NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 30, 2022
Docket2:20-cv-04972
StatusUnknown

This text of NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC. (NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC., (E.D. Pa. 2022).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE : COMPANY : CIVIL ACTION Plaintiff, : : NO. 20-4972-JMY v. : : DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC. : et al. : Defendants. MEMORANDUM Younge, J. September 30, 2022 I. INTRODUCTION Currently before this Court are four (4) motions: 1. Defendant City Select Auto Sales, Inc.’s (“City Select”) Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction or to Stay (ECF No. 5); 2. Plaintiff Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company’s (“Nationwide”) Motion to Certify Class (ECF No. 21); 3. Plaintiff Nationwide’s Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 20); and 4. Defendant City Select’s Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 22). The Court finds these motions appropriate for resolution without oral argument. Fed. R. Civ. P. 78; L.R. 7.1(f). For the reasons set forth in this Memorandum, Plaintiff Nationwide’s Motion to Certify Class (ECF No. 21) and Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 20) will be granted, and Defendant City Select’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction or to Stay (ECF No. 5) and Motion for Summary Judgment (ECF No. 22) will be denied. II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY On October 7, 2020, Plaintiff Nationwide, an insurance provider, filed this declaratory judgment class action against Defendants—City Select and: All persons who were successfully sent one or more faxes during the period March 29, 2006, through May 16, 2006, stating, “ROOF LEAKS??? REPAIRS AVAILABLE. Just give us a call and let our professional service technicians make the repairs!” and “CALL: David/Randall Associates, Inc. TODAY (collectively, “the Class”).

(Complaint (hereinafter, “Compl.”) ¶ 54, ECF No. 1.) Though David Randall Associates, Inc. (“DRA”), the insurance policyholder, is listed in the caption of this case and had sent the aforementioned faxes, DRA is now believed to be defunct and has only been named as a potentially interested party in this action. (Compl. ¶ 4, ECF No. 1.) For context, this is not the first time that Plaintiff has sought declaratory relief in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (the “Eastern District”). On January 24, 2013, Plaintiff brought a civil action against DRA, seeking a declaration that Plaintiff did not have a duty—under the insurance policy’s (the “Policy”) “property damage” provisions—to defend or indemnify DRA for transmitting thousands of unsolicited faxes in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (the “TCPA”). See Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. David Randall Assocs., Inc., No. 12-CV-4208, 2013 WL 271816 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 24, 2013), aff'd, 551 F. App'x 638 (3d Cir. 2014). Though arguments for insurance coverage for TCPA violations could have theoretically been made under both the Policy’s “property damage” and “personal and advertising injury” provisions, Plaintiff and DRA “agree[d] that no coverage exist[ed] under other provisions of the Policy which govern advertising injury and personal injury.” Id. at *3 n.2. Thus, in granting Nationwide’s motion for summary judgment, the Eastern District declared that the “property damage” provisions did not impose upon Nationwide a duty to defend or indemnify DRA. Id. at *3-*5. On January 9, 2014, the Third Circuit affirmed this decision. See Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. David Randall Assocs., Inc., 551 F. App'x 638, 639 (3d Cir. 2014). As a recipient of DRA’s unsolicited faxes, Defendant City Select filed (and would later become the representative of) a class action lawsuit against DRA for violating the TCPA. On March 27, 2015, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey entered a judgment in favor of Defendant City Select and against DRA for $22,405,000—whereby each one of the 44,810 identified violations (i.e., the sending of an unsolicited fax) incurred a $500 penalty. See City Select Auto Sales, Inc. v. David/Randall Assocs., Inc., 96 F. Supp. 3d 403, 422, 428 (D.N.J. 2015). Although the Eastern District litigation involved the question of whether the Policy’s

“property damage” provisions were a source of insurance coverage for damages caused by DRA’s numerous violations of the TPCA, there is no dispute that the controversy involved the very same facts as were involved in the New Jersey litigation. Thereafter, in a brazen attempt to find a source of funding to secure its judgment in the New Jersey action, Defendant City Select launched what could only be characterized as a collateral attack on the Eastern District decision. Deciding not to turn to the Eastern District to seek reconsideration of its prior determination, Defendant City Select instead, on February 28, 2020, filed a declaratory judgment action against Plaintiff, in an Ohio state court, seeking a declaration that Plaintiff is obligated, pursuant to the same insurance policy at issue in the Eastern District litigation, to indemnify DRA pursuant to the Policy’s “personal and

advertising injury” provisions. Though both the Eastern District and the Third Circuit have thoughtfully considered Plaintiff and DRA’s arguments regarding the scope of the Policy’s coverage as it relates to TCPA violations, Defendant City Select seeks to exploit the good-faith concession made by Plaintiff and DRA that seemingly dissuaded the Eastern District from even analyzing the “personal and advertising injury” provisions. However, perhaps even more surprising and jarring, Defendant City Select attempts to place itself in the shoes of DRA, the actual policyholder, and to proffer what DRA reasonably expected, knew, or understood about the “personal and advertising injury” provisions during the policy renewal process—almost as if DRA did not have the opportunity in the 2013 Eastern District litigation to raise (instead of conceding) these very arguments. As of now, Plaintiff has filed a motion to certify the Class and a motion for summary judgment, seeking another declaration—this time, under the “personal and advertising injury” provisions—that Plaintiff still does not have an obligation to indemnify DRA (or the fax recipients

more broadly) in connection with the $22,405,000 judgment secured by Defendant City Select against DRA. In response, Defendant City Select argues that this Court does not have jurisdiction under the anti-aggregation principle or, in the alternative, that this Court should stay this litigation in light of the February 2020 Ohio action; though, that action has been stayed by the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, Ohio—until September 30, 2022—in order to gauge this Court’s determination on Plaintiff’s jurisdictional arguments. (See Case No. 20 CV 001722, Journal Entry, 06/30/22.) Additionally, Defendant City Select has filed a motion for summary judgment, seeking a declaration that Plaintiff is obligated to indemnify DRA under the “personal and advertising injury” provisions.

III. LEGAL STANDARD Summary judgment is appropriate if the movant shows “that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Sweeney, 689 F.3d 288, 292 (3d Cir. 2012). To defeat a motion for summary judgment, there must be a factual dispute that is both material and genuine. See Anderson

v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 24-49 (1986); Dee v. Borough of Dunmore, 549 F.3d 225

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NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. DAVID RANDALL ASSOCIATES, INC., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nationwide-mutual-insurance-company-v-david-randall-associates-inc-paed-2022.