Mo. Judge Grants Vintage Stock’s Motion to Dismiss 1 Count of TCPA Complaint
U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark for Eastern Missouri in St. Louis granted Vintage Stock’s motion to dismiss Count II of the first amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint filed by Sheila and Dennis Thompson, alleging that the home entertainment retailer…
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failed to institute procedures for maintaining a list of persons who request not to be called (see 2303300027), said the judge’s signed memorandum and order Thursday (docket 4:23-cv-00042). Clark found that the Thompsons didn’t sufficiently plead factual allegations to demonstrate that the injury they incurred by receiving unwanted text messages is “fairly traceable” to Vintage Stock’s allegedly unlawful conduct of failing to meet the requirements of the TCPA’s Section 64.1200(d). He also found that the Thompsons’ complaint “contains no facts connecting Vintage Stock’s alleged failures with their receiving of text messages. The Thompsons “don’t allege in their complaint that they asked Vintage Stock to place them on its internal do-not-call list, or even that they asked Vintage Stock not to contact them,” said the memorandum and order. This means that even if Vintage Stock had done everything the Thompsons complain it failed to do -- instituted procedures for maintaining the list, had a written policy for maintaining it and properly trained its employees -- the Thompsons “would be in the exact same position,” it said. They would have received the unwanted text messages from Vintage Stock because they wouldn’t have been on Vintage Stock’s internal do-not-call list, said the memorandum and order. “In other words, even if Vintage Stock fully complied with Section 64.1200(d)’s requirements, the Thompsons would have suffered the exact same harm,” it said: “As pleaded, the Thompsons’ injury is simply not traceable to any of Vintage Stock’s allegedly unlawful conduct.” The judge also granted in part Vintage Stock’s motion to strike the Thompsons’ class allegations.