Lady Di's, Inc. v. Enhanced Services Billing, Inc.

654 F.3d 728, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 16853, 2011 WL 3629727
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2011
Docket10-3903
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 654 F.3d 728 (Lady Di's, Inc. v. Enhanced Services Billing, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lady Di's, Inc. v. Enhanced Services Billing, Inc., 654 F.3d 728, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 16853, 2011 WL 3629727 (7th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

*730 HAMILTON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Lady Di’s, Inc. alleged in this proposed class action that defendants Enhanced Services Billing, Inc. (“ESBI”) and ILD Telecommunications, Inc. are billing aggregators engaged in “cramming” by placing unauthorized charges on customers’ telephone bills. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants arranged to have unauthorized charges placed on its telephone bill and, in the six years before this suit was filed, have been responsible for unauthorized charges being placed on the telephone bills of more than one million Indiana telephone numbers. The complaint alleged that plaintiff “never requested, authorized, or even knew about” the services for which defendants charged it. The evidence, however, turned out differently. Both defendants produced evidence proving that the plaintiff actually ordered the services in question.

Despite that evidence, plaintiff has pursued the case, arguing that although it actually ordered the services, the charges were never properly authorized. The plaintiffs case now hinges on its theory that, even if a customer has actually ordered and benefitted from a service, the service was not legally authorized if the defendants did not possess all the customer authorization documentation required by the Indiana anti-cramming regulation, 170 IAC § 7-l.l-19(p). Indiana’s anti-cramming regulation does not provide a private right of action, but the plaintiff argues that the defendants’ failure to comply proves, without more, common law unjust enrichment, so that potential class members are entitled to a refund for all services for which defendants charged them. The plaintiff also argues that the defendants’ failure to comply with the regulation proves a claim for damages under Indiana’s Deceptive Commercial Solicitation Act, Ind.Code § 24-5-19-9.

The district court denied the plaintiffs request for class certification and granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment on the unjust enrichment and statutory deception claims. Lady Di’s, Inc. v. Enhanced Services Billing, Inc., 2010 WL 4751659 (S.D.Ind. Nov. 16, 2010). We affirm the district court’s judgment, though we follow a somewhat different path to that end. Turning first to the merits, we conclude that the Indiana anti-cramming regulation does not apply to these defendants because they are not telephone companies and did not act in this case as billing agents for telephone companies. Second, we find that there was no unjust enrichment where the plaintiff ordered and received the services in question. Third, we find that the Deceptive Commercial Solicitation Act does not apply because the plaintiff had actually ordered the services for which it was charged. Finally, because we reject plaintiffs theory of the case, premised solely on the defendants’ common violation of the Indiana anti-cramming regulation, we affirm the district court’s denial of class certification because common issues do not predominate over individual issues, as required for a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3).

I. Factual and Procedural Background

A. The Parties

Plaintiff Lady Di’s is a small business incorporated in Indiana, where it also has its principal place of business. Lady Di’s uses AT & T as its telephone company. Dianne Markin-Venn is the president and owner of Lady Di’s and personally reviews and pays the company’s telephone bill. Defendant ESBI is incorporated in Delaware with its principal place of business in Texas. Defendant ILD is incorporated in Delaware with its principal place of business in Florida. Both defendants are “billing clearing-houses” or “billing aggrega *731 tors.” As billing aggregators, ESBI and ILD are not directly involved with the sale of telecommunications and related services to customers. Instead, they act as intermediaries between telephone companies and service providers.

The term “service providers” refers to a wide variety of vendors, including long distance providers, internet and web-hosting companies, directory assistance operators, and voice mail providers. There are hundreds of service providers throughout the country. They sell telecommunications and related services (and sometimes unrelated services) to customers and then use billing aggregators to transmit charges to telephone companies to be included in customers’ bills. The charges from service providers aggregated by these defendants appear on customers’ local telephone bills on pages labeled “ESBI” or “ILD.” After customers pay their telephone bills, ESBI and ILD collect payments for service provider charges recovered by local telephone companies, deduct part of the payment as a fee, and forward the rest on to the service providers.

B. Allegations of Unauthorized Charges on the Plaintiffs Telephone Bill

The plaintiff contends that for several months in 2008, defendants ESBI and ILD each placed unauthorized charges on its telephone bill. ILD placed a monthly charge of $49.95 from the service provider “Advanced Business Services, LLC,” an e-fax service, on the plaintiffs AT & T telephone bill. The charge was labeled “ADVANCED BUS. SVCS, LLC-EFAX SVC MTHLY.” Dkt. 125, Ex. C1-C2. Defendant ESBI placed a monthly charge of $42.75 from “My Local Reach, Inc.,” a company that registers customer websites with Internet search engines and directories, on plaintiffs bill. The charge was labeled “MYLOCALREACH-ONLINE YP LISTING MTH FEE.” Id. On plaintiffs telephone bills, all of these charges were marked on both the front cover sheet and on pages within the bills marked “ESBI” and “ILD.” Id.

The complaint alleged that the plaintiff paid its October 2008 telephone bill before it discovered the ESBI and ILD charges, but plaintiffs owner testified that she questioned the October charges before paying the bill. The plaintiff eventually paid the charges but later requested a refund. The plaintiff first contacted AT & T for a refund and was told to contact ESBI and ILD. ESBI refused to refund the charges. ILD never returned its call. The plaintiff then turned the matter over to its attorneys. After this lawsuit was filed, the plaintiffs account was credited in full (minus $14.00 in sales tax) for the disputed charges: $199.75 for the My Local Reach/ESBI charges and $299.70 for the Advanced/ILD charges. Dkt. 125, Ex. C3-C4; Dkt. 139, Ex. A, ¶11 (Deck of Kathy McQuade); Dkt. 139, Ex. B, at 67 (Markin-Venn Dep.); Dkt. 86, Ex. C, at 95-96 (Markin-Venn Dep.). 1

“Cramming” means placing unauthorized charges on telephone bills, but the defendants have produced evidence showing that the plaintiff actually ordered the disputed services for which it was billed. ESBI produced a recorded conversation between a sales representative of service provider My Local Reach and plaintiffs owner Markin-Venn, who orally authorized My Local Reach to bill Lady Di’s on its local telephone bill $39.95 per month. See Dkt. 84, at 6-8 (transcript of July 15, 2008 conversation).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
654 F.3d 728, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 16853, 2011 WL 3629727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lady-dis-inc-v-enhanced-services-billing-inc-ca7-2011.