HALL v. HARLEYSVILLE INS. CO.

The opinion of the court was delivered by: J. CURTIS JOYNER

MEMORANDUM

 JOYNER, J.

 AUGUST 18, 1995

 BACKGROUND

 Plaintiffs, Thomas and Denise Hall, have brought this action under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1681t (1982 & Supp. 1995) (FCRA) and under Pennsylvania's tort of invasion of privacy.

  The Amended Complaint alleges that Mr. Hall was injured in the course and scope of his employment in 1990. As a result of the accident, Mr. Hall made a workers' compensation claim with Defendants Harleysville Insurance Company and Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company (collectively Harleysville). In the course of Harleysville's investigation of the claim, Harleysville and an employee, Defendant Kate Hinkle, allegedly sought both Mr. and Mrs. Hall's personal credit histories. To this end, Harleysville and Hinkle asked Defendant Loss Prevention Services, Inc. (LPCI) and one or both of its principals, Defendant John Ciaccio and Defendant Philip Olshevski, to run or cause to be run a confidential consumer credit report on both Mr. and Mrs. Hall.

 It is agreed that LPCI, Mr. Ciaccio and/or Mr. Olshevski arranged for Defendant COD Associates, Inc. to actually run the reports. COD obtained the reports from TransUnion, a credit reporting agency, and then copied and delivered the reports to LPCI, Mr. Olshevski and/or Mr. Ciaccio, who passed the reports on to Harleysville and Hinkle. As a result, the Amended Complaint alleges, COD, LPCI, Mr. Ciaccio and Mr. Olshevski have all become Credit Reporting Agencies under the meaning of the FCRA. In addition, the Amended Complaint alleges, at no time did either Mr. or Mrs. Hall give any of the Defendants permission to pull their confidential consumer credit reports, nor were any of the Defendants privileged to do so.

 Today, we resolve three separate motions for summary judgment on Counts One and Three. The first motion is a joint motion of LPCI, Mr. Olshevski and Mr. Ciaccio. The second is COD's, and the third is Plaintiffs'. Because Harleysville and Hinkle have not filed nor are the subjects of a summary judgment motion, this Memorandum will not address the merits or evidence concerning any claims asserted against them.

 STANDARD OF REVIEW

 In considering a motion for summary judgment, a court must consider whether the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, show there is no genuine issue of material fact, and whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). The court must determine whether the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-moving party. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202, 106 S. Ct. 2505 (1986).

 In making this determination, all of the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and all reasonable inferences must be drawn in favor of the non-moving party. Id. at 256. Once the moving party has met the initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, the non-moving party must establish the existence of each element of its case. J.F. Feeser, Inc. v. Serv-A-Portion, Inc., 909 F.2d 1524, 1531 (3d Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 921, 113 L. Ed. 2d 246, 111 S. Ct. 1313 (1991) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265, 106 S. Ct. 2548 (1986)).

 ANALYSIS

 A. FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT

 Count One pleads violations of the FCRA. Before any analysis of these claims can be made, however, this Court must resolve one primary legal issue; whether the reports that COD obtained from TransUnion and transmitted to LPCI, Mr. Olshevski and/or Mr. Ciaccio were Consumer Reports *fn1" as that term is defined in the FCRA. If they are not, then Defendants rightly argue that Count One must be dismissed as a matter of law.

  The FCRA was enacted by Congress to ensure fairness, accuracy, and privacy in the creation and reporting of Consumer Reports. 15 U.S.C. § 1681. To this end, Congress determined that Consumer Reports may only be released by a Consumer Reporting Agency under certain circumstances. 15 U.S.C. § 1681b. Moreover, Investigative Consumer Reports, a type of Consumer Report, can only be procured or caused to be prepared with notice to the Consumer. 15 U.S.C. § 1681d. ...