Eighth Circuit Affirms $32 Million TCPA Verdict

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United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a decision from the Eastern District of Missouri awarding $32 million in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action. Significantly, in doing so, the Court upheld the district court’s decision to limit the jury’s award to $10 per call for a class of 3.2 million members. According to the Court, an award of $500 per call would have been shockingly large, implicating due process concerns.

Background

Plaintiffs Ron and Dorit Golan filed suit against defendants ccAdvertising and Dr. James Leininger in 2014, alleging that they received two telephone calls advertising a film entitled Last Ounce of Courage. The architect data film was financed in part by Dr. Leninger and marketed by ccAdvertising, which made approximately 3.2 million phone calls over the course of a week to promote the film. The phone calls were formatted as a poll that concerned topics such as “American freedom and liberty” and “religious freedom.” After hearing two polling questions, call recipients were asked if they would like to hear more information about the film. The Golans, however, did not answer either phone call and instead received two messages on their answering machine that stated “Liberty. This was a public survey call. We may call back later.”

The district court initially dismissed the case, concluding that the Golans did not have standing because the messages left on their answering machine did not violate the TCPA. The Eighth Circuit concluded otherwise and reversed, finding that the messages qualified as telemarketing because the underlying purpose of the messages was to promote a product or service.