So someone told me yesterday we are living in a “post-truth world.”

That kind of freaked me out a little bit.

I am an adherent of Truth–the idea that there is objective truth at all times and in all places and that our responsibility as the only sentiment beings capable of discerning truth is to do precisely that.

Well, the truth is that you can’t file a TCPA claim unless you can assert a logical connection between the asserted misconduct and the harm you are alleged to have suffered.

In Thompson v. Genesco, Inc. 2024 WL 81187, Case No. 4:23-cv-00292-SRC (E.D. Mo.
Jan. 8, 2024) a Plaintiff sued Defendant claiming a failure to abide internal DNC rules lead to unwanted calls by the Plaintiff.

One problem–although the Plaintiff alleged receipt of unwanted calls the Plaintiff did not allege ever placing his name on the Defendant’s internal DNC list. So although the Plaintiff allegedly suffered the harm protected by the TCPA, the claim he asserted did not result in that harm. So the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

One of the weirdest little cases I have ever seen. Unclear to me why the Plaintiff did not just allege a claim under 227(b) or (c). Perhaps his number was not on the DNC list and the calls were made manually. Not sure what to make of it.

But the take away here for litigators is to remember that whatever the alleged injury is it must actually have been caused by the claim asserted.

And for everyone else, it is a smidgen of hope that truth and logic still exist in our society.