Hi TCPAWorld! There was an interesting development down in El Paso, Texas this week.

On January 8, 2024, the court in Guadian v. DebtBlue LLC partially granted the defendants’ motion for leave to designate responsible third parties. Guadian v. Debtblue LLC, No. EP-23-CV-329-KC, 2024 WL 89446 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 8, 2024).

The defendants’ motion for leave to designate responsible third parties sought to include Empower People and “newish” serial plaintiff Manuel Guadian himself as responsible third parties under the Texas Proportionate Responsibility Act.

The court agreed to designate Empower as a responsible third party—aligning with the defendants’ assertion that Empower’s actions were crucial to the dispute’s origin. However, the court denied the request to designate the plaintiff as a responsible third-party reasoning that the term “third party” inherently excludes the main parties of a lawsuit—namely the plaintiff and defendants. The court reasoned that, under the Texas Proportionate Responsibility statute, assigning responsibility to a plaintiff as a third party would lead to redundancy and confusion in the allocation of fault.

In other words, Empower was appropriately designated as a responsible third party due to their direct involvement in the events leading to the lawsuit but extending this designation to the plaintiff was deemed procedurally inappropriate.

Also noteworthy, but not surprising, Chapter 33 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, applied to both the federal TCPA claims and state law claims brought by Guadian.

So those with Texas TCPA lawsuits out there should keep this in mind!

We will be keeping an eye on this one for sure!