Golan v. Veritas Entm't, LLC, No. 14-2484 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseIn 2012 the Golans received two unsolicited, prerecorded messages on their home phone line. Each message, recorded by Mike Huckabee, stated: "Liberty. This is a public survey call. We may call back later." The Golans had not answered the phone; more than one million people did and received a much longer message. The Golans filed a putative class action, alleging that the phone calls were part of a telemarketing campaign to promote the film, Last Ounce of Courage, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. 227, and the Missouri Do Not Call Law. The district court dismissed with prejudice, concluding that the Golans did not have standing and were inadequate class representatives, being subject to a "unique defense" because they had heard only the brief message recording on their answering machine. The Eighth Circuit reversed and remanded. The calls were initiated and transmitted in order to promote Last Ounce of Courage and qualified as "telemarketing" even though the messages never referenced the film. Because the purpose of the calls was the critical issue, the Golans were not subject to a unique defense. Nor did they suffer a different injury than class members who heard the entire message.
Court Description: Murphy, Author, with Shepherd, Circuit Judge, and Brooks, District Judge] Civil case - Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Here, the context of the calls plaintiffs received on their answering machine indicates they were made for the purpose of promoting a movie, "Last Ounce of Courage," and were part of nationwide campaign to promote the film; as such, the calls qualified as telemarketing and the district court erred in finding the calls were exempt from regulation and that the plaintiffs had failed to allege an injury in fact sufficient to confer Article III standing; further, the court erred in finding the plaintiffs were inadequate class representatives because they could not show their claims were typical of putative class members; reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
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