defendants obtained consumer and investigative consumer reports on employees and job applicants without obtaining legally compliant disclosures and authorizations.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants denied all contentions.

Result

The case settled for $1,037,474.10.

Other Information

Related cases: *Sullivan v. Safeway, Inc*, Case No. 3:19-cv-03187-MMC, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and *Mathews v. Safeway Inc*, Case No. 3:19-cv-04261-MMC, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda and removed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; consolidated to *Kendra Sullivan, Marianna Williams, Johanna Mathews, and Sharmarray Ross, individually and as representatives of the Class v. Safeway Inc* Case No. 3:19-cv-03187-MMC (Consolidated) *Kysha Drew and Jeannie Jones, individually and as representatives of the class v. The Vons Companies, Inc., et al* filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California Case No. 8:20-cv-00347-DOE-JDE *Staci Gilman, individually and as representative of the class v. The Vons Companies, Inc. and Vons Sherman Oaks, LLC*, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California Case No. 8:20-cv-00681-DOE-JDE