District Court denies defendant’s MSJ in TCPA claim regarding plaintiff’s consent

Courts Debt Collection Consumer Finance TCPA FDCPA

On March 21, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a defendant’s motion for summary judgment regarding alleged TCPA violations and dismissed a plaintiff’s FDCPA claim against a debt collector. According to the memorandum, after the plaintiff was hospitalized, she was billed for the balance of her debt once insurance payments were credited to her account. The hospital called the plaintiff to collect the balance and later placed the account with the defendant, who then called the plaintiff eight times, leaving a pre-recorded message, and sent one text message. The plaintiff filed suit, claiming that the defendant violated the FDCPA by failing to send a validation notice and violated the TCPA because she revoked consent to be contacted when the hospital originally called her. As a “unique posture,” according to the district court, the plaintiff claimed to not have standing to pursue the FDCPA claim while the defendant insisted that she did. The plaintiff contended that while she felt “anxiety” when “having to relive the car accident,” “[t]hese are not damages that create injuries-in-fact for purposes of standing under the FDCPA.” The district court agreed and dismissed the FDCPA claim. As for the TCPA claim, the defendant argued both that the plaintiff could not revoke consent to be contacted because she signed a consent form at the hospital and that there was no evidence consent was revoked when she was contacted by the hospital. The plaintiff testified that she spoke with an agent of the hospital, disclosed to the agent that she was not responsible for the balance, and requested to be placed on the do-not-call list. Determining that a genuine issue of material fact existed regarding the plaintiff’s consent, the district court denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment as to the TCPA claim