U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for Southern Florida in Fort Pierce referred defendant loanDepot’s motions to dismiss plaintiff Zachary Sawicki's Telephone Consumer Protection Act second amended class action and to strike his class allegations (see 2306050005) to U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe for a report and recommendation, said the Cannon’s text-only order Tuesday (docket 2:22-cv-14425). LoanDepot is seeking the dismissal of the “abandoned call” count in Sawicki’s complaint. Under the TCPA, a call is deemed abandoned if it’s not connected to a live sales representative within two seconds of the called person’s completed greeting.

Harley-Davidson Credit Corp. committed Telephone Consumer Protection Act wrongdoing that was “knowing and intentional,” and it didn’t maintain procedures “reasonably adapted to avoid any such violation,” alleged plaintiff Steven Lowe’s complaint Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-08521) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles. Lowe “expressly told” the company June 17 to stop calling his cellphone, said his complaint. But the calls didn’t stop, “and sometimes occurred three times in one day, and sometimes early in the morning,” it said. The Long Beach County, California, resident estimates the company called his cellphone more than 120 times since the calls began in November, it said. Nearly 10 pages of Lowe’s 22-page complaint are devoted to a line-by-line breakdown of the numerous calls he received. Lowe alleges the calls were made to a cellphone number that was listed on the national do not call registry since June 2019. Through Harley-Davidson’s conduct, Lowe “suffered an invasion of a legally protected interest in privacy, which is specifically addressed and protected by the TCPA,” said his complaint.

Vivek 2024, the presidential campaign committee of Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, seeks to stay Phillip Woods’ Telephone Consumer Protection Act case and transfer the proceedings to a different Arizona district judge, Steven Logan, said the committee’s motion Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-01958). Woods doesn’t oppose the motion, said the committee. The TCPA case that Logan is presiding over, Howard v. Republican National Committee (docket 2:23-cv-00993), “calls for determination of substantially the same questions of the law” as in the Woods case, said the motion. Both cases concern the same provisions of the TCPA, specifically deciding if a text message that includes a video file falls within the TCPA’s definition of an artificial or prerecorded voice call, it said. Both cases also involve political defendants, albeit different organizations, and both are represented by the same counsel from the law firm Holtzman Vogel, it said. The parties in Howard have fully briefed arguments for a pending motion to dismiss (see 2308250005), said the motion. “Keeping the two cases pending before different judges could potentially lead to conflicting judgments and substantial duplication of judicial resources as two different judges potentially draft opinions surrounding the same legal question,” it said.

Kohl’s inundated Kissimmee, Florida, resident Elizabeth Irizarry with daily prerecorded debt collection calls to her cellphone after she experienced financial hardship, and ignored her demands that the calls stop, alleged her Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint Friday (docket 2:23-cv-01324) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Irizarry’s lawsuit also alleges Kohl’s violated the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act with its incessant debt-collection calls. Irizarry has been “unfairly and unnecessarily harassed” by Kohl’s conduct, said her complaint. She suffered “concrete harm” as a result, including invasion of privacy, aggravation that accompanies unwanted collection telephone calls, emotional distress, “and numerous violations of her state and federally protected interests to be free from harassing and abusive debt collection conduct,” it said. Court records show Irizarry’s complaint against Kohl’s was the 88th TCPA action filed against the retailer since May 2011.

Dailylook, a personal styling subscription service, engages in unsolicited text-messaging to promote its goods and services, and continues to text-message consumers after they opt out of its solicitations, alleged plaintiff Amy Faler’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-00647) in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Cincinnati. Dailylook caused multiple text messages to be transmitted to Faler’s cellphone number, though the number has been listed on the national do not call registry since July 2005, said Faler’s complaint. The Warren County, Ohio, resident initially asked Dailylook July 7 to stop contacting her, and Dailylook immediately acknowledged the request, but it nevertheless kept sending her more text messages, it said. Dailylook’s failure to honor opt-out requests shows that it doesn’t “maintain written policies and procedures regarding its text messaging marketing,” it said. It also shows that Dailylook fails to give its telemarketing employees the proper training, and that it doesn’t maintain an internal, stand-alone DNC list, it said. Dailylook’s text-messaging spam caused Faler and her class members harm, “including violations of their statutory rights, trespass, annoyance, nuisance, invasion of their privacy, and intrusion upon seclusion,” it said. The text messages also occupied storage space on Faler’s and the class members’ cellphones, it said. Her complaint seeks statutory damages, plus injunctive relief, requiring Dailylook to comply with the TCPA’s DNC requirements.

Defendant Exact Care Pharmacy sends prerecorded messages to individuals’ phone numbers “without first obtaining the required express written consent,” alleged plaintiff Brenda Everett’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-01649) in U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Williamsport. The messages the Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, resident began receiving Aug. 8 included a prerecorded voice identifying itself as calling from Exact Care Pharmacy about “convenient, discreet, home delivery of your prescription medications,” said the complaint. Everett’s number has been listed on the national do not call registry since June 4, it said. The pharmacy’s unsolicited prerecorded messages caused Everett “additional harm, including invasion of privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass, and conversion,” it said. The calls also inconvenienced her and caused disruption to her daily life, it said. Because the defendant knew or should have known Everett and her putative class members hadn’t given prior express consent to receive the prerecorded calls on their phones, the court should treble the amount of statutory damages available to $1,500 for each knowing and willful TCPA violation, it said.

Plaintiff Ashley Talburt voluntarily dismissed her claims against Goldman Sachs Bank under California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said her notice of dismissal Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-00932) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Talburt’s March 2 complaint alleged the bank hounded her with at least 105 debt-collection calls, and the calls continued even after she hired counsel to tell the bank to stop. The case was stayed since mid-April as the parties sought to resolve their dispute through arbitration.

Plaintiff Heather Lee Minor’s class allegations of Telephone Consumer Protection Act wrongdoing against Apollo Interactive, an advertising agency that provides lead-generation services to businesses in the insurance industry, must be stricken because Minor’s proposed class fails to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, said Apollo’s motion to strike Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-00355) in U.S. District Court for Northern Florida in Tallahassee. Minor alleges she listed her cellphone number on the national do not call registry in March 2022, yet she received multiple text messages from Apollo targeted to named consumers she didn’t know (see 2308110002). Minor can’t establish an “adequately defined and clearly ascertainable proposed class,” said Apollo’s motion to strike. The premise of Minor’s claim is that she received several text messages but never consented to receive them while her phone number was listed on the DNC registry, it said. But her class allegations should be stricken or dismissed because her proposed class “fails to account for calls” Apollo made “with the prior express consent of the called party,” it said. Minor’s proposed class thus is “over broad and fails to satisfy the requirements of Rule 23,” it said.

The National Rifle Association’s political action committee motion to dismiss plaintiff Patricia Crawford’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint asks the court to “ignore the plain language that Congress used" in the TCPA that bars all unwanted text messages that include a prerecorded or artificial voice, said Crawford’s opposition Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-00903) in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix. Crawford alleges the PAC embarked on an unsolicited text message campaign, causing her and class members injuries, including invasion of their privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass, and conversion (see 2309120042). The motion to dismiss also asks the court to ignore “clear and controlling” U.S. Supreme Court and 9th Circuit authority, which says text messages are calls under the TCPA, and a text message that leaves prerecorded audio on a person’s phone, like the call alleged in Crawford’s complaint, violates the TCPA, it said. The NRA is leading the court into “reversible error” if the court heeds those arguments, it said.

The U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago should dismiss plaintiff Porsche Stegall’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint in its entirety because she still hasn’t “adequately alleged” a residential phone number was at issue in the commercial loan solicitation calls she claims to have received from New York Tribeca Group (NYTG) (see 2309190002), said the defendant’s reply Monday (docket 1:23-cv-02862) in support of its motion. Stegall’s amended complaint still alleged her number was residential but added the claim she used the number for “personal purposes,” said NYTG’s reply. Courts have said allegations like personal purposes don’t equate to residential use, and they’re “factually insufficient to state a claim,” it said. Dismissal in this case “should be with prejudice,” said NYTG’s reply. Plaintiff Stegall didn’t request leave to amend, nor does she indicate there’s “anything else she can allege,” it said. She already was given one opportunity to amend “with the benefit of knowing what arguments NYTG would pursue” in its motion to dismiss, it said.