Thorne v. Square, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 23, 2022
Docket1:20-cv-05119
StatusUnknown

This text of Thorne v. Square, Inc. (Thorne v. Square, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thorne v. Square, Inc., (E.D.N.Y. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DEEANN THORNE, FLOR ALONZO, ROBIN MEMORANDUM & ORDER CLEMENTS, and DEMETRIUS LOVETT, on 20-CV-5119 (NGG) (TAM) behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, -against- SQUARE, INC. and SUTTON BANK, Defendants. NICHOLAS G. GARAUFIS, United States District Judge. Defendants Square, Inc. and Sutton Bank offer their users a mo- bile payment platform called “Cash App” and “Cash Card.” Plaintiffs allege that they were Cash App and Cash Card users, that funds were fraudulently withdrawn from their Cash App and Cash Card account by third parties, and that Defendants’ dispute resolution process to address their complaints is inadequate and improperly places the burden on the user to prove that a disputed transaction was unauthorized. As a result, Plaintiffs assert causes of action on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated under the Electronic Fund Transfers Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1693 and N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 349. Defendants respond that Plaintiffs agreed to individually arbitrate any dispute involving their Cash App and Cash Card accounts. They now move pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq., to compel arbitration and dismiss the complaint. For the reasons that fol- low, Defendants’ motion is GRANTED. BACKGROUND A. Record on Review Defendants submit declarations from Eric Muller and Chun Wah Wu, mobile engineers employed by Square who are familiar with Cash App and Cash Card services. (Decl. of Eric Muller (“Muller Decl.”) (Dkt. 35-2); Decl. of Chun Wah Wu (“Wu Decl.”) (Dkt. 35-9).) Muller and Wu represent that Defendants maintained records of when and how its users registered for its services. (Muller Decl. ¶¶ 4-5; Wu Decl. ¶¶ 4-6.) Thus, Muller and Wu could determine the date and the method by which each Plaintiff registered, e.g., by iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or some other de- vice. These declarations include screenshots of the relevant sign-up flow that each Plaintiff would have viewed when registering for Cash App and requesting a Cash Card. Plaintiffs do not dispute the accuracy of these screenshots,1 and the court accepts them as the true and accurate depiction of the sign-up interface Plaintiffs viewed in registering for Cash App and requesting a Cash Card. See, e.g., Meyer v. Uber Techs., Inc., 868 F.3d 66, 70 (2d Cir. 2017) (analyzing screenshots of the Uber App’s registration process submitted by an Uber software engineer). Defendants also ask the court to take judicial notice of archived webpages from the Wayback Machine2 of the terms of service in 1Plaintiffs provide their own screenshots of the CashApp and Cash Card sign-up flow. (Pls.’ Opp. at 1, 4-9.) But these screenshots were taken in June 2021—more than a year after Plaintiffs registered for Cash App and requested a Cash Card. (See Decl. of Jodi Nuss Schexnaydre (Dkt. 36-1) ¶ 4.) Because these images do not depict what Plaintiffs viewed during the registration process, these screenshots are not relevant. 2 The Wayback Machine is an online digital archive of web pages—“a dig- ital library of Internet sites”—run by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit library in San Francisco. See https://archive.org/about/; Mojave Desert Holdings, LLC v. Crocs, Inc., 844 F. App’x 343, 346 n.2 (Fed. Cir. 2021). effect when each Plaintiff registered for Cash App and requested a Cash Card. (See Decl. of Erin Cox (“Cox Decl.”) (Dkt. 35-14), Exs. D-J (Dkts. 35-18 - 35-23).)3 “The court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it . . . can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accu- racy cannot reasonably be questioned.” Fed. R. Evid. 201(b)(2). If a fact satisfies that standard, “[t]he court . . . must take judicial notice if a party requests it and the court is supplied with the necessary information.” Fed. R. Evid. 201(c)(2) (emphasis added). “However, ‘because the effect of judicial notice is to de- prive a party of the opportunity to use rebuttal evidence . . . and argument to attack contrary evidence, caution must be used in determining that a fact is beyond controversy under Rule 201(b).’” Moroughan v. Cty. of Suffolk, 514 F. Supp. 3d 479, 513 (E.D.N.Y. 2021) (quoting Int’l Star Class Yacht Racing Ass’n v. Tommy Hilfiger U.S.A., Inc., 146 F.3d 66, 70 (2d Cir. 1998)). Here, Plaintiffs neither dispute the accuracy of these archived pages, nor offer anything in rebuttal. The court therefore joins the chorus of others and takes judicial notice of these archived webpages from the Wayback Machine as the relevant terms of service that Plaintiffs would have respectively viewed when reg- istering for Cash App and requesting a Cash Card. See Distributorsoutlet.com, LLC v. Glasstree, Inc., No. 11-CV-6079 (PKC) (SLT), 2016 WL 3248310, at *2 (E.D.N.Y. June 10, 2016) (taking judicial notice of archived webpages available through the Wayback Machine); Valve Corp. v. Ironburg Inventions Ltd., 8 F.4th 1364, 1374-75 (Fed. Cir. 2021) (same); Pohl v. MH Sub I, LLC, 332 F.R.D. 713, 716 (N.D. Fla. 2019) (same, collecting cases).

3 Defendants submit these webpages as exhibits attached to a declaration in support of the motion to compel arbitration and dismiss the complaint. Erin Cox affirms these archived page Exhibits as the true and correct copies in her Declaration. (Cox Decl. ¶ 2.) B. Factual Background Each Plaintiff registered for Cash App and requested a Cash Card at different times, on different devices. Yet only Plaintiff Deeann Thorne’s sign-up flow differed materially from her co-Plaintiffs Flor Alonzo, Robin Clements, and Demetrius Lovett, all of whom registered within the same period in 20204 and thus experienced a near-identical sign-up flow with substantially the same terms of service. The following provides first what Plaintiffs viewed when registering for Cash App, then what they viewed when re- questing a Cash Card.5 1. Cash App Sign-Up Flow and Terms a. Deeann Thorne Deeann Thorne used a Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime to download Cash App on October 24, 2017.6 (Muller Decl. ¶ 20.) The App prompted her to provide her email address or phone number to start the sign-up process. (Id.) Thorne entered her phone num- ber. (Id. ¶ 21.) In response, the App sent her a text message with

4 Alonzo signed up for Cash App on May 7, 2020, Clements on May 4, 2020, and Lovett on September 10, 2020. (Muller Decl. ¶¶ 28, 40, 52.) Alonzo requested a Cash Card on June 22, 2020, Clements on May 6, 2020, and Lovett on September 11, 2020. (Wu Decl. ¶¶ 40, 46, 52.) 5 For simplicity, the court cites to the Muller and Wu Declarations which incorporate the archived terms of service by Exhibit. The court also uses images from Alonzo’s sign-up flow (which she completed on her iPhone 11) to represent her, Clements, and Lovett’s sign-up experience. 6 The court analyzes Deeann Thorne’s agreement to arbitrate on the sign- up flow that she experienced using her Samsung Galaxy in 2017. As De- fendants explain, though, Thorne later took over another Cash App user’s account as her own. Thorne also requested a personal Cash Card from that account.

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