iSo Rocket Enterprises (not Rocket Mortgage, for once) was just sued in a TCPA class action down in Texas and this is the weirdest one I have seen in a while.
In Grovano Inc. v. Rocket, a liquidation sales website company– yes a business–is suing Rocket for allegedly illegal text messages.
Weird right?
Stay with me.
Grovano claims it owns a cell phone number and received five unwanted text messages from Rocket. It alleges Rocket “initiated the text messages using an automated system that randomly or sequentially generated Plaintiff’s number.”
So Rocket randomly created Grovano’s number? I mean… really?
And there’s two more zingers still.
First, Plaintiff appears to contend the text message is a prerecorded voice– which numerous courts have firmly rejected.
Second, look at this class definition:
The Autodial Class: All persons in the United States (1) who received one or more
call to a service to which the called party is charged for the call 2) using an artificial
or prerecorded voice or the same equipment or type of equipment utilized to initiate
the calls to Plaintiff 3) within the last four years from the filing of this action.
What a mess.
Notice that the class is limited to services for which the “called party is charged for the call.”?
Incredibly odd.
Most of the time a class is defined based upon the call being made to a wireless number–which is something that can be determined relatively easily– but there is zero way to determine whether someone is using a paid service to receive calls. So this class is not ascertainable. You can see that from here.
Notice that the Plaintiff had to purue a 227(b) regulated technology claim because the fact the number belonged to a business prevented a 227(c) DNC claim, which is what you would normally see here. Then again, if the phone was used for personal purposes the fact that the business owned the phone is likely irrelevant–so perhaps an amendment will occur at some point.
Regardless this complaint reminds me that inexperienced plaintiffs lawyers can make as many mistakes as inexperienced defense lawyers in this wonderful TCPAWorld of ours.
Read the full complaint here: predocketComplaintFile
