Donaca v. DISH NETWORK, LLC

303 F.R.D. 390, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19740, 2014 WL 623396
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedFebruary 18, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 11-cv-02910-RBJ-KLM
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 303 F.R.D. 390 (Donaca v. DISH NETWORK, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donaca v. DISH NETWORK, LLC, 303 F.R.D. 390, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19740, 2014 WL 623396 (D. Colo. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

R. Brooke Jackson, United States District Judge

The ease is before the Court on Dish Network, LLC’s motion for summary judgment; plaintiffs revised motion for class certification; and Dish’s motion to strike certain arguments and exhibits in plaintiffs reply in support of his revised motion for class certification. For the reasons discussed herein, Dish’s motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part. The other two motions are denied.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND CASE HISTORY

Many of us have at one time or another been annoyed by unsolicited telemarketing calls. In 1991, finding that such calls were a common nuisance and an unreasonable intrusion on citizens’ privacy, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”), 47 U.S.C. § 227. One significant provision of the TCPA made it unlawful for any person to “initiate” a telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice, also known as a robocall, without the prior express consent of [393]*393the called party. 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B). The statute created a private right of action for injunctive and monetary relief. A successful plaintiff can recover his “actual monetary loss” or $500, whichever is greater, for each violation, and the court can increase the award up to three times if it finds that the violation was willful or knowing. 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3).

The TCPA also directed the Federal Communications Commission to initiate a rule-making proceeding which resulted, among other things, in a rule that no person may “initiate” a telephone solicitation to a residential telephone subscriber who has put his or her telephone number on a national do-not-call registry. 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2). As with the prerecorded calls, the TCPA created a private right of action for injunc-tive relief and damages for persons who violate that regulation. Specifically, a person on the do-not call list who has received more than one unsolicited call within a 12-month period by or “on behalf of’ the same entity, and as to which certain exceptions do not apply, may recover his actual damages or $500 in statutory damages, whichever is greater. 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5).

I suspect that most persons who have received unsolicited telemarketing calls in the wake of the statute and the FCC rules have little knowledge of the private right of action and, in any event, have done nothing other than express their frustrations to family members or friends. Mathew Donaea is not such a person. He has made it his business, literally, to fight back. According to his deposition testimony [ECF No. 149-7], he considers himself to be a consumer rights advocate. He does regular research on telemarketers. He estimates that in 2011 he derived approximately 60% of his income from TCPA-related activity, meaning collecting money through settlements of claims he made against violators. Id. at 10, 12-13, 36-38, 82. He belongs to an email group of consumer rights advocates, many of whom deal in telemarketing, and through which he met his lead counsel in this ease. Id. at 86-89.

In the present case Mr. Donaea is aggrieved by nine calls he received between November 16, 2007 and March 25, 2009 marketing Dish’s goods and services.1 Mr. Do-naca initially proposed to represent a class of “all persons or entities within the United States who Dish either directly, or through its retailers or authorized agents, sent, or caused to be sent, unsolicited telemarketing calls promoting Dish’s goods or services, at any time within the four years prior to the filing of the instant complaint.” Complaint [ECF No. 1] at ¶ 66; First Amended Complaint [ECF No. 24] at ¶ 57.

Although in one or two cases the source of the challenged calls to Mr. Donaea was not clear, his complaint focused not on calls made directly by Dish but on calls made either by Dish retailers or by telemarketers retained by Dish retailers. Dish contends that it cannot be said to have “initiated” calls that it did not physically make, and that it has no vicarious liability for calls initiated by others. Complicating the second question was the fact that section 227(c)(5) of the TCPA, concerning violations of the do-not-call registry regulation, authorized suits based on calls “by or on behalf of’ the same entity, whereas section 227(b)(3), authorizing suits based upon unsolicited prerecorded calls, did not have the “on behalf of’ language.

When this case was filed Dish had already raised the “initiate” and “on behalf of’ issues in two other eases, and in both cases the courts had referred the issues to the Federal Communication Commission for its interpretation of the TCPA and the FCC’s regulations applicable to the issues. Charvat v. EchoStar Satellite, LLC, 630 F.3d 459, 465-68 (6th Cir.2010); United States v. Dish Network, L.L.C., No. 09-3073, 2011 WL 475067, at *4 (C.D. Ill. Feb. 4, 2011). Dish asked this Court either to dismiss this ease without prejudice or to stay the case pending the FCC’s resolution of those issues. [ECF No. [394]*39414, 15]. The Court for the most part denied the motion [ECF No. 47], but as a practical matter the case was stayed to the extent that various deadlines have been changed and the trial date has been continued twice.

On January 31, 2013 plaintiff filed its first motion for class certification. [ECF No. 102], He asked the Court to certify a class “consisting of all persons or entities within the United States who received unsolicited telemarketing calls promoting Dish goods or services, at any time on or after November 8, 2007, the date four years before Mr. Donaea commenced this action.” Id. Dish’s response was filed on May 8, 2013. [ECF No. 150].

On the day after Dish’s response was filed, the FCC released its long-awaited ruling on the interpretation of the terms “initiate” and “on behalf of.” The FCC ruling was released on May 9, 2013. In re Matter of the Joint Petition Filed by Dish Network, LLC, CG Docket No. 11-50, FCC 13-54, 2013 WL 1934349 (May 9, 2013). The Commission’s construction of the term “initiate” sustained Dish’s position that calls are initiated only by the person who physically places the call:

We conclude that a person or entity “initiates” a telephone call when it takes the steps necessary to physically place a telephone call, and generally does not include person or entities, such as third-party retailers, that might merely have some role, however minor, in the causal chain that results in the making of a telephone call.

Id. at *8.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
303 F.R.D. 390, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19740, 2014 WL 623396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donaca-v-dish-network-llc-cod-2014.