Class Actions Brief Blog

Dish Network has asked the Middle District of North Carolina for a new trial in its telemarketing class action lawsuit after a jury found Dish liable for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. After a five-day trial ending on January 19th, a jury awarded damages to the class of $20.5 million.

The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by lead plaintiff Thomas Krakauer alleging Satellite Systems Network, an authorized Dish dealer, called him multiple times between 2009 and 2011 despite being listed on the Do Not Call registry. In September 2015, Judge Catherine Eagles certified two classes, both consisting of persons on the Do Not Call registry who received telemarketing calls from Dish or Satellite System Network between 2010 and 2011.

After the United States Supreme Court decided Spokeo Inc. v. Robins, Dish filed a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, to decertify the class. In Spokeo, the United States Supreme Court vacated and remanded a decision allowing a consumer who suffered no concrete harm to sue Spokeo Inc. for procedural violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. But the Supreme Court left the opportunity open for plaintiffs in other cases to rely on procedural violations entailing a risk of “concrete injury” to establish standing. The Supreme Court found that the Ninth Circuit’s standing analysis was incomplete because it failed to consider both requirements of an injury-in-fact, that the injury be both concrete and particularized. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion concerned only the particularization of the injury-in-fact.

In August 2016, in a six-page opinion, Judge Eagles denied Dish’s motion to dismiss and to decertify the class based on Spokeo. Judge Eagles noted that although Spokeo “clarified the meaning of a concrete injury,” it did not fundamentally change the doctrine of standing. She found that now “a concrete injury ‘must exist,’ but it can be intangible.” Judge Eagles held that the telemarketing calls made in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act were more than bare procedural violations; the calls “form[ed] concrete injuries because unwanted telemarketing calls are a disruptive and annoying invasion of privacy.” Dish sought an interlocutory appeal of this decision, which was also denied.

Now, after a five-day trial and a $20.5 million jury verdict, Dish is hoping for a new trial. Dish claims, among other things, that the verdict violates Dish’s due process rights because Judge Eagles allowed the jury to impose aggregate damages, rather than allowing Dish to defend each individual claim of an improper phone call. The jury calculated damages by assigning $400.00 per call to the 51,119 distinct phones calls, totaling approximately $20.5 million. Plaintiffs’ response to Dish’s motion for a new trial is due March 28th. If Dish’s motion for a new trial is denied, Dish will likely appeal these issues to the Fourth Circuit. Stay tuned for further developments.