Consumer Finance

In Ghawi v. Law Offices Howard Lee Schiff, P.C., 2015 WL 6958010, at *3-5 (D.Conn., 2015), Judge Arterton denied summary judgment to a TCPA defendant, rejecting the argument that the calls were not to a cellular telephone so long as the debtor told the caller that the calls were routed to a a cell phone. All Defendants argue that Mr. Ghawi's… Read More

In Grind Lap Services, Inc. v. UBM, LLC, 2015 WL 6955484, at *3 (N.D.Ill., 2015), Judge Gettlemen granted summary judgment to a TCPA Blast-Fax defendant, holding that the fax was not an advertisement. According to an order issued by the Commission, “messages whose purpose is to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter… Read More

In Wright v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., 2015 WL 6941273, at *4-6 (C.A.10 (Colo.),2015), the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said that the CRAs employed proper procedures to determine the accuracy of public liens. As noted above, the CRAs relied on LexisNexis to collect information from the Recorder's office. LexisNexis employs a collector to retrieve information from the Recorder's… Read More

In Martin Valenzuela, v. Equifax Information Services LLC, 2015 WL 6811585, at *2-3 (D.Ariz., 2015), Judge Rayes disqualified Plaintiff's expert Evan Hendricks from testifying about much of Plaintiff's FCRA case, except whether Experian had reasonableness policies and procedures. Hendricks is qualified to testify about Equifax's “inner workings” and opine on the reasonableness of its credit reporting policies and procedures. For… Read More

In St. Louis Heart Center, Inc. v. Athenahealth, Inc., 2015 WL 6777873, at *4-5 (E.D.Mo., 2015), Judge Fleissig stayed a TCPA case after the Plaintiff rejected a Rule 68 offer of judgment based on the Supreme Court's decision in Campbell-Ewald.  After carefully considering the parties' briefs and supplemental authority, and weighing all of the competing interests in this case, the Court… Read More

In Estrella v. LTD Financial Services,  2015 WL 6742062, at *1-3 (M.D.Fla., 2015), Judge Whittemore granted summary judgment to a TCPA defendant who manually dialed calls by a "point-and-click" method. To succeed on his TCPA claim, Plaintiff must establish that Defendant placed calls to his cellular phone using an ATDS or artificial or prerecorded voice. The TCPA prohibits the use of… Read More

In Urban Elevator Service, Inc. v. Stryker Lubricant Distributors, Inc., 2015 WL 6736676, at *1-2 (N.D.Ill., 2015), Judge Shah found granted a Motion to Dismiss a TCPA blast-fax class action against one defendant who claimed that it was not responsible for the sending of the fax at issue. In response, plaintiff argues that—by pleading “Defendants” sent the fax—it did allege Sinopec USA… Read More

In Gossett v. CMRE Financial Services, 2015 WL 6736883, at *1 (S.D.Cal.,2015), Magistrate Judge Stormes followed her previous decision on a motion to compel in Thrasher v. CMRE Financial Services, since the same defendant was involved, and the same counsel were involved as in Thrasher.   The parties presented this court with a discovery dispute regarding CMRE's responses to Gossett's first set of… Read More

In Seungtae Kim v. BMW Financial Services NA, LLC, 2015 WL 6680911, at *2 (C.D.Cal., 2015), Judge O'Connell denied a new trial to an automobile finance company, against whom a $430,000 jury verdict was assessed.  The facts were as follows: On August 28, 2015, the jury rendered its unanimous verdict, finding in Plaintiff's favor on two of his three claims. (Judgment… Read More

In Crider v. Pacific Acquisitions & Associates, LLC, 2015 WL 6689391, at *3 (N.D.Cal., 2015), Magistrate Judge Cousins denied a Rosenthal Act plaintiff's motion for a default judgment on the basis that non-debtors are not protected by the Act. The Criders allege that Pacific violated the RFDCPA by threatening to call Ronnique's supervisor. Cal. Civ. Code. § 1788.17. To qualify for protection… Read More

In Slavkov v. Fast Water Heater Partners I, LP, et. al. 2015 WL 6674575, at *2-3 (N.D.Cal., 2015), Judge Tygar found that efforts made by a FCRA class action defendant were misleading, and ordered curative efforts to be undertaken. [Plaintiffs] challenge two letters sent by the Defendants to the putative class members, offering a settlement payment in exchange for the putative class… Read More

In Ramos v. Westlake Services LLC, 2015 WL 6605215, at *4 (Cal.App. 1 Dist., 2015), the Court of Appeal in an unpublished decision affirmed the denial of a petition to arbitrate because, apparently, the dealer gave the customer the wrong translated form of the RISC -- one without an arbitration clause.  "[T]he trial court found that while he had received a… Read More

  In Abella v. Mozea, LLC, , 2015 WL 6599747, at *4 (E.D.Pa. 2015), Judge Dalzell allowed a TCPA text-message class action past the pleading stage, based on allegations that Defendant SAC is a student loan consolidation and forgiveness service that offers assistance to consumers hoping to alleviate their student loan debt burden. Compl. at ¶ 10. Defendant Mozeo is an… Read More

In Roberts v. PayPal, Inc., --- Fed.Appx. ----, 2015 WL 6524840 (9th Cir. 2015), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment to PayPal in a TCPA matter based on a finding that the consumer had consented to receive text messages on his cellular telephone. David Roberts appeals the district court’s grant… Read More

In Salerno v. CreditOne Bank, N.A., 2015 WL 6554977 (W.D. N.Y. 2015), Judge Curtin sent a TCPA matter to arbitration, finding that the claim was within the scope of the arbitration clause and that the TCPA did not preclude arbitration. As set forth above, the arbitration clause of Credit One’s Cardholder Agreement is extremely broad, encompassing any dispute relating to… Read More

Severson partner Eric Troutman evaluates a series of ATDS decisions involving emerging tech companies that have been issued after the FCC’s new omnibus TCPA ruling. https://casetext.com/posts/rivals-defeat-tcpa-claims-on-home-turf-as-yahoo-takes-big-loss-in-the-third-circuit Read More

In Ramsey v. General Motors Financial Co., Inc., 2015 WL 6396000, at *1-2 (M.D.Tenn.,2015), Judge Campbell dismissed the Defendant's counterclaim for the debt in a TCPA action. Similarly, Plaintiff contends that Defendant's state law claim can be resolved without any consideration of whether Defendant violated the TCPA. The determination of whether Plaintiff was in default under the Contract in no way… Read More

In Connector Castings, Inc. v. Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, Inc., 2015 WL 6431704, at *2-3 (E.D.Mo., 2015), Judge Limbaugh allowed a TCPA class action past the pleadings stage.  He rejected the Defendant's argument that a Rule 68 offer mooted the class. Plaintiff contends that the offer of judgment was invalid insomuch as plaintiff had on file a motion to… Read More

In Dominguez v. Yahoo, Inc., 2015 WL 6405811, at *2-3 (C.A.3 (Pa.),2015), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit revived a TCPA class action against lawsuit, where Yahoo! had prevailed in the lower court on the basis that it did not have an ATDS. The only issue on appeal is whether a reasonable trier of fact could find Yahoo's system… Read More

In Brown v. Van Ru Credit Corp., 2015 WL 6220521, at *2-5 (C.A.6 (Mich.),2015), the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the granting of judgment on the pleadings in favor of a debt collector based on the allegation that a voicemail message left violated the FDCPA.  In Brown,  a Van Ru employee called Brown's business and left the following voicemail… Read More