Palm Beach Golf Center-Boca, Inc. v. John G. Sarris, D.D.S., P.A.

212 F. Supp. 3d 1286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186431, 2016 WL 4154911
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 10, 2016
DocketCase No. 12-80178-CV-WILLIAMS
StatusPublished

This text of 212 F. Supp. 3d 1286 (Palm Beach Golf Center-Boca, Inc. v. John G. Sarris, D.D.S., P.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palm Beach Golf Center-Boca, Inc. v. John G. Sarris, D.D.S., P.A., 212 F. Supp. 3d 1286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186431, 2016 WL 4154911 (S.D. Fla. 2016).

Opinion

[1288]*1288ORDER

KATHLEEN M. WILLIAMS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

THIS MATTER is before the Court on the Parties’ competing motions for partial summary judgment (DE 138,146).

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant Sarris hired Mike Roberts to market the Defendant’s dental practice. (DE 136 ¶ 19).1 At some point in 2005, a company called B2B solicited Roberts and offered to send “mass fax advertisements for $420.00.” (DE 136 ¶ 2). B2B was run by Caroline Abraham. Abraham set up the company at the request of her husband to serve as a “middleman” for a Romanian company known as Macaw, which sold fax advertising services to companies in the United States. (DE 136 ¶¶ 10-11). The two main functions of B2B were to provide phone lines for Macaw’s fax advertising services and to collect cheeks that could be deposited into a United States bank account .that Abraham had opened for that purpose. (DE 136 ¶ 12; DE 140-5, Deposition of Caroline Abraham 13:8-14).2 Macaw was responsible for sending fax advertising for B2B’s customers. (DE 136 ¶ 14). Specifically, Macaw’s Romanian-based employees were responsible for running the faxing operation, uploading the numbers for fax advertising, and actually transmitting the faxes using Abraham’s phone lines. (DE 136 ¶ 14).3 Abraham never personally used or worked on any faxing software or programs to send fax advertisements and she did not have any access to the faxing programs or software being used to send B2B faxes. (DE 161 ¶¶ 55, 58). Moreover, Abraham did not know the name or type of computer program that Macaw used • to transmit the faxes and she completely lacks any personal knowledge regarding the fax broadcasting software. (DE 161 ¶ 60-61). Instead, the “computer people in Romania” controlled the faxing. (DE 161 ¶ 55; see also DE 140-5, Abraham Dep. 15:18-23 [Q: Is it fair to say you did not personally transmit any faxes, advertising faxes over phone lines—A: Yes.”]). In [1289]*12892004, Abraham purchased a list of fax numbers and associated data from InfoU-SA4 which she sent to Macaw in Romania, who-in turn sent fax advertisements to the fax numbers contained in the InfoUSA list. (DE 136 ¶¶ 15-16).

Following B2B’s solicitation of Roberts, Roberts discussed the potential fax advertising he wanted done with John Bedford.5 (DE 136 ¶ 24). On November 30, 2005, Roberts faxed a form advertisement for Defendant’s business to B2B for use in the fax advertising campaign. (DE 151 ¶ 16). On December 1, 2005, Roberts faxed revisions of the advertisement to B2B. (DE 151 ¶ 17). Roberts informed B2B that he did not want the faxes sent to businesses associated with the dental industry and directed that the faxes be sent to the following specific zip codes: 33483, 33484, 33487, 33496, 33431, 33432, 33434, 33444, 33445, and 33346.6 (DE 136 ¶¶27; DE 143-1 Affidavit of Mike Roberts ¶¶ 12, 13 [“I instructed Business to Business to only send faxes to numbers in the local area; specifically, the only approved zip codes were 33484, 33484, 33487, 33496, 33431, 33432, 33434, 33444, 33445, and 33446. Moreover, I instructed Business to Business not to send any faxes to those associated with the dental practice industry”]). On December 1, 2005, B2B sent Defendant a fax stating that B2B had “everything needed to start your faxing campaign, except payment,” and on December 7, 2005, Sarris Management Corporation issued a check for $420.00 for the faxes to B2B. (DE 151 ¶¶ 22, 23). On December 12, 2005, Abraham7 sent an email to her son Joel, stating:

Here’s the run of 10,000 that I told you about. It just got ok’d to go tonight. .. He wanted us to use zips 33483-4, 33487. 33431-2, 33434, 33444-6. I’m sure those will be included in the closest zips you pick up. If you have time, please check, but it’s hard to imagine that they would not be included. Here’s the bad part—he wants us NOT to send to dentists. I know it’s a pain, but could you please remove them by deduping or whatever you do.

(DE 143-3; DE 136 ¶ 34). There is no evidence that Roberts changed his instructions 8 and Abraham has no personal [1290]*1290knowledge about the specific faxes at issue in this case, other than what she gleaned from the documents produced at her deposition. (DE 136 ¶¶ 41-42; DE 140-5, Abraham Dep. 51:5-14). Abraham never spoke to anyone at Dr. Sarris’s office regarding the fax advertisements, including Roberts, and she has no recollection of speaking to any salesperson at B2B or Macaw regarding the services to be provided.for Roberts.9 (DE 136 ¶¶ 41-43; DE 140-5, Abraham Dep. 35:7-21; 51:15-23; 122:25-123:5). Abraham had no involvement in selecting the recipients to whom the fax at issue was sent; she testified that if Roberts had requested a specific target for fax advertisements, she had no way of knowing if Macaw followed the instructions when it created the list of recipients and transmitted the faxes over her phone lines. (DE 140-5, Abraham Dep. 116:20-117:2; DE 136 ¶¶ 41-45). For every single fax campaign, Macaw was responsible for uploading the numbers to which the faxes would be sent and then sending the faxes using Abraham’s phone lines. (DE 151 ¶ 59; DE 136 ¶14; DE 160-5 32:24-33:10).10

Notwithstanding Roberts’ instruction and the December 12, 2005 email, B2B sent the fax advertisements to persons outside the identified zip codes.11 (DE 144-1). B2B never notified Roberts or Defendant that the faxes had been sent. (DE 136 ¶ 44). According to Plaintiffs expert, Robert Biggerstaff, 7,058 faxes advertising Defendant’s services were sent by B2B. (DE 136 ¶ 47). Of those 7,058 faxes, 4,984 were sent to fax numbers associated with entries outside of the zip codes identified by Roberts and listed in Abraham’s December 12, 2005 email. (DE 136 ¶ 49).12

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Under this standard, “[o]nly disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing [substantive] law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). And any such dispute is “genuine” only “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Id.

“The moving party bears the initial burden of establishing the nonexistence of a triable fact issue.” Continental Cas. Co. v. Wendt, 205 F.3d 1258, 1261 (11th Cir. 2000) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)).

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212 F. Supp. 3d 1286, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186431, 2016 WL 4154911, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palm-beach-golf-center-boca-inc-v-john-g-sarris-dds-pa-flsd-2016.