On March 25, 2019, PDR Network and Carlton & Harris Chiropractic appeared in front of the Supreme Court to present oral arguments discussing the issue of whether the Hobbs Act requires federal courts to accept without question the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) numerous orders interpreting the TCPA.
Southern District of Indiana Rules that Property Manager is Subject to Personal Jurisdiction Based on Text Messages Sent to the Forum State
The Southern District of Indiana recently held that it had personal jurisdiction over a company that had sent text messages marketing its Ohio properties to students in Indiana. Weiss v. Grand Campus Living, Inc., No. 18-0434, 2019 WL 1206167 (S.D. Ind. Mar. 14, 2019).
Court Dismisses TCPA Claim, Finds Plaintiff’s Arguments Waived
The Central District of California recently dismissed claims arising from allegedly unsolicited calls using an ATDS, finding that the plaintiff had waived her arguments by failing to address the defendant’s arguments in her response to the defendant’s motion to dismiss. See Hollis v. LVNV Funding, No. 18-1866, 2019 WL 1091336 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 2, 2019). The court found the dismissal justifiable given the plaintiff’s failure to plead her claim with specificity and her failure to cite to the specific portion of the TCPA that she believed had been violated. Id. at *5.
Continue reading “Court Dismisses TCPA Claim, Finds Plaintiff’s Arguments Waived”
Defendant Debunks Plaintiffs’ Reliance On FCC Order That Never Became Effective
A pair of new cases, one from Alabama and the other from Florida, has doubled down on the conclusion that plaintiffs cannot rely on the Report and Order adopted by the FCC on August 11, 2016 (the “August 2016 Order”) in asserting their TCPA claims, especially when the subject of the calls is debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States government.
Continue reading “Defendant Debunks Plaintiffs’ Reliance On FCC Order That Never Became Effective”
Conflicting Opinions Regarding the Validity of the FCC’s Pre-2015 ATDS Rulings
As our regular readers know, one of the central issues in the ACA International case was whether the FCC’s vague and expansive definition of an ATDS would withstand judicial scrutiny. The D.C. Circuit found that it did not. As we explained at the time, ACA International explicitly set aside the portion of the FCC’s July 2015 Order that pertained to the definition of an ATDS, and by doing so also implicitly set aside the FCC’s prior statements on this subject in prior orders. Continue reading “Conflicting Opinions Regarding the Validity of the FCC’s Pre-2015 ATDS Rulings”
Court Denies Class Certification in Favor of Fitness Club: Plaintiff Failed to Show Commonality in Her Claim Theory and Applicable Consumer Contracts
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently issued two opinions in one case—Powell v. YouFit Health Clubs, LLC—that highlight the hurdles that plaintiffs can face in demonstrating typicality, ascertainability, and predominance when TCPA claims purportedly arise from consumer contracts.
In Powell v. YouFit Health Clubs, LLC, No. 17-62328, 2019 WL 926131 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 14, 2019), Traci Powell alleged that YouFit Health Clubs had violated the TCPA by sending “dual purpose text messages.” Plaintiff claimed that she was a former member of YouFit and that, after she cancelled her membership and paid her outstanding balance, she received two text messages that stated, in relevant part, “YOUFIT BALANCE FORGIVENESS: Get 1 year for $99 . . . to clear your past due balance.” She claimed that the texts had falsely stated that consumers had balances due on their accounts and had been sent without their consent. Continue reading “Court Denies Class Certification in Favor of Fitness Club: Plaintiff Failed to Show Commonality in Her Claim Theory and Applicable Consumer Contracts”
Court Applies Wrong Lyrical Analysis—But Right Legal Analysis—In Setting High Bar to Recovering Treble Damages in Reassigned Number Case
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently entered summary judgment on the issue of treble damages, finding that there was no genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the defendant had called plaintiff’s cell phone number “willfully or knowingly.” Floyd v. Sallie Mae, Inc., No. 12-22649, 2018 WL 7144330 (S.D. Fla. Dec. 27, 2018). The case highlights the facts a defendant can develop to avoid a treble damages award, particularly in a case involving a reassigned number. Continue reading “Court Applies Wrong Lyrical Analysis—But Right Legal Analysis—In Setting High Bar to Recovering Treble Damages in Reassigned Number Case”
E.D. Pa. Court Dismisses Case, Finding That Fax Was Not An Advertisement
The Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently granted a motion to dismiss in a putative TCPA class action because the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that the fax at issue constituted an unsolicited advertisement. Mauthe v. Spreemo, Inc., No. 18-CV-1902, 2019 WL 342715 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 28, 2019). The outcome hinged on the specific content of the fax at issue. Continue reading “E.D. Pa. Court Dismisses Case, Finding That Fax Was Not An Advertisement”
Defendant in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC Abandons Appeal
As we previously reported here, last fall the court in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC, No. 14-56834, 2018 WL 4495553 (9th Cir. Sept. 20, 2018) purported to expand the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) by holding that an ATDS is any “equipment which has the capacity—(1) to store numbers to be called or (2) to produce numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator—and to dial such numbers automatically (even if the system must be turned on or triggered by a person).” (emphasis added). Continue reading “Defendant in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC Abandons Appeal”
Comment Cycle Begins for the FCC’s Proposed Amendment to Truth in Caller ID Rules
Yesterday, the FCC’s adopted Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to amend its Truth in Caller ID Rules was published in the Federal Register, triggering the commenting period deadlines. We previously compared the adopted NPRM with the draft document here and provided an overview of the proposed key provisions here. Comments on this NPRM are due by Wednesday, April 3, 2019, and reply comments are due by Friday, May 3, 2019. Commenters should follow the filing instructions provided in paragraph 40 of the NPRM. Drinker Biddle’s TCPA team will continue to monitor this docket and related developments as they become available.