On behalf of Kazerouni Law Group, APC on Thursday, July 3, 2014.
On July 3, 2014, Yahoo! Inc. lost its Motion for Reconsideration of the Honorable Gonzalo P. Curiel’s Order Denying Motion for Summary Judgment. [See Judge Curiel’s Order here]. In so doing, the Court reaffirmed its decision to follow binding Ninth Circuit authority as opposed to unpublished State Court decisions. Specifically, Judge Curiel stated held that a “predictive dialer” does constitute an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). [Judge Curiel’s Order, 4:18-28]. After reviewing the Parties’ arguments, Judge Curiel felt “bound by Ninth Circuit authority” to rule against Yahoo! for the second time.
Moreover, the Court also rejected Yahoo!’s argument that Yahoo!’s predictive dialer did not constitute an ATDS because said dialing equipment lacked the “present capacity to store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator.” [Id. at 7:15-22]. Again, the Court relied upon binding Ninth Circuit authority to reject this argument stating that Satterfield held that the “TCPA focuses on the equipment’s capacity rather than present use. Meyer, 707 F.3d at 1043. The Court further found that because the defendant used its equipment as a predictive dialer, which the FCC has found has the requisite ‘capacity,'” a random or sequential number generator is not relevant to whether the dialing equipment constitutes an ATDS. [Judge Curiel’s Order, 8:1-14].
Thus, the Court affirmed its denial of Yahoo!’s Motion for Summary Judgment based upon binding Ninth Circuit authority in favor of the Kazerouni Law Group, APC.