Warnick v. Dish Network LLC

301 F.R.D. 551, 2014 WL 2922660, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87818
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJune 27, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 12-cv-01952-WYD-MEH
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 301 F.R.D. 551 (Warnick v. Dish Network LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warnick v. Dish Network LLC, 301 F.R.D. 551, 2014 WL 2922660, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87818 (D. Colo. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER DENYING CLASS CERTIFICATION AND OBJECTIONS AND MOTIONS TO STRIKE PLAINTIFF’S EXPERTS

Wiley Y. Daniel, Senior United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Seth Warnick is a consumer of cellular telephone services who complains about pre-recorded “roboealls” received from Defendant DISH Network LLC [“DISH”] on his cellular telephone without his prior express consent. In his Class Action Complaint filed July 26, 2012, Plaintiff brings a claim on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act [“TCPA”]. Plaintiff alleges that DISH has also placed similar pre-recorded “roboealls” to the cellular telephone numbers of thousands of similarly situated persons without their prior express consent and that DISH has documented thousands of instances of such calls in a computer database called the “TCPA Tracker.” Plaintiff seeks statutory damages, injunctive relief, and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

This Order addresses Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification filed August 9, 2013. A response to the motion was filed on September 9, 2013, a reply was filed on October 4, 2013, a sur-reply was filed on February 7, 2014, and a response to the sur-reply was filed on February 28, 2014. An evidentiary hearing was held on the motion on March 19 and Mai’ch 20, 2104. This Order also addresses DISH’s objections and motions to strike the opinions and testimony of Plaintiffs experts offered in support of class certification.

Plaintiff originally sought to certify a class defined as:

all persons within the United States to whose cellular telephone number (a) DISH or any entity on its behalf, placed a non-emergency telephone call (b) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or pre-recorded voice (c) within four years prior to the filing of this lawsuit (d) where Dish cannot show that the person provided prior express consent for such calls,

and a sub-class defined as:

all persons within the United States to whose cellular telephone number (a) DISH placed a non-emergency telephone call (b) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or pre-re-corded voice (e) within four years prior to the filing of this lawsuit (d) who was not a DISH customer at the time of the calls. Excluded from this class are any persons of whom DISH has a record of providing prior express consent for such calls.1

[554]*554During the first day of the hearing on Plaintiffs motion, I expressed concern about certifying a large class of all persons called without consent because of the need to look at “millions and millions” of customer records, and asked Plaintiff to submit a proposed modified definition to address this concern and narrow the issues. (Tr. March 19, 2014 Hr’g, ECF No. 216, at 39-44.) I stated that “under no circumstance can I consider certifying a class if we are talking about having to look at millions and millions of calls.” (Id. at 44:2-4.) Plaintiff then submitted a modified class definition comprised of:

All persons within the United States to whose cellular telephone number
(a) DISH placed a non-emergency telephone call
(b) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or pre-recorded voice
(c) within four years prior to the filing of this lawsuit
(d) who were not DISH customers at the time of the calls, such as persons who were identified in the TCPA Tracker
(e) or have been identified in DISH’s records as being called after they appeared on DISH’s Do Not Call list.

After receipt of this revised class definition, DISH continued to object to the class definition. Among other things, it argued that the amendment to the class definition to include people who were “identified in DISH’s records as being called after they appeared on DISH’s Do Not Call List” would make the class unmanageable as it would encompass approximately 7 million DISH customers. (Tr. March 20, 2014 Hr’g, ECF No. 217, at 215-217.) I ordered the parties to meet and confer as to the class definition and the documents Plaintiff sought regarding same. (Id. 224.)

Plaintiff has now clarified that section (e) of the class definition refers only to those do-not-call requests that DISH refers to as “suppression requests”, rather than all do-not-call-requests such as those that relate to telemarketing calls. (See Pl.’s Supplemental Mem. Regarding Class Definition and Ex. 1 thereto, ECF No. 219.) Plaintiff asserts that his revision to section (e) to encompass only suppression requests greatly reduces the number of class members at issue. Thus, Plaintiff now seeks certification of the following class:

All persons within the United States to whose cellular telephone number
(a) DISH placed a non-emergency telephone call
(b) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or pre-recorded voice
(c) within four years prior to the filing of this lawsuit
(d) who were not DISH customers at the time of the calls, such as persons who were identified in the TCPA Tracker
(e) or have been identified in DISH’s records as being called after they appeared in a suppression request.

At the hearing, I provisionally granted Plaintiffs class certification motion subject to approving an order on the motion, and ordered Plaintiff to file a proposed order by April 7, 2014. DISH was ordered to file a response to the proposed order by April 21, 2014. (See Minute Order of March 20, 2014, ECF No. 215.) On March 31, 2014,1 issued an Order Clarifying Courtroom Minutes in which I stated:

The Minutes do not reflect the final order on Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification for purposes of F.R.C.P. 23(f). The final, appealable order on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification will be issued and entered after the Court considers Plaintiffs proposed order granting Plaintiffs motion for class certification and DISH’s response thereto.

(ECF No. 218.)

On April 7, 2014, Plaintiff filed his Supplemental Memorandum Regarding Class Definition as well as his [Proposed] Order Granting Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification. On that same date, DISH filed a Brief Regarding Plaintiffs’ [sic] Newest Proposed Amended Class Definition. On April 21, 2014, DISH filed a Response to Plaintiffs Supplemental Memorandum and Objections to Plaintiffs Proposed Order Granting Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification. On April 29, 2014, without waiving its objection to the ruling granting the motion for class [555]*555certification or stipulating that certification of a class is appropriate, DISH filed a “Proposed Class Definition that Reflects the Court’s Instructions and Statement of Intent at the March 19 and 20, 2014 Hearing on Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification.” Its proposed definition is:

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301 F.R.D. 551, 2014 WL 2922660, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87818, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warnick-v-dish-network-llc-cod-2014.