Daisy, Inc. v. Mobile Mini Dealer, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedSeptember 24, 2020
Docket2:20-cv-00017
StatusUnknown

This text of Daisy, Inc. v. Mobile Mini Dealer, Inc. (Daisy, Inc. v. Mobile Mini Dealer, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daisy, Inc. v. Mobile Mini Dealer, Inc., (M.D. Fla. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA FORT MYERS DIVISION

DAISY, INC., a Florida corporation, individually and as the representative of a class of similarly-situated persons

Plaintiff,

v. Case No.: 2:20-cv-17-FtM-38MRM

MOBILE MINI, INC.,

Defendant. / OPINION AND ORDER1 Before the Court is Defendant Mobile Mini, Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 38), Plaintiff Daisy, Inc.’s response in opposition (Doc. 58), and Mobile Mini’s reply (Doc. 70). The Court grants the Motion in part. BACKGROUND This is a junk fax case. Mobile Mini sent one unwanted ad to Daisy’s fax number. Daisy, however, receives faxes through an online service (“Vonage”). Vonage acts as a sort of middleman, collecting then sending Daisy its faxes attached to e-mails. The e- mail at issue read, “You have received a document. Sender’s Caller ID: Restricted Date/Time: 12/18/2019 04:49:00 PM Number of Pages: 1.” (Doc. 38-2 at 2). And attached as a PDF was the advertisement below:

1 Disclaimer: Documents hyperlinked to CM/ECF are subject to PACER fees. By using hyperlinks, the Court does not endorse, recommend, approve, or guarantee any third parties or the services or products they provide, nor does it have any agreements with them. The Court is also not responsible for a hyperlink’s availability and functionality, and a failed hyperlink does not affect this Order. Container sie Dimensions (Feet) Weight Limi (ibs)

wessonrte suse mobile mini (Doc. 1-1 at 2). Daisy brought a class-action Complaint for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). (Doc. 1). Mobile Mini moves for summary judgment on the merits and for lack of standing. As a threshold jurisdictional issue, the Court must consider standing first. Stee! Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 101-02 (1998). Because the analysis ends there, the Court need not reach the merits. Gardner v. Mutz, 962 F.3d 1329, 1338-40 (11th Cir. 2020). LEGAL STANDARD The parties dispute whether the motion to dismiss or summary judgment standard should apply. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(1) challenges a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. Under Rule 56(a), summary judgment is proper if “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

Given the facts and briefing, the result is the same regardless of which applies. Each side offers extrinsic evidence, so the jurisdictional challenge is a factual attack if Rule 12(b)(1) controls. Morrison v. Amway Corp., 323 F.3d 920, 924 n.5 (11th Cir. 2003). Under either Rule 56 or 12(b)(1) (on a factual challenge), the Court considers matters

outside the pleadings. Nat’l Parks Conservation Ass’n v. Norton, 324 F.3d 1229, 1242 (11th Cir. 2003). There are differences between those standards. Odyssey Marine Exp., Inc. v. Unidentified Shipwrecked Vessel, 657 F.3d 1159, 1169 (11th Cir. 2011). For instance, a 12(b)(1) factual attack, which Daisy argues for, gives a district court fact- finding power it does not possess at summary judgment. Morrison, 323 F.3d at 925. Likewise, “the manner and degree of evidence required at the successive stages of the litigation” applies to standing. Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561 (1992). At summary judgment, therefore, a plaintiff “can no longer rest on mere allegations, but must set forth by affidavit or other evidence specific facts.” Clapper v. Amnesty Int’l USA, 568 U.S. 398, 412 (2013) (alteration accepted, internal quotation marks omitted, and citation

omitted). Even so, the parties here agree on all the relevant jurisdictional facts, which are separate from the merits, and simply dispute whether Daisy has Article III standing. So the result here is the same under either standard: dismissal without prejudice because Daisy lacks standing. See Gardner, 962 F.3d at 1343 & n.11; Sheely v. MRI Radiology Network, P.A., 505 F.3d 1173, 1182 (11th Cir. 2007). ANALYSIS Federal courts can only hear “Cases” or “Controversies” U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. From that limitation, the standing doctrine grew. Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1547 (2016). “The doctrine limits the category of litigants empowered to maintain a lawsuit in federal court.” Id. And in the process, standing ensures courts respect the separation-of-powers boundaries set out in the Constitution. Clapper, 568 U.S. at 408. To have standing, every plaintiff must show injury, causation, and redressability. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560-61. But those three simple words are sometimes trickier to apply

than it might seem, thrusting standing into the legal limelight these days. The difficulty is sometimes most apparent when it comes to “the ‘first and foremost’ of standing’s three elements”—injury in fact. See Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1547 (alteration accepted) (quoting Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 103). Actionable injury in fact means plaintiff experienced “an invasion of a legally protected interest.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560. This injury must be (1) “concrete and particularized” and (2) “actual or imminent, not ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical.’” Id. (citation omitted). Only concreteness is at issue. An injury is concrete if it is “de facto” (i.e., “it must actually exist” and be “real,” “not ‘abstract’”). Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1548 (citations omitted). The “bare procedural violation” of a statute, however, is not enough, even if

Congress prescribed a cause of action. Id. at 1549. In other words, the Supremes “rejected the premise . . . that ‘a plaintiff automatically satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement whenever a statute grants a person a statutory right and purports to authorize that person to sue to vindicate that right.” Frank v. Gaos, 139 S. Ct. 1041, 1045 (2019) (quoting Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549). So regardless of any TCPA violation, Daisy must show Mini Mobile’s fax caused a concrete harm. Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549. Importantly, it is undisputed Daisy received the fax by e-mail, not a fax machine. That distinguishes this case from others where the Eleventh Circuit found concrete injuries based on plaintiffs’ occupied fax machines and their lines or imposed printing costs.2 Palm Beach Golf Ctr.-Boca, Inc. v. John G. Sarris, D.D.S., P.A., 781 F.3d 1245, 1252-53 (11th Cir. 2015); Florence Endocrine Clinic, PLLC v. Arriva Med., LLC, 858 F.3d 1362, 1366 (11th Cir. 2017). Likewise, almost every junk fax case Daisy cites differs because such injuries were present. If this were a regular fax case (like those situations)

Daisy would have standing. See, e.g., Bobo Drug’s, Inc. v. Fagron, Inc., 314 F. Supp. 3d 1240, 1243-44 (M.D. Fla. 2018). But this case is different. Because Daisy cannot claim those injuries, it alleges only an intangible harm of wasted time. Specifically, a Daisy employee wasted one minute reviewing the fax, deciding it was junk, and dragging the e-mail to his spam folder. (Doc. 60).

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Daisy, Inc. v. Mobile Mini Dealer, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daisy-inc-v-mobile-mini-dealer-inc-flmd-2020.