In Abdullah v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, Inc., 2014 WL 4851760 (M.D.Ga. 2014), Judge Royal found that auto-dialed loan servicing calls to a residential land-line were not actionable under the TCPA.
Plaintiff alleges Ocwen violated 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B) of the TCPA by using an automated telephone dialing system to call her telephone line and leave recorded messages without permission. Ocwen’s telephone calls, however, are exempt from the TCPA’s prohibitions because Ocwen is the servicer of Plaintiff’s Loan and was contacting her in regard to her debt. Section 227(b) (1)(B) prohibits automatic calls to any residential telephone lines without the prior express consent of the “called party,” unless the call is for emergency purposes or otherwise exempted by a Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rule or order.FN11 One exemption is for any call “made to any person with whom the caller has an established business relationship at the time the call is made.” FN12 “[T]he FCC has determined that all debt-collections circumstances are excluded from the TCPA’s coverage.”