MASSIVE DEFAULT: TCPA Plaintiffs Seek $2.4MM Judgment Against Hameet Sethi; Jessie Sotomayor; and Andrew Zamora

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TCPAWorld is a tough place. Really tough.

You walk the streets around here with your head on a swivel. Any mistake can be costly.

Take the case of Champion v. Sethi, et al. 2023 WL 2708576, CV-22-01355-PHX-DGC (D. Az. March 30, 2023.)

There a couple of well-known TCPA names–Champion and Alvord–tangled with a few individuals allegedly controlling “a massive text message spamming operation, APEX SMS.”

Three of these individuals–Hameet Sethi; Jessie Sotomayor; and Andrew Zamora–were allegedly served with the lawsuit but failed to answer or respond to it timely. So Plaintiffs sought default against each. Sethi came to court belatedly and asked to have the court lift the default–but the Court refused finding Sethi had not submitted any evidence of a meritorious defense!

So the Court proceeded to consider judgment against these three–and here’s where it gets serious:

Champion seeks $1,620,000 in enhanced statutory damages. Doc. 30-1 at 3, 21. He claims that each of the 540 text messages he received from Defendants constitutes an ATDS violation under § 227(b), and requests $1,500 for each call, for a total of $810,000. Doc. 30 1 at 14. Champion further claims that each call violated § 227(c) and its regulations, §§ 64.1200(c)(2) and (d)(4), and seeks an additional $810,000. Id. at 17. 12

Alvord seeks $807,000 for the 269 text messages he received – $403,500 for violations of § 227(b) and $403,500 for the § 227(c) violations. Id. at 14, 17, 21.

Eesh. $2.4MM in damages being sought in an INDIVIDUAL suit.

The Court declined to grant judgment in that large amount at this stage–however–requiring Plaintiffs to prove they received as many text messages as they claim. But it appears they are set to do so.

Can’t emphasize enough how important it is to appear and defend yourself in these lawsuits folks. If a default gets entered you may find yourself unable to prevent a massive judgment being entered. And showing up late to Court can be extremely costly–just ask Mr. Sethi.

Eesh.

We’ll keep an eye on this.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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