Clarence Davis v. Capital One, N.A.

Alexandria, Virginia consumer law lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation theory.



larence Davis received multiple prerecorded messages on his cell phone from Capital One seeking payment for a debt. Davis had never been a Capital One customer and had never consented to receive calls from Capital One. Davis's cell phone number previously belonged to someone else, a Capital One customer who had consented to receive calls from Capital One before falling delinquent on his account. Davis contacted Capital One and informed its representative that he was not a customer and that Capital One was calling the wrong person. Although Davis asked Capital One to stop calling, the

prerecorded messages continued.



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In 1991, Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) "to prevent abusive telephone marketing practices.” Krakauer v. Dish Network, L.L.C., 925 F.3d 643, 648 (4th Cir. 2019). The TCPA "prohibited almost all robocalls to cell phones.” Barr v. Am. Ass'n of Pol. Consultants, Inc., 591 U.S. 610, 615 (2020). When the law was

passed, over 18 million Americans received unsolicited calls each day. Id. at 614. The TCPA is a strict liability statute, because of the recognition that "few individuals would have an incentive to bring suit, no matter how frustrated they were with the intrusion on their privacy, the TCPA opted for a model that allows for resolution of issues without

extensive individual complications.” Krakauer, 925 F.3d at 656. Davis sued under Section 227(b) of the TCPA which makes it unlawful "for any person within the United States . . . to make any call . . . using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice . . . to any telephone number assigned to a . . . cellular telephone service . . . unless such call is made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States” without the prior consent of the called party. 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1). Calls made with the prior express consent of the called party are

statutorily exempt from liability. Id. § 227(b)(1)(A).

Motion for class certification denied.



Affirmed.