Plaintiffs filed suit on behalf of themselves and two classes of individuals against Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. (CCL), Vacation Ownership Marketing Tours, Inc. (VOMT), The Berkley Group, Inc., and Economic Strategy Group and its affiliated entities (collectively ESG). Plaintiffs alleged that defendants violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, by using án autodialer and an artificial or prerecorded voice to call their cellular and landline phones. CCL, VOMT, and Berkley have each moved for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. Plaintiffs have also moved for partial summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, the Court grants plaintiffs’ motion in part and denies defendants’ motions.
Background
The following facts are not disputed except where otherwise noted. This case centers on a call campaign that began in or around August 2011. Over the course of about one year, over a million people throughout the United States received phone calls that were made to their cellular phones and residential landlines by an organization representing itself as “ESG” or “Political Opinions of America” requesting them participation in various short political surveys. Every one of these calls featured prerecorded messages, some or all of which offered recipients an incentive to participate: if they would briefly answer a handful of questions regarding their satisfaction with Congress and the President or their perspectives on certain issues of national concern, they would be eligible for a ‘free cruise to the Bahamas.'
Upon completing the survey, call recipients were asked if they wanted to learn more about their prize. The name of the cruise provider was not mentioned in the prerecorded messages, but those people who chose to learn more were transferred to a representative' from CCL, a Florida company in the business of marketing and selling cruise and vacation packages to consumers. Although the cruise was nominally free, representatives requested call recipients’ credit card numbers and informed them that they would be responsible for taxes, port fees, and gratuities, as well as the cost of any. upgraded amenities or activities during their trip. Participants who opted to partake in a cruise were also offered an upgraded package that would require them to take a timeshare tour at a Berkley facility. Berkley’s name was never mentioned during these phone calls.
ESG was responsible for the phone campaign. ESG’s founder, director, and sole employee, Jacob DeJongh, incorporated each of the ESG entities and registered them as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. He also registered ESG with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), though evidence in the record shows that he repeatedly failed to comply with FEC filing rules. According to DeJongh, the purpose of the phone campaign was to raise awareness of political issues he cared about, spread his political message, and conduct meaningful political surveys whose results he could market to political parties, political action committees, and news outlets.
At the time he .was setting up ESG, DeJongh had discussions with Jason Burk-ett (his cousin) and Scott Broomfield, both of whom worked for a company called Linked Service Solutions (LSS). Broom-field testified before the Federal Trade Commission that during the brief testing phase of the phone campaign, in which call recipients were not offered an incentive for completing the surveys, over ninety percent of recipients hung up after hearing
LSS brokered supplier agreements between DeJongh’s companies and CCL. Each contract provided that ESG would “solicit! ] survey takers by transmitting or causing to be transmitted prerecorded survey messages using an autodialer....” LSS paid ESG for the call campaign, and LSS in turn received somewhere between $2 and $2.50 from CCL for every call that was transferred to a CCL representative and lasted more than thirty seconds beyond the transfer. Defendants contend that this evidence shows that the phone calls were made by -and for DeJongh and ESG alone, and that offering a free cruise as incentive to participate in the surveys did nothing to modify the nature or purpose of the calls. According to DeJongh, Broomfield, and . defendants, these calls were made by and for a tax-exempt nonprofit, with the sole, express purpose of collecting political survey information.
Plaintiffs, however, view the evidence quite differently: They argue that ESG made these calls not to collect information or raise awareness but rather to drum up business for CCL, VOMT, and Berkley as their agent. Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit in May 2012 alleging that the telephone calls at issue violated two provisions of the TCPA. First, they alleged that defendants delivered prerecorded messages by calling consumers’ cellular telephone lines without prior express consent and for no emergency purpose in violation of 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii). Second, they alleged that defendants delivered prerecorded messages by calling consumers’ residential landlines without prior express consent and for no emergency purpose in violation of 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B). Named plaintiffs Aranda, Birehmeier, and Parkes all alleged that they received the calls on their cellular phones. Named plaintiff Stone alleged that she received calls on both her cellular phone and her residential landline.
CCL and ESG moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint on the grounds that (1) plaintiffs failed to adequately distinguish the role played by each defendant in the allegedly unlawful call campaign; (2) the TCPA only permits direct liability for the party that actually places unlawful calls; and (3) political survey calls to residential landlines and cellular telephones are exempt from TCPA liability. The Court denied CCL’s and ESG’s motion in December 2012. See Birchmeier v. Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc., No. 12 C 4069,
The Court granted plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in August 2014. See Birchmeier v. Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc.,
Plaintiffs filed an amended consolidated complaint in March 2015. Discovery closed in July 2015, and after that, CCL, VOMT, and Berkley moved for summary judgment. Plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment as well.
Discussion
'Summary judgment is proper when the moving party “shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and [that] the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). On a motion for summary judgment, the Court draws reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett,
On cross-motions for summary judgment, the Court assesses whether each movant has satisfied the requirements of Rule 56. See Cont’l Cas. Co. v. Nw. Nat’l Ins. Co.,
Plaintiffs seek summary judgment in their favor only on the question of whether the calls were unlawful under the TCPA. They argue that' the record evidence undis-putedly shows that the calls were made by an autodialer and played a prerecorded message and that no exception to TCPA liability applies. Defendants counter that the evidence is inconclusive regarding whether an autodialer was used and whether a prerecorded voice was- actually played on each and every call. They also cite an exception to TCPA liability that they contend should apply to all of the allegedly unlawful calls in this case.
Although each defendant has separately moved for summary judgment, their motions are variations on a theme: defendants contend that none of them can be held liable for the allegedly unlawful calls because it was ESG that actually made the calls. Defendants first argue that summary judgment must be granted in their favor because plaintiffs failed to adequately allege vicarious liability in their complaint. Second, defendants contend that the evidence does not support any theory of joint or vicarious liability on the part of CCL,
A. Legality of the calls
The TCPA imposes limitations on those who engage in telephone advertising or telemarketing. Specifically, the statute prohibits a person from
mak[ing] any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any. automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice... to any telephone number assigned to a...cellular telephone service... or any service for which the called party is charged for the call, unless such call is made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States.
47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii). The statute also states that it is unlawful
to initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes, is made solely pursuant to the collection of a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States, or is exempted by rule or order by the [Federal Communications Commission (FCC)] under paragraph (2)(B).
Id. § 227(b)(1)(B). The provision referenced in section 227(b)(1)(B) states that the FCC “shall prescribe regulations to implement the requirements of this subsection” and that the agency
(B) may, by rule or by order, exempt from the requirements of paragraph (1)(B) of this subsection, subject to such conditions as the Commission may prescribe—
(i) calls that are not made for a commercial purpose; and
(ii) such classes or categories of calls made for commercial purposes as the Commission determines ,
(I) will not adversely affect the privacy • rights that this section is intended to protect; and
(II) do not include the transmission of any unsolicited advertisement.
Id. § 227(b)(2)(B).
Plaintiffs seek summary judgment only regarding whether the calls made to the named plaintiffs and the two certified classes were unlawful calls under the TCPA, According to plaintiffs, uncontro-verted evidence shows that ESG used an autodialer and played a prerecorded message on the calls it made to plaintiffs’ cellular phones and residential landlines. Because no exception to the TCPA applies, plaintiffs say, summary judgment should be granted in their favor on this point.
Defendants do not dispute that the calls were made without the prior express consent of their recipients. But defendants offer three reasons why plaintiffs are not entitled to summary judgment for either class on the question of the legality of the calls. First, defendants argue that the evidence is insufficient to establish that an autodialer was used and that such evidence is irrelevant in any event because the class definitions do not contemplate the use of an autodialer. Second, defendants argue
Defendants begin by arguing that it does not matter whether the evidence shows that every phone call was made using an autodialer because the class definitions do not reference the manner in which the calls were dialed. The relevant question, however, is not how the class is defined but rather whether use of an auto-dialer bears on the question of liability. It does not matter whether the landline calls were made with an autodialer, because the TCPA does hot prohibit the use of an autodialer to make calls to residential landlines. See 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B). As for the cellular phone class, the same statutory provision' that prohibits making a call to a cellular phone using an artificial or prerecorded voice also prohibits making such a call using an automatic telephone dialing system. Thus if the evidence shows that ESG used an autodialer to place the prerecorded phone' calls to the members of the cellular phone class, the defendants will have violated section 227(b)(l)(A)(3).
There is a genuine factual dispute regarding whether ESG used a prohibited autodialer to-niake the calls. “The term ‘automatic telephone dialing system’ means equipment which has the capacity (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers.” 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1). As the FCC has explained, not every dialing device amounts , to an “automatic telephone dialing system” within the meaning of the TCPA. See In the Matter of Rules and Regs. Implementing the Tel. Consumer Prot. Act of 1991, 30 F.C.C.R. 7961, ¶ 17 (2015). In a recent order, the Commission observed that
the basic functions of an autodialer are to “dial numbers without human intervention” and to “dial thousands of numbers in a short period of time.” How the human intervention element applies to a particular piece of equipment is specific to each individual piece of equipment, based on how the equipment functions and depends on human intervention, and is therefore a case-by-case determination.
Id. Plaintiffs describe evidence that an “autodialer” was used, but it consists entirely of individuals involved in the call campaign using the word “autodialer” to describe the equipment used in the campaign. Plaintiffs have not pointed the Court to evidence showing what equipment was used, how it functioned, or the degree to which it required human intervention. The record is insufficient to take away from a jury the determination of whether the equipment that was used was the type that the TCPA prohibits.
Plaintiffs do, however, point to evidence that shows that every call ESG made featured a prerecorded message. Defendants argue that summary judgment is inappropriate because it is not clear that plaintiffs actually heard their prerecorded message. Citing Ybarra v. Dish Network, LLC,
The evidence in' this case is markedly different; it reflects that a prerecorded message played without regard to whether a call recipient gave a voice response. The Fifth Circuit held that for TCPA liability to accrue, a prerecorded message must actually play; it did not hold that a recipient must stay on the line long enough to hear it. See id. at 641 (‘We hold that making a call in which a prerecorded voice might, but does not, play is not a violation of the TCPA. Instead, the prerecorded voice must ‘speak’ during the call.'). Put another-way, Ybarra does not indicate that a caller escapes liability if the recipient receives a prerecorded call and hangs up the phone once she realizes this, without hearing much (or ány) of the message. Plaintiffs have established that they received calls as part of this call campaign, and that every call included a prerecorded message. This is sufficient to trigger TCPA liability, and Ybarra does not counsel otherwise.
Finally, defendants argue that under FCC regulation, the calls are not unlawful because they were made for a political purpose by a tax-exempt organization. Through 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(2), Congress conferred rulemaking and interpretative authority upon the FCC to fashion exemptions' to TCPA liability. Under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(3), it is not unlawful to call “any residential landline using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express written consent of the called party” under certain limited circumstances.
Defendants acknowledge that the FCC has not extended this 'rule to cover cellular phones. They nevertheless urge the Court to do so. They argue that the TCPA’s distinction between landlines and cellular phones is outdated and that the FCC’s continued adherence to the distinction is misguided in light of the paradigm shift that has occurred since the TCPA’s enactment in 1991. According to defendants, the FCC created exemptions for political surveys and calls placed by or on behalf of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations so that socially beneficial phone campaigns could be made to places where callers could count on reaching recipients. The same exemptions were not initially extended to cellular phones because calls to those phones less frequently reached their recipients while also being substantially more costly to those recipients. Now that many people do not have landlines and use cellular phones with inexpensive phone plans as their primary telephone lines, defendants say it makes little sense to confine the FCC’s exemption to landlines.
This argument ignores both the language of the regulation and the statutory design of the TCPA. Congress did not confer upon the courts the authority to make exemptions under the TCPA. Thus it does not matter whether it would be good policy to apply the FCC’s exemption to calls made to cellular phones; the exemption expressly applies only to calls made to residential landlines. Moreover, even if the FCC did intend to apply the exemption more broadly—an argument clearly undercut by the FCC’s 2012 order stating that even “non-telemarketing, informational calls, such as those by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations.. .require either written or oral consent if made to wireless consumers,” In re Rules & Regu-
may, by rule or by order, exempt from the requirements of paragraph (l)(A)(iii) of this subsection calls to a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service that are not charged to the called party, subject to such conditions as the Commission may prescribe as necessary in the interest of the privacy rights this section is intended to protect.
Id. § 227(b)(2)(C). Aside from this, section 227(b)(l)(A)(iii) does not contemplate any involvement on the part of the FCC in crafting exemptions to liability. See id. § 227(b)(l)(A)(iii) (a person may not make a 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”); see also 2012 FCC Order, 27 F.C.C.R. at 1842 ¶29 (stating that “Section 227(b)(1)(A) and our implementing rules continue to require some form of prior express consent for autodialed or prerecorded non-telemarketing calls to wireless numbers”).
The calls made to the cellular phone class were' made without prior express consent. The evidence is uncontro-verted that a prerecorded message was played on each call; DeJongh himself testified to this effect during his deposition. See Defs.’ Ex. 3, dkt. no. 350-4, at 144. This is a violation of the TCPA, irrespective of whether the calls were made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit, were made for a political or non-commercial purpose, or did not make reference to or play long enough to mention, defendants’ vacation products. No reasonable jury could find otherwise based on the evidence presented by the parties. The Court therefore grants summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs on the question of whether the phone calls made to the cellular.: phone class run afoul of the prohibition in 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(l)(A)(iii).
The exemptions contained in 47 C.F.R. §§ 64.1200(a)(3) do apply to calls to landlines featuring prerecorded messages, and thus they potentially could shield defendants frbm liability for the calls made to the landline class. Under this regulation, a call to a residential landline is exempt from TCPA liability if the call is “not made for a commercial purpose,” is" “made for a commercial purpose but does not include or introduce an advertisement or constitute telemarketing,” or is “made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.” Id. §§ 64.1200(a)(3)(ii)-(iv).
If the calls were made for a commercial purpose, the exemption for commercial calls that do “not include or introduce an advertisement or constitute telemarketing” will not shield defendants from liability. The FCC has defined “telemarketing” as “the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person.” 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(0(12). It has defined “advertisement” as “any material advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services.” Id. § 64.1200(f)(1).
Plaintiffs note that the FCC recently clarified that non-telemarketing commercial calls to landlines are exempt only “to the extent that they do not contain telemarketing messages.” 2012 FCC Order, 27 F.C.C.R. at 1841 ¶ 28. Plaintiffs argue that this means that even if the calls were made with the dual purposes of conducting a political survey and selling defendants’ vacation products, they are still unlawful, because one of their purposes was to market defendants’ products and entice call recipients to purchase them either during the call or at some later date. See Chesbro v. Best Buy Stores, LP,
Defendants do not concede, however, that the calls were made for a commercial purpose. They contend that the exemption for calls “not made for a commercial purpose” applies because the evidence shows that the calls were made for a political purpose by a tax-exempt nonprofit organization. The FCC has stated that non-commercial calls include “calls conducting research, market surveys, political polling or similar activities which do not involve solicitation as defined by our rules.” In re Rules & Regulations Implementing the Tel. Consumer Prot. Act, 7 F.C.C.R. 8752, 8774 ¶ 41 (1992). The agency defines “solicitation” by telephone in precisely the same terms as “telemarketing”: “the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property,, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person.” But it provides exceptions for calls to people who have given prior express consent and calls made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt non-profit. 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(0(14).
The crux of defendants’ argument invoking this exemption and the next is that the calls were made for a political purpose by and on behalf of ESG, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization. As explained above, non-commercial calls are exempt if they do not include solicitations, and FCC regulations indicate that calls made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt non-profit organization are not telephone solicitations. Accordingly, if the calls were made “by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization,” defendants can invoke both the exemption for calls “not made for a commercial purpose,” 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(3)(ii), and the exemption for calls “made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization,” id. § 64.1200(a)(3)(iv).
DeJongh registered the ESG entities as tax-exempt nonprofit entities. If they were acting on their own behalf, these exemptions would absolve ESG of liability for the calls. But it is not clear at this stage of the litigation—as the Court will explain in detail in the next section—that ESG made the calls on its own behalf or rather did so as an agent of other defendants. Indeed, plaintiffs have not moved for summary judgment on whether ESG acted as the other defendants’ authorized agent; they argue that this is a question the jury must decide. If ESG was acting as a conduit for CCL, VOMT, and Berkley to solicit business and generate profit, then the calls can hardly be said to have been made “by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.” Because a reasonable jury could find that ESG was acting on its own and without the authorization of CCL, VOMT, and Bérkley, the Court cannot say at this juncture whether the exemptions contained in sections 64.1200(a)(3)(ii) and 64.1200(a)(3)(iv) might shield defendants from liability.
For this reason, the Court denies plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment regarding the landline class. If plaintiffs successfully demonstrate at trial that ESG was not ⅞ tax-exempt non-profit organization making calls on its own behalf, but rather made the calls as an agent for CCL, VOMT, and Berkley, then none of the exemptions contained in section 64.1200(a)(3)(ii)-(iv) will protect defendants from liability.
B. Joint or vicarious liability
Defendants seek summary judgment on the basis that they cannot be held vicariously or jointly liable for calls that ESG made. Their initial point is that plaintiffs failed to plead vicarious liability adequately in their amended consolidated complaint. Defendants continue to press this point even though the Court has already rejected it. Defendants also argue that the evidence would not permit a reasonable jury to find vicarious liability under any theory of agency, joint venture, or partnership.
Defendants next argue that they may not be held liable for unlawful phone calls ESG made to members of both classes because plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege vicarious liability in their complaint. A plaintiff is required to allege facts sufficient to put defendants on notice of the nature of the claims against them and allow for a plausible inference that defendants are liable, and a plaintiff typically may not offer new and significantly different contentions at the summary judgment stage. Whitaker v. Milwaukee Cty.,
Defendants say that summary judgment should be granted in their favor because this case is like The Siding & Insulation Co. v. Alco Vending, Inc., No. 11 C 01060,
This case is nothing like Aleo Vending. Throughout the course of litigating this case, plaintiffs have consistently contended that defendants acted in concert and that the phone calls were made by or on behalf of some combination of ESG, CCL, VOMT, and' Berkley. See Birchmeier,
The TCPA imposes liability upon any person who makes unlawful phone calls using an autodialer or a prerecorded message. As the FCC—which Congress vested with the authority to promulgate rules and regulations. implementing the TCPA, see 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(2)—has declared through rulemaking and adjudicative orders, liability for a TCPA violation may be imputed to a party that did not itself place the unlawful calls if the party that placed the calls did so as an agent of that party.
Berkley and VOMT contend that they cannot be held vicariously liable under any circumstances because they are not sellers. The FCC has defined a “seller” as “the person or entity on whose behalf a telephone call or message is initiated for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person.” 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(f)(9). VOMT suggests that it is not a seller because it does not sell or advertise any products to consumers, nor does it own or operate CCL’s cruises. Berkley argues that it is not a seller because neither ESG’s recorded messages nor CCL’s representatives marketed Berkley’s timeshare products or encouraged call recipients to purchase them. Both VOMT and Berkley also point out that their names were not mentioned during any of the calls.
If these arguments were valid, an entity could avoid TCPA liability by empowering an agent to make prerecorded calls encouraging consumers to visit the principal’s store so long as the agent did not say the principal’s name and did not attempt to make a sale on the phone call. This narrow a reading of the TCPA would undermine the law’s purpose, and it would directly contradict the FCC’s broad definition of commercial messages. See In re Rules & Regulations Implementing the Tel. Consumer Prot. Act of 1991, 18 F.C.C.R. 14014, 14098 (2003). As explained in the previous section of this opinion, the evidence in the'present case would permit a reasonable jury' to determine that one
The question, then, is whether the evidence would permit a reasonable jury to find that CCL, VOMT, and Berkley were party to agency relationships under federal common law agency principles such that they may be held liable for ESG’s actions in making the calls. Plaintiffs argue that CCL expressly or impliedly authorized ESG to act as its agent in making the unlawful calls. They also argue that VOMT is liable because VOMT and CCL are one and the same or because VOMT authorized CCL to enlist ESG to make unlawful calls. Plaintiffs further contend that Berk-ley gave VOMT actual or apparent authority to launch the unlawful call campaign and conscript ESG as a subagent or that Berkley at least should be held liable based on a ratification theory, because it knowingly accepted the benefits that flowed from the call campaign in the form of increased business. Plaintiffs alternatively suggest that in their concerted effort to put together the call campaign, CCL, VOMT, and Berkley were effectively a joint venture. Accordingly, they argue that each defendant should be liable for the unlawful acts ESG took in furtherance of the joint venture.
An entity may be held vicariously liable for violations of the TCPA “under a broad range of agency principles, including not only formal agency, but also principles of apparent authority and ratification.” Dish Network, 28 F.C.C.R. at 6582 ¶ 28. “Formal agency,” as the FCC calls it, is also known as “actual authority.” Actual authority may be express or implied. Bridgeview Health Care,
Defendants are correct that the evidence does not support vicarious liability for CCL, VOMT, or Berkley based on a theory of apparent authority. “Apparent authority is the power held by an agent or other actor to affect a principal’s legal relations with third parties when a
.The evidence could, on the other hand, support a finding by a reasonable jury against each of the defendants on other bases. For example, plaintiffs have adduced evidence that would permit a reasonable jury to find that CCL expressly or impliedly granted ESG the actual authority to make unlawful calls on CCL’s behalf. The supplier agreements between CCL and ESG provide that ESG “shall provide [CCL] an exact telephone script along with an exact audio file of each survey,” Pis.’ Ex. 16, dkt. no. 338-1, at 54, and evidence in the Record shows that on at least one occasion, CCL’s attorneys proposed edits to the survey script being used. A reasonable factfinder could infer from this and other evidence in the record that CCL authorized the call campaign and had control over the manner and means by which ESG conducted it.
There is also evidence that would permit a reasonable jury to find VOMT liable for the unlawful calls because it is either the alter ego of CCL or gave CCL and ESG actual authority to take action on its behalf. VOMT and CCL share identity of ownership and management; indeed, Daniel Lambert served as the Rule 30(b)(6) witness for both CCL and VOMT, and he testified that it was difficult even for him to clearly distinguish his role with VOMT from his role with CCL. Lambert and James Verrillo, the founders and operators of CCL and VOMT and the only employees of VOMT, used the same telephone lines and CCL email accounts to conduct business for both companies. In addition, VOMT expressly granted CCL (in a contract Lambert negotiated on both companies’ behalfs) the authority to conduct telemarketing and contract with subagents in furtherance of the CCL-VOMT marketing arrangement. “A subagent is a person appointed by an agent to perform functions that the agent has consented to perform on behalf of the agent’s principal and for whose conduct the appointing agent is responsible to the principal.” Restatement (Third) of Agency § 3.15(1). An agent may appoint a subagent if the agent has actual or apparent authority from the principal to do so. See id. § 3.15(2). A reasonable jury could find that VOMT and CCL are one and the same, and that together they granted actual authority directly to ESG to make the calls at issue. Even if a jury determined that VOMT and CCL are distinct entities, it could reasonably find that VOMT granted actual authority to CCL to enlist ESG as a subagent.
The evidence would also permit a reasonable jury to find that CCL, VOMT, and Berkley ratified acts that ESG undertook on their behalf by knowingly accepting the benefits that flowed from them. Ratification occurs when a principal knowingly chooses to accept the benefits of unauthorized actions an agent takes on the principal’s behalf. See NECA-IBEW Rockford,
Defendants are not wrong to suggest that plaintiffs have, at several points in their statements of -material facts submitted in connection with the pending motions, overstated the evidence that supports their position. But. plaintiffs have nonetheless adduced evidence that, when characterized appropriately, would permit a reasonable jury to find CCL, VOMT, and Berkley vicariously liable for unlawful phone calls made by -ESG. For these reasons, defendants are not entitled to summary judgment on the grounds they cite.
D. Stone’s and Parkes’s phone records
Finally, defendants contend that summary judgment should be granted in their favor on the claims of Parkes and Stone based on those plaintiffs’ phone records. Specifically, defendants point out that
As an initial matter, defendants’ latter challenge is procedurally improper. Defendants are seeking summary judgment on claims belonging to an entire class of plaintiffs based on the alleged inadequacy of its named representative. If Stone is an inadequate representative because her claim is infirm, the appropriate course of action would be to dismiss her individual claim and allow the plaintiffs to propose a different class representative.
But even if summary judgment on the claims of the entire class were an appropriate procedural mechanism to deal with this issue, it would not matter. Parkes and Stone have viable claims, and they are adequate class representatives. In defendants’ view, class members may prevail on TCPA claims against defendants only by producing phone records that show they received a call and heard a prerecorded message offer a free cruise. But defendants’ arguments are premised on a'misreading of the class definitions, which are not as narrow as defendants seem to think. The classes include “[a]ll persons... to whom (1) one or more telephone calls were made,” irrespective of whether those persons heard the messages in their entirety or asked to be transferred to a CCL representative. Moreover, the classes include all such persons:
whose (i) telephone number appears in Defendants’ records of those calls and/or the records of their third party telephone carriers or the third party telephone carriers of their call centers or (ii) own records prove that they received the calls—such as their telephone records, bills, and/or recordings of the calls—and who submit an affidavit or claim form if necessary to describe the content of the call.
Birchmeier,
As discussed in an earlier, section of this decision, Parkes did not need to hear any defendant’s name or stay on the line long enough to hear the free cruise offer in order for the call to be unlawful, nor did he need to be connected with CCL representatives. And ’ although neither Stone’s nor defendants’ phone records reflect that Stone received calls to her land-line, other evidence, including her testimony and complaints she filed with the Washington Attorney General’s Office, would permit a reasonable jury- to con-
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment [dkt. no. 336] in part, finding that plaintiffs have established the unlawfulness of calls with prerecorded messages made to the cellular phone class. The Court otherwise denies plaintiffs’ motion and also denies defendants’ motions for summary judgment [dkt. nos. 340, 342, 344]. The case is set for a status hearing on April 25, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. to discuss a schedule for further proceedings, including a trial date.
Notes
, Defendants erroneously cite 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2) to support the argument that “the telephone calls made by the ESG Defendants appear to be exempt from the strictures of the TCPA because the calls were political surveys and made by 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) companies." Defs.’ Mem., dkt, no. 372, at 14, This regulation exempts calls made by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, but only where prior express consent is given. See 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2), No evidence tends to show, and defendants have not argued, that any plaintiff gave prior express consent to be contacted.
. Under the Hobbs Act, the Court must apply any final FCC 'order that governs the matter at issue. CE Design, Ltd. v. Prism Bus. Media, Inc.,
. The federal common law of agency is in accord with the third Restátement. See Opp v. Wheaton Van Lines, Inc.,
. In a recent decision addressing agency principles in the TCPA context, the Seventh Circuit stated that “[t]here are three types of agency: (1) express actual authority, (2) implied actual authority, (3) apparent authority.” Bridgeview Health Care,