The parties in Florida’s lawsuit to stop Smartbiz Telecom from transmitting illegal robocalls have been unable to agree on a mediator, and asked the clerk to designate a certified mediator on a “blind rotation basis,” said a filing Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-23945) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami. Patrick Crotty, Florida’s senior assistant attorney general, signed the request. U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez sent the parties to mediation in his signed Jan. 23 order, setting a Nov. 3 deadline for completing the mediation process. Trial in the case is scheduled to begin in the two-week period opening Jan. 2, said the January order. Florida’s Dec. 5 complaint called Smartbiz “one of the most prolific transmitters of illegal robocalls” in the U.S., alleging the VoIP company violated the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and other statutes, plus the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (see 2212060034).
None of the arguments from three remaining groups of defendants in an FTC robocall case withstands scrutiny, said DOJ’s opposition (docket 3:23-cv-00313) to the three motions to dismiss Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego. DOJ sued on the FTC’s behalf in February (see 2302170050) to stop a network of companies and individuals allegedly responsible for delivering “tens of millions” of unwanted VoIP and ringless voicemail phony debt service robocalls to consumers nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez for Southern Florida in Miami denied defendant Smartbiz Telecom’s Jan. 20 motion to dismiss Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) robocall complaint (see 2301230054), said his signed order Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-23945).
Defendants Vision Solar and Solar Xchange will pay the federal government and the state of Arizona $62,000 each of a $13.9 million suspended civil penalty to settle allegations they violated the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act and Telephone Solicitations Act, said a stipulated order for a preliminary injunction and monetary judgment Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-01387) in U.S. District Court for Arizona. DOJ brought the complaint July 14 on the FTC’s behalf, plus with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D), as one of five newly announced FTC enforcement actions against illegal robocalls and telemarketing fraud that marked last week’s debut of Operation Stop Scam Calls (see 2307180035).
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiff Clyde Cheng’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against former Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said the court's majority opinion Wednesday (docket 22-16170) from Judges Sidney Thomas and Morgan Christen. Judge Daniel Bress dissented. The FCC “reasonably concluded” the TCPA doesn’t apply to robocalls “made by federal legislators conducting official government business, including organizing tele-town halls,” it said. The U.S. District Court for Northern California therefore “properly dismissed the suit,” it said. The district court also didn’t abuse its discretion in denying Cheng leave to amend his complaint,” said the opinion. Amending the complaint amendment “would be futile” because Cheng hasn’t offered any new facts that he would add to an amended complaint to contest whether Speier’s robocalls “are subject to the TCPA’s requirements,” it said. In his dissent, Bress said it’s “undisputed” that the TCPA’s prohibitions don’t apply to federal lawmakers conducting their official course of business. But Cheng also sued Speier “in her individual capacity,” and “sovereign immunity” doesn’t bar suits “seeking to impose individual liability on government officials,” said the judge. The question, then, is whether Cheng’s suit “is properly characterized as an individual capacity suit, or one that is really against the sovereign,” he said. Case law shows Cheng’s lawsuit against Speier “is an individual capacity suit to which sovereign immunity does not apply,” he said. Cheng is alleging Speier “committed tort-like wrongdoing in the form of unwanted robocalls,” said the judge. He doesn’t seek a money judgment against the U.S. or Congress, but from Speier herself, he said. Since Speier no longer is in Congress, there’s “no risk that any injunction against Speier in her personal capacity would run against the sovereign,” he said. The district court “therefore erred” in dismissing Cheng’s TCPA claim against Speier in her individual capacity, he said. Bress favored limiting the 9th Circuit’s decision to that issue and remanding to the district court for further proceedings, “including its consideration in the first instance of any other bases for dismissal that Speier might raise,” he said: “That would include whether the TCPA extends to members of Congress in the circumstances alleged, as well as any personal immunity or other defenses that Speier would offer.”
Verizon removed to U.S. District Court for Rhode Island in Providence Wednesday a complaint filed June 12 in a state court in Washington County, alleging the carrier “harassed” pro se plaintiff Christopher Laccinole with robocalls for more than four years “for a debt he never owed.”
Another set of defendants among the network of companies and individuals accused by the FTC of delivering tens of millions debt relief robocalls to U.S. consumers via the Stratics Networks ringless voicemail (RVM) platform (see 2302170032) moved Thursday to dismiss the agency’s complaint. But, unlike the motion to dismiss a day earlier from Ace Business Solutions for failure to state a claim (see 2306090032), defendant Atlas and its top officers argue the case should be thrown out because RVMs don’t qualify as phone calls for the purposes of the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
U.S. District Judge George Hanks for Southern Texas in Houston set an Aug. 21 jury trial in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act case brought nearly three years ago by eight states against multiple defendants, said a signed clerk’s notice Thursday (docket 4:20-cv-02021). The states allege the defendants are responsible for billions of “abusive” robocalls to generate sales leads for goods and services including healthcare products and extended automobile warranties.
Avid Telecom “operates in a manner that is compliant with all applicable state and federal laws and regulations,” said the company in a statement Tuesday responding to the robocalling lawsuit filed earlier the same day by 48 states and the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges violations of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
VoIP service provider Avid Telecom “chose profit over running a business that conforms to state and federal law” by “assisting and facilitating” illegal robocall traffic on its network, alleged 48 states and the District of Columbia in a complaint Tuesday (docket 4:23-cv-00233) in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Tucson.