Stacie L. Linguist
Stacie Linguist represents clients in commercial litigation and government contracts matters. Stacie helps clients resolve business disputes, obtain government contracts and respond to government investigations. She has worked with clients in a number of industries, including financial services, insurance, health care, defense and technology.
View the full bio for Stacie L. Linguist at the Faegre Drinker website.
Articles by Stacie L. Linguist:
The United States District Court of New Jersey recently granted default judgment to Defendant Slack Technologies (“Defendant”) for its breach of contract counterclaim against Plaintiff Gino D’Ottavio (“Plaintiff”), who deliberately sent himself over 1,500 text messages but represented that the texts were unsolicited and sent improperly by Defendant.
In D’Ottavio v. Slack Technologies, No. 1:18-cv-09082-NLH-AMD, 2022 WL 15442211 (D. N.J. Oct. 26, 2022), Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Defendant for allegedly knowingly and/or willfully and negligently violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), 47 U.S.C. § 227. Plaintiff asserted he received numerous unsolicited text messages after signing up for Defendant’s service. Defendant denied Plaintiff’s claims and asserted that Plaintiff abused a feature on Defendant’s website. Defendant specifically asserted, “Plaintiff is a serial filer of TCPA claims who personally solicited 1,590 text messages from Defendant by entering his own phone number and clicking a ‘SEND LINK’ button in an effort to manufacture a lawsuit.” Defendant brought four counterclaims against Plaintiff: (1) willful and wanton misconduct; (2) common-law fraud; (3) breach of express contract; and (4) breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Continue reading “DNJ Enters Default Judgment on Breach of Contract Counterclaim in Manufactured TCPA Lawsuit”
The District of Connecticut recently dismissed a TCPA action against the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust (“Subway”) because plaintiff failed to allege that Subway used an ATDS to send text messages to her cell phone. Soliman v. Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust Ltd., No. 3:19-cv-592, 2022 WL 2802347 (D. Conn. July 18, 2022). The court held that “[t]he TCPA is clear: a device is not an automatic telephone dialing system merely because it generates random or sequential index numbers that are used in turn to select which numbers to call from a stored list.” Id. at *3 (emphasis in original). The ruling serves as yet another example of a dialing technology that does not meet the definition of an ATDS following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 141 S. Ct. 1163, 1171 (2021).
In Soliman, plaintiff alleged that she received a text message from Subway offering her a free bag of potato chips. Id. at *1. Plaintiff further alleged that she replied “STOP” to unsubscribe from the text messages but claimed that Subway texted her again a few days later. Id. at *1. Plaintiff subsequently filed a two-count class action lawsuit against Subway for negligently and intentionally violating the TCPA. Id. Subway filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. Id.
Continue reading “District of Connecticut Rejects ATDS Allegations in Complaint Against Subway”
