Alpha Lab Services makes telemarketing calls to consumers soliciting sales of its COVID-19 testing kits, and in so doing, it calls numbers listed on the national do not call registry, alleged Nelson Estrada’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Wednesday (docket 1:24-cv-03531) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Alpha also makes those calls to individuals who have previously requested not to be called and have asked to be added to Alpha’s internal DNC list, said the complaint. Estrada personally listed his phone number on the national DNC registry in March 2019, yet in March 2023, he began receiving numerous marketing calls made by or on behalf of Alpha soliciting him with COVID-19 testing kits, it said. The defendant’s calls all came from various phone numbers that used a 281 area code from the Houston area, said the complaint. Estrada believes Alpha used spoofing to make it appear that the caller was calling from the 281 area code, which was the plaintiff’s own area code, in an effort to make it more likely that he would answer the call, it said. The TCPA prohibits such spoofing conduct, it said. Estrada estimates that Alpha or its agents placed at least 14 telemarketing calls to his residential phone number despite his national DNC registry listing and despite his multiple requests that the calls stop, it said. He alleges that Alpha, and those calling on its behalf, didn’t have written DNC policies or procedures in place, said the complaint. Whatever written policies did exist “either failed to comply with the minimum requirements under the TCPA,” or were never properly implemented, it said. The plaintiff is entitled to damages of $1,500 per TCPA violation because Alpha’s actions were knowing and willful, it said.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark for Eastern Missouri in St. Louis signed an order Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-00042) referring to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) the Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against home entertainment retailer Vintage Stock. The order gives Vintage and plaintiffs Sheila and Dennis Thompson until July 15 to conclude their ADR conferences. The parties may conduct the ADR conferences “at any location to which the parties, counsel, and the assigned neutral agree,” it said. The order designates the Thompsons’ attorney, Robert Schultz of Schultz Law Group, as lead counsel, with the responsibility of “working with the parties and the neutral to coordinate an agreeable date, time, and, if necessary, location for the initial ADR conference,” it said. The judge said in an April 16 memorandum and order that the Thompsons were correct to ask him to remand, rather than dismiss, count 2 of their first amended TCPA complaint against Vintage Stock to St. Louis County Circuit Court where it originated before the home entertainment retailer removed it in January 2023 (see 2404170002).

Safe Streets USA placed thousands of calls to consumers whose numbers were listed on the national do not call registry, and it did so using “a prohibited artificial or prerecorded voice,” alleged Rose Salaiz’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Monday (docket 3:24-cv-00147) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in El Paso. Safe Streets, which sells home security systems, didn’t obtain express written consent before placing its unsolicited phone calls, and therefore it’s in violation of the TCPA, said the complaint. By placing unwanted phone calls to people who have registered their phone numbers on the national database, Safe Streets violated “the privacy and statutory rights” of Salaiz and the class, it said. The El Paso, Texas, resident listed her personal cellphone number on the federal DNC registry in May 2021, yet she received at least two unauthorized Safe Streets solicitation calls in January that played a prerecorded voice, it said. Salaiz disconnected the first call on Jan. 2, but she answered the second on Jan. 9, and “engaged in the call for the sole purpose of identifying who was responsible for making illegal robocalls to her personal cell phone,” said the complaint. Salaiz seeks an injunction requiring Safe Streets to stop its “unconsented calling,” plus an award of “actual and statutory fines” to the class members, together with court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, it said.

Western Governors University, a private nonprofit online college based in Millcreek, Utah, repeatedly sent text messages after Tiernan Hughes and her putative class members “expressly requested” through their “stop” requests that the messaging should cease, alleged Hughes’ Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Monday (docket 4:24-cv-00193) in U.S. District Court for Western Oklahoma in Tulsa. The Oklahoma resident alleges that the school sent her at least five telemarketing text messages promoting its online degree programs, and that the contacts continued after multiple attempts to get them to stop. The university’s conduct “violated the privacy rights of Hughes and the putative class members, as they were subjected to annoying and harassing text messages,” said the complaint. The school’s text messages “intruded upon the rights of Hughes and the putative class members to be free from invasion of their interest in seclusion,” it said.

Humana and its agents negligently, knowingly and willfully initiated telemarketing calls to residential phone lines using an artificial or prerecorded voice without the prior express consent of the called parties, and did so to numbers listed on the national do not call registry, alleged a class action Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00262) in U.S. District Court for Western Kentucky in Louisville. Carlton Harrison alleges Humana violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it inundated his cellphone with at least seven telemarketing calls to promote its insurance products and services, though Harrison’s cellphone number has been listed on the DNC registry since September 2005, said his complaint. At no point has the Montgomery, Alabama, resident sought out or solicited information about Humana’s insurance products before receiving the telemarketing calls at issue, it said.

Josh Sanford voluntarily dismissed with prejudice his Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against La-Z-Boy, said a notice Friday (docket 5:24-cv-10005) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan in Ann Arbor. A Little Rock resident, Sanford alleged in his early January complaint that La-Z-Boy embarked on a telemarketing campaign for its products and services. As such, it contacted numbers on the national do not call registry in “plain violation” of the TCPA (see 2401030001)

Plaintiff Barbara Silva began receiving phone calls in January from tax debt relief company Clear Start Tax soliciting its services, despite not having tax debts, Silva’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint alleged Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00142) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in El Paso. She estimates receiving at least 39 such solicitation calls from Clear Start between Jan. 18 and March 26, her complaint said, which also alleges violations of the Texas Business and Commerce Code. Silva listed her phone number on the national do not call registry in February 2022 "to gain seclusion from unwanted solicitation phone calls,” said her complaint. Clear Start has never had a valid “solicitation registration,” as required under the Texas statute, it said. The solicitation calls “irritated and confused” Silva and she "had to spend time and energy investigating the origin of the phone calls,” it said. Every call was placed without Clear Start’s maintenance of an internal DNC policy and without the proper training of agents and employees on the use of an internal DNC policy, the complaint said. It alleges that Clear Start’s CEO Vivian Yip “personally ordered the phone calls be placed and directed that the phone calls be delivered with prerecorded voice messages.”

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross for Northern Georgia in Atlanta ordered Tyra Risher to show cause by May 10 why her Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims against Sunbelt Homes shouldn’t be dismissed for lack of prosecution, said the judge’s signed order Friday (docket 1:23-cv-05178). Risher’s Nov. 9 complaint alleged that Sunbelt “routinely violates” the TCPA by sending telemarketing text messages to residential cellphone numbers listed on the national do not call registry (see 2311120005). With Sunbelt’s April 1 deadline for answering the complaint having passed with no response filed, the plaintiff hasn’t taken “further action of record” to prosecute her case, said the judge’s order.

To market its business, Select Home Warranty uses robocalls without first obtaining the required express written consent, “thereby contributing to the barrage of robocalls consumers face,” alleged Derouhe Shegian’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Thursday (docket 2:24-cv-05628) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Newark. Shegian was one such target of Select’s robocalls when it phoned her with a prerecorded voice to pitch home warranty insurance packages that it said were selling at historic lows for neighborhoods in her area, said her complaint. At no point did the plaintiff provide the company with her express written consent to be contacted using prerecorded messages, it said. The defendant’s unsolicited prerecorded calls caused Shegian and the class members “actual harm,” including invasion of privacy, intrusion upon seclusion, and intrusion “into the peace and quiet in a realm that is private and personal,” it said.

None of the multiple reasons that plaintiff Jenice Clouse cites in her April 2 opposition to loanDepot’s March 6 motion to dismiss her Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims (see 2404030037) is “persuasive,” and they all should be rejected, said loanDepot’s reply Wednesday (docket 8:23-cv-02720) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa in support of its motion to dismiss. Clouse's complaint alleges she began receiving calls on her cellphone from loanDepot in June, attempting to reach an unknown person named Elizabeth to solicit her to apply for a home mortgage loan. Clouse asserts the calls were unlawful, partly because her number has been listed on the national do not call registry for some time. Of loanDepot’s contention that only individuals who have personally listed their numbers on the DNC registry can claim protection under the TCPA, Clouse’s opposition asserts that the argument “blatantly disregards” the broader purpose of the TCPA “to protect consumers from unwelcome telephonic intrusions.” But loanDepot replied Wednesday that Clouse hasn’t alleged facts “giving rise to an inference that she personally registered her number,” and the court should decline her invitation “to make unsupported assumptions to that effect,” it said. Though Clouse suggests that she need not personally have listed her number on the DNC registry to claim the TCPA’s protections, “the plain language of the regulation forecloses this argument,” it said.