In Konopca v. Comcast Corp., 2016 WL 1645157, at *4 (D.N.J., 2016), Judge Arpert found that the defendant did not meet the requirements to convince the Court to stay the TCPA proceedings pending the outcome of the ACA omnibus proceedings.
Third, the Court considers whether the stay would further the interest of judicial economy, and whether resolution of the appeal to the D.C. Circuit would substantially impact the present litigation. Defendant argues that two potentially dispositive threshold issues in this case are whether Comcast used an “automatic telephone dialing system” and had the consent of the “called party.” However, other than pointing baldly to the allegations in the Complaint, Defendant makes no showing that that there are specific disputes in this case that turn on the FCC’s ruling. For example, there is no assertion that technology used to place the calls at issue would qualify as an “automatic telephone dialing system” under one interpretation of the term but not under another. Absent such a showing, this Court cannot conclude that a stay of this case would further the interests of judicial economy. Moreover, as noted earlier, there are issues in this litigation that fall outside the scope of the FCC’s ruling and upon which the pending appeal to the D.C. Circuit will have absolutely no impact. This factor, therefore, weighs against entering a stay.