PERSONAL REMINDER: Timeshare Cancellation Manager Named Personally in TCPA Suit–And He Cant Get Out

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For those who wonder whether the TCPA can personally impact you, here’s another reminder.

The Court in Margulis v. Resort Cancellation Services, Inc. 2025 WL 2806610 (E.D. Mo. Oct. 2, 2025) just refused to dismiss Defendant’s manager Desmond Anthony Newman, who was sued personally in the case.

The ruling was brief but very impactful for Newman who will not have to face individual claims of TCPA liability. Here is the analysis:

To be held directly liable under the TCPA, a defendant must be the one who “actually initiate[s]” the alleged offending call, Golan v. FreeEats.com, Inc., 930 F.3d 950, 960-61 (8th Cir. 2019), meaning that he must “take[ ] the steps necessary to physically place a telephone call.” Id. at 961 (quoting In re Dish Network, LLC, 28 F.C.C. Rcd. 6574, 6583 (2013)). At this stage of the proceedings, I consider Margulis’s factual assertions that Newman “participated in the solicitation calls” (ECF 5 at ¶ 15) and “did said acts in making the calls to Plaintiff” (id. at ¶ 70) sufficient to allege that Newman personally initiated offending calls to Margulis. I will therefore deny defendants’ motion to dismiss Margulis’s TCPA claim against Newman in his individual capacity.

Simple and straightforward.

Notice that the allegation here focus on personal “participation”– that is the standard for personal liability, but where the line is can be difficult to find.

Anyone working in a call center– even the poor agent who is assigned to an illegal call and certainly a call center manager or dialer operator–may face personal liability in a TCPA suit, even if they were just doing their job.

More commonly executives– CEOs, CMOs, VPs of this or that– are sued personally to put pressure on companies.

Its a wild, terrible place the TCPAWorld. Get yourself a good guide!

Speaking of guides, I’ll still play Virgil to your Dante in 2026– but it will cost you more. So you might want to give me a call before the year ends.

THE FIRST $6K AN HOUR ATTORNEY?: Troutman Amin, LLP Rates Set to Rise January 1, 2026– Get In Now!

Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" 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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