Court Grants Stay in Dish Suit Class Certification Motion, Pending Supreme Court Decision in FCRA Case

A federal court won't rule on a class certification motion in a lawsuit against Dish Network until after the Supreme Court rules in a separate, related case before it. U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan, in an order filed Thursday in Ernst et al. v. Dish and Sterling Infosystems, upheld a Dish motion for a stay. She said the Supreme Court's forthcoming decision in Spokeo v. Robbins will likely clarify issues about who has Article III standing in the case, and similar questions are at play in the Dish suit. The plaintiffs opposed the stay, saying the Dish suit is substantially factually different from the Spokeo suit. But Schofield said "while it is possible that the Supreme Court will decide Spokeo in a way that supports Plaintiff's position or does not impact this case, the [Spokeo] question ... is broad enough to suggest that the decision will shed light on the contours of Article III standing in the [Fair Credit Reporting Act] context." The 2012 suit alleges Dish and background check company Sterling violate the federal FCRA in their use of credit reports to do background checks on prospective employees or subcontractors (see 1512160017). The Spokeo case also deals with FCRA violation claims.