Sessions v. Barclays Bank Del.

317 F. Supp. 3d 1208
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 25, 2018
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 1:17–CV–01600–LMM
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 317 F. Supp. 3d 1208 (Sessions v. Barclays Bank Del.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sessions v. Barclays Bank Del., 317 F. Supp. 3d 1208 (N.D. Ga. 2018).

Opinion

Leigh Martin May, United States District Judge

This case comes before the Court on Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings [33]. After due consideration, the Court enters the following Order.

I. BACKGROUND1

Plaintiff Grace Sessions alleges that Defendant used an automatic telephone dialing system ("ATDS") without the prior express consent of the called party in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), 47 U.S.C. § 227. Dkt. No. [1-1] ¶ 1. Defendant is a bank that offers financial products and services nationwide, including consumer credit cards. Id. ¶¶ 11-13. According to Plaintiff, Defendant used an ATDS to call her cell phone multiple times for the purpose of collecting on a past due or delinquent account or to solicit her to open an account. Id. ¶¶ 21-22, 25-26. Plaintiff has never been a customer of Defendant or given Defendant permission to call her. Id. ¶¶ 23-24. Plaintiff also alleges she specifically told Defendant to stop calling her after receiving a call on December 16, 2015. Id. ¶ 27. Nonetheless, she alleges Defendant's calls continued. Id. ¶ 28.

Plaintiff alleges that Defendant "uses contact center software which connects to its telephony hardware that together constitute a dialing system with the capacity to store telephone numbers, generate telephone numbers from a stored database to be called either at random or in a sequence, and to dial such numbers." Id. ¶ 30; see id. ¶¶ 32-33. Defendant's calls to Plaintiff were made using this system. Id. ¶¶ 31, 37. Plaintiff alleges that this system has the capacity to dial thousands of numbers in a short period of time from its stored database of numbers without human intervention. Id. ¶¶ 34-35. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant's calls began with a "dead air" silence of five or more seconds before a live representative appeared on the line. Id. ¶ 29. According to Plaintiff, that is "indicative of the use of predictive dialing software or other similar software where a system initiates a call rather than a live human." Id. ¶ 36. In other words, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant's system uses software that predictively dials numbers until someone answers one of the calls, at which point a live representative goes on the call. Id. ¶¶ 29, 36-38.

Based on these allegations, Plaintiff brought suit on behalf of herself and others similarly situated against Defendant under the TCPA seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and attorneys' fees. Id. at 12-17. Defendant removed the case to federal court on May 4, 2017. Dkt. No. [1].

*1210On September 25, 2017, the Court stayed this action pending the resolution of consolidated action before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ("D.C. Circuit") that concerned a number of issues including the definition of an ATDS. Dkt. No. [28]. The D.C. Circuit issued a decision on March 16, 2018. See ACA Int'l v. Fed. Commc'ns Comm'n, 885 F.3d 687 (D.C. Cir. 2018). Accordingly, this case was reopened and the Court held a telephone conference in this matter. Dkt. Nos. [29; 32]. Defendant represented to the Court that it believed the D.C. Circuit's decision changed the definition of an ATDS and asked to file a motion for judgment on the pleadings in that regard. Dkt. No. [32]. The Court granted Defendant's Motion to Stay Discovery pending the resolution of that forthcoming motion, which the Court now addresses. See id.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c), a party may move for judgment on the pleadings after the pleadings are closed "but early enough not to delay trial." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c).

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Bluebook (online)
317 F. Supp. 3d 1208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sessions-v-barclays-bank-del-gand-2018.