Kaye v. Amicus Mediation & Arbitration Group, Inc.

300 F.R.D. 67, 88 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1002, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72377, 2014 WL 2207431
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedMay 28, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 3:13-CV-347 (JCH)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 300 F.R.D. 67 (Kaye v. Amicus Mediation & Arbitration Group, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kaye v. Amicus Mediation & Arbitration Group, Inc., 300 F.R.D. 67, 88 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1002, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72377, 2014 WL 2207431 (D. Conn. 2014).

Opinion

AMENDED RULING RE: DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS (Doc. No. 58) AND PLAINTIFFS’ AMENDED MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION (Doc. No. 60)1

JANET C. HALL, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Roger H. Kaye and Roger H. Kaye, MD PC (collectively, “plaintiffs”) bring this action against defendants Amicus Mediation & Arbitration Group, Inc. (“Amicus”) and Hillary Earle (collectively, “defendants”) on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated. Plaintiffs’ Complaint (Doc. No. 1) sets out three classes: it alleges violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), 47 U.S.C. § 227, with respect to two classes and violations of state law, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 52-570c, with respect to the third.

Pending before the court are plaintiffs’ Amended Motion for Class Certification and defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. For the reasons set forth below, plaintiffs’ Motion (Doc. No. 60) is GRANTED, and defendants’ Motion (Doc. No. 58) is DENIED.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Individual Allegations

The Complaint alleges that the defendants sent unsolicited faxes to the named plaintiffs on six dates: October 17, 2010; January 14, 2011; January 22, 2011; January 30, 2011; June 6, 2011; and June 25, 2011. Compl. (Doc. No. 1) ¶¶ 10-11.2 Although these faxes included a note regarding how not to receive future faxes (the “Opt-Out Notice”), the Opt-Out Notice was allegedly defective in several respects. Id. ¶¶ 12-13. Specifically, the Opt-Out Notice allegedly lacked at least five items required by the TCPA: (1) a telephone number to call in order to opt out of receiving future faxes, id. ¶ 13(B); (2) a fax number for that same purpose, id. ¶ 13(C); (3) a statement that, to be effective, an opt-out request must identify the fax number to which the request is related, id. ¶ 13(D); (4) a statement that the sender’s failure to comply with an opt-out request within thirty days is unlawful, id. ¶ 13(E); and (5) a statement that a proper opt-out request remains effective unless the sender receives an express invitation or express permission subsequent to that request, id. ¶ 13(F).

B. Class Allegations

Plaintiffs allege that, between March 2009 and March 2013, when the Complaint was filed, defendants sent over five thousand fax advertisements to thousands of persons in the United States that contained a notice identical or substantially similar to the Opt-Out Notice in the fax advertisements received by the named plaintiffs, id. ¶ 15; that, during this same period, defendants sent over five thousand fax advertisements to thousands of persons in the United States that were, like the fax advertisements sent to the named plaintiffs, unsolicited, id. ¶ 16; and that, from March 2011 to March 2013, defendants sent thousands of unsolicited fax advertisements to thousands of persons in Connecticut, id. ¶ 17.

Accordingly, the Complaint sets forth three putative classes—Classes A, B, and C—on whose behalf the named plaintiffs bring this action. Class A would comprise all persons to whom the defendants sent fax advertisements containing a notice identical or substantially similar to the Opt-Out Notice between March 2009 and March 2013. Id. ¶ 19. Class B would comprise all persons to whom the defendants sent fax advertisements that were unsolicited during that same period. Id. Class C would comprise all per[72]*72sons in Connecticut to whom the defendants sent unsolicited fax advertisements from March 2011 to March 2103. Id.

Plaintiffs seek statutory damages on each of these claims, an injunction prohibiting the defendants from future violations, and costs and attorney’s fees.

C. Class-Related Discovery

Defendants faxed the alleged advertisements at issue in this case through a service called Rapid Pax offered by the company Data on Call. Pls.’ Ex. C (Doc. No. 62-5), Defs.’ Resp. to Interrog. No. 24 (“Defendant uses Rapid Fax as its online faxing service and has utilized Rapid Fax during all relevant times at issue in this action”). Rapid Fax allows users to log onto their internet account, choose numbers to which to send a particular fax, fill out a cover sheet, upload a file, and click send. Although the defendants are unable to determine from their records the precise number of alleged fax advertisements sent to persons in the United States between March 2009 and March 2013, they admit to sending over a thousand such advertisements. Pls.’ Ex. F (Doc. No. 62-8), Earle Dep. 137:7-22. Defendants also admit that these faxes contained either no opt-out notice or one identical or substantially similar to the Opt-Out Notice on the faxes received by the named plaintiffs. Pls.’ Ex. C, Resp. to Interrog. No. 13.

In the discovery to date, defendants have produced a directory of the names and contact information of persons to whom they sent faxes via Rapid Fax (the “Directory”). Beilin Decl. (Doc. No. 62) ¶3.3 In addition, Data on Call has produced a log of defendants’ outgoing transactions via Rapid Fax from June 1, 2012 to March 14, 2013 (“Outgoing Transactions Log”) as well as a log of the documents faxed during that period (“Outgoing Documents Log”). Pls.’ Exs. H & I. The Outgoing Transactions Log shows a series of identical one- or two-page faxes sent in batches within minutes of one another. Pls.’ Ex. H. During the period covered by the logs from Data on Call, defendants sent 4,102 such faxes, including 649 to fax numbers with Connecticut area codes. Id.; Beilin Decl. ¶¶ 8-9. The Outgoing Documents Log identifies the file name of the document faxed for each of the transactions in the Outgoing Transactions Log and thereby confirms which faxes were sent to numerous recipients. Pls.’ Exs. H & I. The file names are generally descriptive. Pls.’ Ex. I.

Defendant Amicus provides mediation and ADR services primarily for personal injury claims. Earle Dep. 15:6-10,17:6-10. Defendant Earle founded and runs Amicus and, as pertinent here, was in charge of marketing its services. Id. 19:8-10. The alleged fax advertisements in this case consist of announcements of Amicus’s mediation days, copies of which defendants have produced in discovery. Pls.’ Ex. B. Defendants sent these announcements, via Rapid Fax, to plaintiff-side attorneys in the Directory. Id. 28:13-22. Defendants obtained attorneys’ fax numbers from various sources: Martin-dale-Hubbell; online searches; insurance carriers and claims adjustors; and directories like the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (“CTLA”), in which the named plaintiffs’ fax number was listed. Pls.’ Ex. C, Resp. to Interrog. No. 6. In addition, defendants added to the Directory fax numbers of prior clients upon faxing a contract to those clients. Earle Dep. 20:3-8, 39:25; 40:2-11.

Defendants disclaim having possession of other documentation of when and to whom they sent fax advertisements between March 2009 and March 2013, the period covered by Classes A and B. Compl. ¶ 19. Data on Call has produced continuous logs of defendants’ outgoing fax activity only for the period from June 1, 2012 to March 14, 2013.

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300 F.R.D. 67, 88 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1002, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72377, 2014 WL 2207431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kaye-v-amicus-mediation-arbitration-group-inc-ctd-2014.