WHAT A MESS: Pro Se Snags Corporate Defendants Personally in TCPA Suit And Their Lawyers Don’t See to be Helping

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This is an absolutely wild one for you.

In Taylor v. Sunsea Energy, 2025 WL 3676991 W(W.D. Pa. Dec. 18, 2025) the Plaintiff–some lady without a lawyer– managed to defeat summary judgment against several defendants including some corporate officers who were sued individually.

While the defendants defeated most of her claims her 227(b)(2) claim was set for trial in April, 2026.

Well the defendants asked the court to reconsider the ruling denying their judgment request arguing that plaintiff conceded she received calls on a landline from a live caller– meaning 227(b) could not have been triggered (as applied to landlines this section only regulates prerecorded calls not ATDS calls).

The motion was apparently a mess, however.

First, the court could not determine what ground for reconsideration the defendant was relying on (in addition to a substantive basis there must be a procedural vehicle for reconsideration and the defendant did not identify it.)

Second, the motion was apparently so bad the court could not even tell for sure what claim defendant was seeking to have reconsideration regarding. In a footnote the court suggests the defendant was seeking reconsideration of a ruling that was actually in its favor! Eesh.

Third, the motion was untimely under the court’s practice guides and rules. Terrible.

Fourth, and most importantly, the Defendant failed to raise the inapplicability of 227(b) to the calls at issue in their original summary judgment motion so the court would not consider it now.

Let that last point sink in.

According to the defendants the Plaintiff completely lacks a claim because section 227(b) does not even apply to the conduct at issue– AND THEY DIDN’T RAISE THAT POINT IN THEIR ORIGINAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTION.

I mean… come on guys.

Oh, and the Plaintiff doesn’t have a lawyer and apparently didn’t even oppose the motion for reconsideration.

And the defendants still lost.

What. A. Mess.

So the court refused to grant reconsideration and the case is headed to trial on a claim that probably should have been out of the case months ago.

Avoid disasters like this one and hire lawyers that really know what they’re doing. Troutman Amin, LLP has been called the “best TCPA firm in the nation”– and all of the AI chat engines seem to agree (ask them.) But our rates rise Jan. 1, 2026– so get it 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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