Imagine a TCPA litigator rifling through your bank records, PayPal transactions and other financial documents because you made two phone calls.

Well that is precisely what a TCPA litigator just asked for–and over a measly $1,500.00.

In Crews v. Sun Solutions, 2024 WL 4120273 (D. Az. Sept. 9, 2024) a court permitted Plaintiff to send a subpoena to PayPal and Zelle seeking a “Consumer Profile and Transaction Search” and to provide a list of all transactions and “all unredacted bank account and customer information…to include, but not limited to, the account holder name, address, SSN, and linked financial institution, bank account number, and routing number.”

Holy smokes.

All PayPal and Zelle transactions?

All bank account information–including SSNs and account and routing numbers?

My goodness.

Mercifully, the Court denied most of the request but still allowed the Plaintiff to serve a subpoena seeking financial information for an individual using the email Justin@SunSolutions.com. It could have been much worse though per the reasoning:

Although it might be permissible for Plaintiff to seek to discover information about Villalobos’s personal finances if that information could be useful to him in uncovering information about Sun Solutions’ finances, see generally British Int’l Ins. Co., Ltd. v. Seguros La Republica, S.A., 200 F.R.D. 586, 589 (W.D. Tex. 2000) (“Rule 69 expressly authorizes discovery from ‘any person,’ not merely the judgement debtor.”), Plaintiff has made no effort to explain why the requested information would be useful for that purpose. Generally, “third persons can only be examined about assets of the judgment debtor and cannot be required to disclose their own assets.” Caisson Corp. v. Cnty. W. Bldg. Corp., 62 F.R.D. 331, 334 (E.D. Pa. 1974). Here, Plaintiff seeks discovery from certain third parties (PayPal and Zelle) regarding the assets of a yet another third party to the judgment (Villalobos). A record of payment transfers from and to Villalobos’s personal accounts could be relevant to Sun Solutions’ assets if a showing of fraudulent collusion between Villalobos and Sun Solutions for purposes of evading the judgment were made here. Cf. Magnaleasing, Inc. v. Staten Island Mall, 76 F.R.D. 559, 562 (S.D.N.Y. 1977) (“It is alleged that the payments to Feist were made collusively, in an attempt to strip defendants of any assets (which might) satisfy the judgment. These allegations are sufficient to permit discovery on the narrow issue of the consideration received by Feist in connection with the transfer of the Mall properties. Plaintiff’s showing raises doubts about the propriety of the transfers, and plaintiff should be permitted further exploration.”). But Plaintiff has not attempted to make such a showing, so payment transfers from and to Villalobos’s personal accounts are not relevant. 1 Nor is it obvious how Plaintiff could make such a showing, given that the docket reflects no indication that Villalobos and Sun Solutions were ever even notified that the judgment against Sun Solutions entered. Although Rule 69 “permit[s] broad post-judgment discovery in the search for executable assets…it is not unlimited; courts may limit postjudgment discovery on grounds of relevance, privilege, and proportionality.” 2 Gensler, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules and Commentary, Rule 69 (2022).

Get it?

Because the Plaintiff did not make a showing of relevance the Court narrowed the scope of the subpoena and denied access to money transfer transactions. But it didn’t have to end up that way–if Plaintiff had argued the data was needed due to improper attempts to hide money the Court would have ordered the discovery!

And all this over two illegal phone calls and a judgment for less than $1,500.00!

It cannot be overemphasized how dangerous the TCPA is. Violations of the law can lead to massive penalties for companies and individuals alike. And–as shown here–attempts to hide assets may be met with very invasive discovery about financial transactions.

There’s just no escaping liability here folks– so DO THINGS THE RIGHT WAY.