A real estate firm headquartered in Cypress, Texas, “routinely violates” the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by delivering advertisement or marketing text messages to residential cellphone numbers listed on the national do not call registry without the prior express invitation or permission required by the TCPA, alleged Kellie Banfield’s class action Thursday (docket 5:24-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in San Antonio. The firm, Lone Star Buyers, also violates the TCPA by failing to identify the names of the individual caller and the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made and a phone number or address where the person or entity may be contacted, said the complaint. Banfield listed her cellphone number with the DNC registry in 2009, “and has maintained that registration through the present date,” it said. Yet starting Nov. 17, the San Antonio, Texas, resident received at least four text messages from Lone Star, each seeking to solicit her to use firm to sell her house, it said. Banfield didn’t recognize the sender, and wasn’t looking to sell her home, said the complaint. Lone Star “seeks to supplant the role of a traditional real estate agent” while providing the same services, it said. In exchange for doing so, Lone Star is “compensated by obtaining a homeowner’s property at a reduced price, and thereafter selling it at an inflated price,” it said. The firm also collects “motivated seller consumer data and resells that information to investors, including by way of executing assignment contracts,” said the complaint. Banfield didn’t give Lone Star “prior express invitation or permission” to send marketing text messages to her cellphone number, it said. She suffered “actual harm as a result of the text messages at issue in that she suffered an invasion of privacy, an intrusion into her life, and a private nuisance,” it said, She suffered additional harm “due to her frustration and difficulty in identifying the entity and persons responsible” for the unwanted text messages to her cellphone number, it said. Lone Star knew, or should have known, that Banfield registered her cellphone number with the DNC registry, it said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale directed plaintiff Kristy Beckwith and defendant Northeastern Health Group to agree on a mediator and to file notice of the selection of that mediator by Jan. 31, as is required under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16 and Local Rule 16.2, said the judge’s order, signed Wednesday and posted Thursday (docket 0:23-cv-62387). The notice will specify the place, date and time of mediation, said the order. If there’s no agreement on a mediator, the clerk will designate one “on a blind rotation basis,” it said. If mediation isn’t conducted, the case “may be stricken from the trial calendar, and other sanctions may be imposed,” it said. Beckwith’s Dec. 21 class action alleges Northeastern, a health insurance company, made telemarketing calls to residential phone numbers listed on the national do not call registry, in prohibition of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2312220017).
Plaintiff Misael Ambriz’s privacy complaint against Google should be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6), said Google's motion Tuesday (docket 3:23-cv-05437) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Google can’t be held liable under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) “for merely providing a software program -- the modern equivalent of a tape recorder” -- that Verizon uses for customer service calls, said Google's memorandum of points and authorities in support of the motion.
Comcast's Xfinity “waited weeks” to patch its systems against the “Citrix Bleed” vulnerability in the cloud service company’s software that led to an Oct. 10 data breach, said a negligence class action Friday (docket 2:24-cv-00258) against both companies in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
The Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation transferred four board of education class actions against social media platforms to In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, said conditional transfer order 26 (CTO-26) (docket 3047). The actions involve questions of fact common to the actions previously transferred to the MDL and assigned to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers for Northern California, said the order. The actions in CTO-26 are Board of Education East Prairie School District 73 et al v. Meta Platforms et al (docket 1:24-cv-00042) from U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois and three cases from U.S. District Court for Eastern North Carolina: Johnston County Board of Education v. Meta (docket 5:23-cv-00718), Wilson County Board of Education v. Meta (docket 5:23-cv-00720) and Clinton City Board of Education v. Meta (docket 7:23-cv-01672), it said. The actions seek to hold social media platforms responsible for rising rates of mental illness among U.S. school kids. The transmittal of the order is stayed for seven days to allow any of the parties to oppose the transfer.
Comcast and Citrix have the resources “to take seriously the obligation” to protect customers’ personally identifiable information (PII), but they “failed to invest the time or resources necessary to protect the PII” of Raymond Goodrow and class members who are victims of Citrix’s October data breach, said a class action Wednesday (docket 0:24-cv-60100) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Fort Lauderdale.
Meira Avauni Rawlings filed a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action “to protect the privacy rights of herself and a class of similarly situated people” to whom Bath Fitter placed telemarketing calls despite their phone numbers being listed on the national do not call registry, said her complaint Tuesday (docket 1:24-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. The TCPA’s “private right of enforcement” is critical to stopping the “proliferation” of unwanted telemarketing calls, said the complaint. Yet Bath Fitter, a marketer of bathroom remodeling products and services, “has long engaged in aggressive telemarketing,” and has settled at least one class action lawsuit involving telemarketing calls, the complaint said. Even after a judgment was entered against Bath Fitter, “it continued to engage in its aggressive telemarketing practices,” it said. Rawlings alleges she received at least four Bath Fitter telemarketing calls to her cellphone, though her number was listed on the DNC registry since June 2021. The North Carolina resident had never previously done business with Bath Fitter, “nor had she provided prior express written consent, or any form of consent,” for the company to call her phone, said the complaint. “Without having had the benefit of discovery to show otherwise, Rawlings understands and therefore avers that Bath Fitter is directly liable for the unsolicited calls because they were made directly by Bath Fitter,” it said. If some or all of the calls were made by third parties on Bath Fitter’s behalf, then Bath Fitter “is vicariously liable for those calls,” it said.
Moxie Robot, an AI robotics company, denies that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or that plaintiff Ethan Radvansky or his putative class members “are entitled to any relief whatsoever,” said Moxie’s answer Tuesday (docket 3:23-cv-00224) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Newnan to Radvansky’s Nov. 21 class action (see 2311220003). Radvansky alleges that Moxie delivered at least six promotional text messages to his residential cellphone after he had listed his number on the national do not call registry April 18. But Radvansky and the putative class members are barred from asserting their claims in whole or in part to the extent that the text messages at issue “were made with the recipients’ prior express written permission and/or consent and that consent was either irrevocable or was not effectively revoked,” it said. Radvansky also can’t assert claims under the TCPA against Moxie to the extent he or others “voluntarily provided telephone numbers for the purpose of receiving messages like those referenced” in the complaint, it said. Any claim for treble damages is barred because Moxie didn’t “engage in knowing or willful misconduct,” it said.
Carvana violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by “bombarding” consumers’ mobile phones whose numbers are listed on the national do not call registry “with non-emergency advertising and marketing text messages without prior express written consent,” alleged plaintiff Michael Cribier’s class action Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00094) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego. The California resident alleges Carvana sent him at least 10 promotional text messages, though his cellphone number was listed on the registry since December 2004, said the complaint. Carvana also “continuously and willingly” ignored Cribier’s requests for the company to stop sending him text messages, it said. Carvana “failed to establish and implement reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations in violation of the regulations prescribed” under the TCPA, it said.
The seven months Norton Healthcare waited between learning of a May 9 data breach in its servers and its Dec. 8 notification to affected patients deprived plaintiff Logan Aldridge and class members of the ability to “promptly mitigate potential adverse consequences” resulting from it, alleged Aldridge's class action Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00025) in U.S. District Court for Kentucky in Louisville.