District Court (Cal.) Certifies a 400,000+ Member TCPA Class

In Abante Rooter & Plumbing, Inc. v. Alarm.com Inc., et. al. 2017 WL 1806583, at *1–2 (N.D.Cal., 2017), Judge Rodgers certified a TCPA class consisting of potentially 500,000 putative classmembers.

Plaintiffs Abante Rooter and Plumbing, Inc., Mark Hankins, and Philip K. Charvat bring this punitive class action against defendants Alarm.com, Inc. and Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. (collectively “Alarm.com”) alleging four counts; namely violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) for calls made to (i) cellular telephones and (ii) residential telephone lines; and violations of 47 C.F.R. Section 64.1200(c) and 47 U.S.C. Section 227(c)(5) for (iii) failure to follow procedures for maintaining a list of persons who request not to receive telemarketing calls; and (iv) for calls made to members of the National Do-Not-Call Registry (“DNC registry”).  Now before the Court is plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. (Dkt. No. 85, “Motion”).¹Plaintiffs seek to represent three damages classes pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3). Specifically, plaintiffs define the classes as follows:   (1) Cell Phone Class: All persons in the United States to whom: (a) Alliance or its agents, on Defendants’ behalf, instituted one or more non-emergency telephone calls; (b) promoting Defendants’ goods or services; (c) to a recipient’s cellular telephone number; (d) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice; (e) at any time since October 15, 2013.  (2) Residential Class: All persons in the United States to whom: (a) Alliance or its agents, on Defendants’ behalf, initiated one or more non-emergency telephone calls; (b) promoting Defendants’ goods or services; (c) to a recipient’s residential telephone line; (d) through the use of an artificial or prerecorded voice; (e) at any time since October 15, 2013.  (3) National Do-Not-Call Class (“DNC Class”): All persons in the United States who: (a) received more than one call, made by Alliance on Defendants’ behalf; (b) promoting Defendants’ goods or services; (c) in a twelve-month period; (d) on their cellular telephone line or residential telephone line; (e) whose cellular or residential telephone line number(s) appear on the National Do-Not-Call Registry; (f) at any time since December 30, 2010.  On March 28, 2017, Alarm.com filed motions to strike the expert reports of (i) Anya Verkhovakaya and (ii) Jeffery Hansen and (iii) the declaration of Rachel Hoover. (Dkt. Nos. 98, 100, 102.)  Having carefully considered the papers submitted, the pleadings in this action, the admissible evidence, and oral argument held on May 5, 2017, the Court ORDERS as follows: the COURT GRANTS AS MODIFIED BY THE COURT plaintiffs’ motion to certify the three proposed classes, as described herein.³ The Court GRANTS defendants’ motion to strike the expert report of Jeffery Hansen. The Court DENIES defendants’ motions to strike the expert report of Anya Verkovskaya and the declaration of Rachel Hoover.