Mey v. Got Warranty, Inc.

193 F. Supp. 3d 641, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84972, 2016 WL 3645195
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. West Virginia
DecidedJune 30, 2016
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 5:15-CV-101
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 193 F. Supp. 3d 641 (Mey v. Got Warranty, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mey v. Got Warranty, Inc., 193 F. Supp. 3d 641, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84972, 2016 WL 3645195 (N.D.W. Va. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS

JOHN PRESTON BAILEY, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Pending before this Court is the Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) or in the Alternative, Motion to Stay Pending Supreme Court Review [Doc. 71], filed February 12, 2016, by defendants N.C.W.C., Inc. and Palmer Administrative Services, Inc. In March of 2016, the Motion had been fully briefed and was then ripe for adjudication. By Order entered March 22, 2016, this Court granted the aspect of the Motion seeking a stay of proceedings pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Robins v. Spokeo, Inc., 742 F.3d 409 (9th Cir.2014), cert. granted, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1892, 191 L.Ed.2d 762 (2015)).

On May 16, 2016, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the Spokeo case. By Order entered May 19, 2016, this Court ordered the parties to file briefs explaining how the Supreme Court’s decision affects their respective positions and opining as to how this Court should proceed in the matter. The requested briefs having been received, this Court is [643]*643now prepared to rule on the aspect of the Motion seeking dismissal of the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

The plaintiff filed the instant action on August 6, 2015, “to enforce the consumer-privacy provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.” [Doc. 1 at ¶ 1]. The Complaint alleges that defendant Got Warranty, Inc.1 placed “computer-dialed telemarketing calls” to the plaintiffs cellular telephone and to a number the plaintiff “had registered on the National Do Not Call Registry” without the plaintiffs consent in order “to promote the services of Palmer Administrative Services, Inc.” [Id. at ¶¶ 2-3], The Complaint also alleges that the calls were “transmitted using technology capable of generating hundreds of thousands of telemarketing calls per day.” [Id. at ¶ 5]. Thus, the plaintiff asserts that she is bringing this action “on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of other persons” who received like telephone calls. [Id.].

Based on the alleged calls, the plaintiff has brought one count for “[violation of the TCPA’s provisions prohibiting auto-dialer and prerecorded message calls to cell phones,” a second count for “[violation of the TCPA’s Do Not Call Provision,” and a third count for “[ijnjunctive relief to bar future TCPA violations.” [Id. at p. 12],

II. APPLICABLE LAW

Article III Standing & the TCPA

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), a party is prohibited from making “any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice ... to any telephone number assigned to a ... cellular telephone service[.]” 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(l)(A)(iii). The TCPA creates a private right of action in which a person may bring “an'action to recover for actual monetary loss-from such a violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each such violation,' whichever is greater.” 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)(B).

Article III, section 2 of the United States Constitution limits the judicial power of federal courts’ to cases and controversies. To qualify as a case or controversy, a plaintiff in federal court must have (1) suffered an injury in fact, (2) that is fairly traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant, and (3) that'is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision. Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, - U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 1540, 1547, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016). To establish an injury in fact, a plaintiff must show that he or she suffered an invasion of a legally protected interest that is “concrete and particularized” and “actual or imminent, not conjectural ■ or hypothetical.” Id. at 1548.

III.ANALYSIS

In Spokeo, the Supreme Court addressed the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing. Spokeo appears to have broken no new ground. Rather, the Supreme Court confirmed the long-established principle that injury-in-fact is one of three elements required for standing. Id. at 1547. “To establish injury in fact, a plaintiff must show that he or she suffered ‘an invasion of a legally protected interest’ that is ‘concrete and particularized’ and ‘actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.’ ” Id. at 1548. The Supreme Court held that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had addressed the particularity-requirement of injury in'fact—the require[644]*644ment that the injury “must affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual way”—but had overlooked the concreteness requirement, and had therefore failed to determine whether a consumer reporting agency’s alleged violations of the -Fair Credit Reporting Act’s procedural requirements caused concrete injury. Id.

Spokeo confirms that either tangible or intangible injuries can satisfy the requirement of concreteness. Id. at 1549. Where the injury is intangible, Spok-eo summarizes two approaches to meet this requirement. First, courts should consider “whether an alleged intangible harm has a close relationship to a harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit in English or American courts. Id. As the Court noted, “the law has long permitted recovery by certain tort victims even if their harms may be difficult to prove or measure. See, e.g., Restatement (First) of Torts §§ 569 (libel), 570 (slander per se) (1938).” Id. at 1549.

Second, Congress may “elevat[e] to the status of legally cognizable injuries concrete, de facto injuries that were previously inadequate in law ....” Id. (quoting Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 578, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)). It “has the power to define injuries and articulate chains of causation that.will give rise to a case or controversy where none existed before.” Id.

The Court also noted that merely asserting a “bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm,” will not satisfy the concreteness requirement. Id. This observation has little application to claims under the TCPA, since those claims are not based on “bare procedural” rights, but rather on substantive prohibitions of actions directed toward specific consumers. Even for procedural rights, however, a “risk of real harm” can satisfy Article III. Id. The Court stated: “[T]he violation of a procedural right granted by statute can be sufficient in some circumstances to constitute injury in fact. In other words, a plaintiff in such a case need not allege any additional harm beyond the one Congress has identified.” Id. The Court offered two examples:

• “ ‘[inability to obtain information’ that Congress had decided to make public is a sufficient injury in fact to satisfy Article III ....”

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Bluebook (online)
193 F. Supp. 3d 641, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84972, 2016 WL 3645195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mey-v-got-warranty-inc-wvnd-2016.