The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed class certification in a case brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227 et seq. Pennsylvania-based distributor Lake City Industrial Products engaged Business to Business Solutions (B2B), a “fax-blasting” company, to transmit approximately 10,000 faxes advertising a pipe-thread sealing tape product. American Copper & Brass, a Michigan-based equipment wholesaler with no preexisting ... Keep Reading »
Telecommunications Class Action Articles
The latest class action developments and trends in the telecommunications industry, including news, key cases, and strategies.
Amended Class Definition That Excludes Putative Class Member Does Not Preclude American Pipe Tolling
The Eastern District of Michigan recently held that certain claims of a putative class member were tolled under American Pipe & Constr. Co. v. Utah., 414 U.S. 538 (1974), even though the named plaintiff had unsuccessfully moved for certification of an amended class whose definition excluded the putative class member’s claims. In 2013, Plaintiff Machesney filed a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) class action against Ramsgate Insurance Company in the Eastern ... Keep Reading »
Courts Reject Attempts to Pick Off Named Plaintiffs Via Offers Of Judgment
Following the Supreme Court’s 2012 recognition of concurrent federal and state jurisdiction over Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) class actions in Mims v. Arrow Financial Services, federal courts have issued numerous decisions addressing certification of TCPA classes that may be of broader interest to class action lawyers. (By way of example, see our May 20, 2014 post: Ohio District Court Strikes Impermissible "Fail-Safe" Class Allegations.) Two recent TCPA ... Keep Reading »
Speculative Expert Testimony Fails to Satisfy Plaintiff’s Light Numerosity Burden
The relatively light burden of proving numerosity under Rule 23(a) cannot be satisfied with speculative testimony, even if an expert does the speculating, says the Southern District of Florida. In a putative class action brought for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, plaintiff sought damages for receiving unwanted advertisements via text message by the defendant’s alert service. Plaintiff moved to certify a class of Florida telephone subscribers who ... Keep Reading »
Ohio District Court Strikes Impermissible “Fail-Safe” Class Allegations
In a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio struck plaintiff’s class action allegations because Plaintiff proposed a “fail-safe” class in which membership was dependent on the validity of the putative class member’s claim. A fail-safe class is impermissible because it includes only those who are entitled to relief. Either the class members win on the merits, or by virtue of losing, they are not in ... Keep Reading »
California District Court Finds Commonality Lacking Under Dukes Analysis; Denies Certification
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied certification in a false advertising case brought under California’s False Advertising Law (FAL), Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) and the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) because the plaintiff failed to satisfy Rule 23(a)’s commonality requirement. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant developed, encouraged, and promoted three Unlimited Download Websites that offered media titles for a one-time ... Keep Reading »
Further Affiant Sayeth Naught: The Import Of Personal Knowledge In Class Certification Affidavits
The Eastern District of Virginia weighed in on the split among federal district courts as to whether affidavits in support of or in opposition to motions for class certification must be based on personal knowledge. The affidavit in question began with the boilerplate predicate, “I have personal knowledge of the matters discussed below,” but the affiant admitted later in deposition that he did not. In fact, the affiant conceded that he simply signed a document prepared by ... Keep Reading »
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