The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), which holds plaintiffs without concrete injury lack standing to sue in federal court, relies on federal constitutional and jurisprudential principles. Because federal standing flows from Article III of the Constitution, Spokeo does not control the standing issue in state court litigation. As a recent North Carolina trial court decision shows, however, federal Spokeo precedents can be persuasive to a state court judge faced with a class action in which the named plaintiff cannot allege or prove a concrete injury.

In Miles v. The Company Store, Inc., at al., No. 16-CVS-2346 (Alamance Cnty, N.C. Sup. Ct. Nov. 16, 2017) (slip op.) (unpublished), the named plaintiff (Miles) alleged that the defendants generated and provided a copy of a receipt revealing the first six digits and the last four digits of the credit card plaintiff used to make a purchase. Miles sought recovery on a class-wide basis for alleged intentional violations of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”) (see 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681(c)(g)(1)), which prohibits the display of “more than the last 5 digits of the card number . . . upon any receipt provided at the point of the sale or transaction.” Problematically, however, Miles did not allege the receipt was seen by anyone other than himself. Miles, slip. op. at 2. Further, although Miles alleged he faced an increased risk of identity theft, he did not say that he actually suffered identify theft. Id.

North Carolina Superior Court Judge Richard S. Gottlieb ruled that the allegations did not confer standing for Miles to bring suit in state court. Judge Gottlieb relied upon North Carolina appellate decisions and did not cite Spokeo. He did, however, cite to federal cases that relied on Spokeo. See id. at 3 (“This court agrees that the injury alleged here does not meet the concreteness requirement to establish an injury in fact in order to support standing.”).

Miles predictably argued that North Carolina required less for state-court standing than Spokeo and its progeny require in federal court. But Judge Gottlieb found the no-injury claims insufficient under North Carolina standing law just as under federal standing decisions:

Plaintiff correctly notes that the Supreme Court of North Carolina has identified some circumstances where standing is proper in North Carolina even when it would not be proper under federal law. However, standing still requires a plaintiff to allege such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness . . . sharpens the presentation of issues. For example, . . . a plaintiff c[an] maintain standing if they have [been] injuriously affected, even if they [cannot] show an injury in fact which is concrete and particularized. Here, Plaintiff has only alleged that Defendants provided him a copy of his own personal information, exceeding federal statutory limits. Since Plaintiff already has access to his personal information, this does not have an injurious effect or create any other personal stake in the controversy sufficient to assure concrete adverseness. Therefore Plaintiff does not have standing to pursue a claim.

Id. at 3 (citations and quotation marks omitted).

Miles might appeal the decision, which could result in a published decision on the issue from the North Carolina Court of Appeals or the North Carolina Supreme Court. In the meantime, defendants facing no-injury state-court class actions should consider carefully urging Spoke-type standing challenges wrapped in state law standing limitations.

Key Takeaway: Spokeo can impact the standing analysis in no-injury class action at the state level, when a state trial court is left to analyze state constitutional and jurisprudential principles. Accordingly, a defendant in a state court no-injury class action should marshal state law and consistent elements of Spokeo jurisprudence to mount the most effective challenge to state-court standing in such cases.