WEINGRAD v. NATIONAL HEALTH ENROLMENT CENTRE

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 17, 2024
Docket2:23-cv-05114
StatusUnknown

This text of WEINGRAD v. NATIONAL HEALTH ENROLMENT CENTRE (WEINGRAD v. NATIONAL HEALTH ENROLMENT CENTRE) 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
WEINGRAD v. NATIONAL HEALTH ENROLMENT CENTRE, (E.D. Pa. 2024).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

LEON WEINGRAD : CIVIL ACTION : v. : NO. 23-5114 : TOP HEALTHCARE OPTIONS : INSURANCE AGENCY CO. :

MEMORANDUM KEARNEY, J. September 17, 2024 Our elected national and Pennsylvania representatives recognize the potential abuse from telemarketers calling persons to sell identified products. Congress allows offended call recipients who placed their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry to sue telemarketers for more than one call seeking to sell a specific product or service. The Pennsylvania General Assembly requires telemarketers calling Pennsylvania phone numbers to register or face review by the Pennsylvania Attorney General. We today address a claim by a Pennsylvanian who placed his number on the Do Not Call Registry and then answered one call from an alleged Florida telemarketer on December 15, 2023. The Pennsylvanian claims the Florida telemarketer violated federal and state law. But the Pennsylvanian alleges he answered one call last December from the telemarketer seeking to sell “health insurance” with no further facts. We dismiss the federal claim with leave to amend as one answered call does not make a federal case and the call recipient needs to plead more facts about the call contents and to show willful conduct. We dismiss the Pennsylvania claim with prejudice as the General Assembly allows only the Attorney General to prosecute a claim for engaging in telemarketing calls in Pennsylvania without being registered here. I. Alleged Facts Leon Weingrad placed his residential telephone number on the National Do Not Call Registry sometime before December 2022.1 A Florida health insurance marketer Top Healthcare Options Insurance Agency Co. still called him nine times on December 13, 2023 and December 15, 2023 from different phone numbers: 2

Date Caller ID 12/13/2023 (267)282-3676 12/13/2023 (267)413-8938 12/13/2023 (267)313-6263 12/15/2023 (267)429-8460 12/15/2023 (267)465-5225 12/15/2023 (267)465-5220 12/15/2023 (267)313-6305 12/15/2023 (267)200-9620 12/15/2023 (267)465-5198

Mr. Weingrad answered one call from Top Healthcare Options, caller ID (267)465-5198, on December 15, 2023.3 The caller claimed to work for “National Health Enrolment Centre” and “the purpose of the call was to sell [Mr. Weingrad] health insurance.”4 Mr. Weingrad considered the call unwanted.5 II. Analysis And he then decided to sue. He alleges Top Healthcare Options violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by making calls to his phone number on the national Do Not Call Registry.6 Mr. Weingrad sues on behalf of a nationwide class of persons who had registered their telephone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry for at least thirty-one days, but who received more than one telemarketing call from or on behalf of Top Healthcare Options, within a twelve-month period in the previous four years.7 Mr. Weingrad also alleges Top Healthcare Options violated the Pennsylvania Telemarketer Registration Act by making telemarketing calls without registering with the Office of Attorney General at least thirty days prior to making the calls.8 Mr. Weingrad sues on behalf of all Pennsylvanians who received a telephone call from or on behalf of Top Healthcare Options acting as a “telemarketer” but not licensed as a “telemarketer” with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Mr. Weingrad limits this class by a two-year cutoff.9 Top Healthcare Options now moves to dismiss.10 Top Healthcare Options argues (1) the

Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim is deficient because Mr. Weingrad admits he is speculating about the content of all of the calls except for one, (2) there is no private cause of action under the Pennsylvania Telemarketer Registration Act, (3) the Pennsylvania Telemarketer Registration Act claim is deficient because Mr. Weingrad does not allege he “purchased or leased goods” as required by the Act and he has no allegations of harm, (4) Mr. Weingrad lacks standing to seek injunctive relief, and (5) Mr. Weingrad does not plead facts showing a “willful” or “knowing” violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.11 We dismiss Mr. Weingrad’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim without prejudice because he does not plead he received multiple telephone solicitations and does not plead the

contents of the calls he received. We dismiss Mr. Weingrad’s claim for treble damages without prejudice as he does not plead a knowing or willful violation of the law. We dismiss Mr. Weingrad’s Pennsylvania Telemarketer Registration Act claim with prejudice because there is no private right of action under the Act. And we dismiss Mr. Weingrad’s claim for injunctive relief without prejudice as Mr. Weingrad does not plead threat of future harm. A. Mr. Weingrad does not state a claim under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. We dismiss the Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim without prejudice. Mr. Weingrad did not plead multiple telephone solicitations and did not adequately allege the content of the calls. 1. Mr. Weingrad does not allege he received “more than one” telephone call. Top Healthcare Options argues Mr. Weingrad does not allege he received more than one telephone solicitation from Top Healthcare Options in a twelve-month period, as he makes no allegations about the other eight phone calls he received.12 Mr. Weingrad pleads he received nine calls from Top Healthcare Options’s phone numbers and we must infer those calls were telephone

solicitations at this stage.13 Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 in response to consumer complaints about telemarketing calls.14 Congress through the Act prohibits and restricts violating a consumer’s request to not receive calls.15 Consumers who do not want to receive unsolicited telemarketing calls can register their numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry.16 Companies engaged in telemarketing must have procedures in place to avoid calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.17 Once a number is registered, businesses have thirty-one days to update their records.18 Congress through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act provides “[a] person who has

received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations prescribed under this subsection” may assert a claim.19 Congress provides “no person or entity shall initiate any telephone solicitation to . . . a residential telephone subscriber who has registered his or her telephone number on the national do-not-call registry of persons who do not wish to receive telephone solicitations that is maintained by the Federal Government.”20 Mr. Weingrad must plead (1) he received more than one telephone solicitation call within twelve months, (2) by or on behalf of the same entity, (3) on a residential phone registered on the Do Not Call Registry.21 Top Healthcare Options claims he does not and cannot plead these facts. It relies on Judge Azrack’s analysis in Gillam v. Reliance First Cap., LLC.22 In Gillam, the call recipient alleged he had registered his cell phone number on the nationwide Do Not Call Registry in February 2017.23 The call recipient alleged the home loan and refinancing plan marketing company called him seventeen times from the same number between January 2021 and August 2021.24 The call

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WEINGRAD v. NATIONAL HEALTH ENROLMENT CENTRE, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weingrad-v-national-health-enrolment-centre-paed-2024.