In Scott v. Westlake Services, LLC, --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2013 WL 2468253 (N.D.Ill. 2013), Judge Castillo dismissed a TCPA class action as moot due to a full-relief settlement offer made before a class certification motion was filed. The facts were as follows: Westlake is a California business entity head-quartered in Los Angeles. (R. 6, Am.Compl.¶ 6.) Scott is a resident… Read More
Sometimes, bad facts don’t make bad law. In Gannon v. Network Telephone Services, Inc., 2013 WL 2450199 (C.D.Cal. 2013), Judge Klausner refused to certify a TCPA text-message class action brought a sex-line operator. The facts were as follows: Defendant NTS is engaged in the business of telephone entertainment, in particular pay-per-call “phone sex” and “SexText.” NTS operates approxi-mately 45,000 telephone… Read More
In Bridging Communities, Inc. v. Top Flite Financial, Inc., 2013 WL 2417939 (E.D.Mich. 2013), the Court held that a TCPA Fax case could not be certified due to individual questions related whether the faxes were ‘unsolicited’ under the TCPA. Fatal to Plaintiff's Motion is the fact that the Court fails to find that common issues predominate over the individualized issues… Read More
In Manno v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC, 2013 WL 2384245 (S.D.Fla. 2013), Judge Mola refused to reconsider his class certification of a TCPA class. Turning to a few of the matters raised at oral argument, Defendants complain that the TCPA class definition is problematic because it does not identify any parameters for determining when an individual is a “Florida… Read More
In O'Connor v. Diversified Consultants, Inc., 2013 WL 2319342 (E.D.Mo. 2013), Judge Sippel denied class certification in an FDCPA/TCPA case. Judge Sippel declined to certify an FDCPA ‘overshadowing’ class, finding that individual inquires predominated. However, a debt collector cannot use collection tactics that lead a debtor to believe he does not have any right to challenge the debt. Such a… Read More
In Blair v. CBE Group Inc., 2013 WL 2029155 (S.D.Cal. 2013), Judge Anello rejected a debt collector’s home-run FRCP 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a TCPA class action at the pleadings stage. First, Judge Anello found that debt collectors such as CBE Group might be subject to the TCPA, and Plaintiff’s Complaint had pleaded enough. Relying on extensive legislative history and… Read More
In Meyer v. Receivables Performance Management, LLC, 2013 WL 1914392 (W.D.Wash. 2013), Judge Jones summarily disposed of a debt collector’s efforts to dismiss a TCPA class action at the pleadings stage. From February 2012 to April 2012, Ms. Meyer received many calls on her cellular phone from RPM. RPM is a debt collector. When Ms. Meyer did not answer, RPM… Read More
In Newman v. GM Financial, Judge Sabraw issued an Order Denying Preliminary Approval rejecting a proposed TCPA class settlement in part on the basis that disparately situated classmembers with different damages claims would obtain the same settlement sums under the class settlement and, due to the claims-made procedure, it was unclear what that sum would be anyway. A class action settlement may be… Read More
Ed.: to my TCPA readers, this case has it all . . . In Jamison v. First Credit Services, Inc. --- F.R.D. ----, 2013 WL 1248306 (N.D.Ill. 2013), Judge Kendall denied a motion for class certification in TCPA case. Plaintiff was a convicted felon. He pled guilty in 2008 to access device fraud. Specifically, he was part of a scheme to steal credit… Read More
We previously reported on the Thrasher-Lyon v. CCS Commercial LLC case, and its interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Appellants have filed their opening brief here. Read More
In Cayanan v. Citi Holdings, Inc., 2013 WL 784662 (S.D.Cal. 2013), Judge Anello ordered TCPA class actions to arbitration finding that the Arbitration clause in loan agreements were not both procedurally and substantively unconscionable and that the TCPA claims fell within the language of the arbitration agreements. Plaintiffs Elsie Cayanan, Kimberly Baker, and Jesse McKay filed a putative class action… Read More
In Kristensen v. Credit Payment Services Inc., 2013 WL 686492 (D.Nev. 2013), Judge Dawson found that Plaintiff’s bald recitation of the elements of a text-message TCPA claim was sufficient to survive an FRCP 12(b)(6) Motion. Plaintiff's complaint alleges that Defendant Credit Payment Services Inc. (“Defendant”), directly or through its agents, caused or directed unsolicited SMS text messages to be sent… Read More
In Lee v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co., --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2013 WL 542854 (N.D.Cal. 2013), Judge Seeborg certified a TCPA-text message class based on the following facts. In this putative class action, plaintiff alleges that defendants violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 227 et seq. (“TCPA”), by sending unsolicited text messages to consumers' cell phones. Plaintiff seeks… Read More
In Balthazor v. Central Credit Services, Inc., 2012 WL 6725872 (S.D.Fla. 2012), Judge Cohn denied certification of a TCPA class action, finding the issue of consent to be too individualized. The Court finds the reasoning of Hicks and Gene & Gene, LLC persuasive. Resolution of each putative class member's TCPA claim would necessarily involve an individual assessment of whether each… Read More
On December 28, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Meyer v. Portfolio Recovery Services, 2012 WL 6720599 (9th Cir. 2012) denied rehearing of its previous opinion, but amended its opinion in the manner industry requested in its Amicus brief. (weblog post regarding decision: http://www.calautofinance.com/?p=3193); industry support for re-hearing: http://www.calautofinance.com/?p=3393)) Specifically, industry asked the Court of Appeals to… Read More
Industry supported the Appellant's Request for Re-hearing in the 9th Circuit's Meyer decision. Meyer AFSA/CFSA Amicus The 9th Circuit ordered the Appellees to respond to the Appellant's Request for Re-hearing. 9th Circuit's Meyer Order. Appellee's Response is here. Read More
In Agne v. Papa John's Intern., Inc., --- F.R.D. ----, 2012 WL 5473719 (W.D.Wash. 2012), Judge Coughenour certified a TCPA class action against PapaJohn’s pizza for advertising text messages send to thousands of consumers. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants violated state and federal law when they sent her and thousands of others unsolicited text messages advertising Papa John's pizza products. Papa… Read More
In Ryabyshchuck v. Citibank (South Dakota) N.A., 2012 WL 5379143 (S.D.Cal. 2012), Judge Gonzalez issued a rare decision applying common sense to the TCPA. Plaintiff filed a class action against the defendant under the TCPA arising out of confirmatory text messages that were sent to cellular phone numbers voluntarily submitted to Citibank via online credit card applications. Plaintiff had provided… Read More
In Meyer v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC--- F.3d ----, 2012 WL 4840814 (9th Cir. 2012), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a certification of a TCPA class action. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC (PRA) appealed the September 14, 2011 district court order granting Jesse Meyer's motion for a preliminary injunction and provisional class certification. Meyer's complaint alleged that… Read More
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in an unpublished decision, Grant v. Capital Management Services, L.P., 449 Fed.Appx. 598, 2011 WL 3874877 (9th Cir. 2011), that the Plaintiff need not plead consent as part of its prima facie case; the defendant bears that burden. The unpublished decision dealt with whether the District Court erred in remanding the… Read More
