TIME DILATION?: Sapan Channels Sagan But Time Proves a TCPA Barrier After All

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I always marvel at how poorly people understand time.

Even when I listen to theoretical physicists explain the link between time and gravity they don’t seem to really get it.

But whatever time is– or isn’t–it can be a very nice shield to TCPA litigation, but you will have to wait a while to take advantage of it.

For instance in Sapan v. Safeway, 2026 WL 926833 (N.D. Cal. April 6, 2026) the court dismissed a suit after concluding messages from 2019 fell outside the TCPA’s statute of limitations.

But the issue was slightly more complex.

The Plaintiff actually had received marketing communications within the statutory period– but not two within one year, as the statute requires.

In an amendment the Plaintiff claimed he had received two solicitations within a 12 month period– back in 2019. While Plaintiff admitted those messages were outside the statutory period–i.e. he could not recover on them– he claims the receipt of the messages gave him “statutory standing” to recover for other messages he received later in time.

And that got me thinking.

It is true that the statuory requirement says only that a person who receives “more than one” solicitation in a 12 month period can sue–but it doesn’t say the person can sue only for those messages. And I guess that’s what the Plaintiff here was thinking.

I give him high marks for creativity-I had personally never thought of this concept before– but the court wasn’t having it.

Time, here, was more than a boundary of conciousness– it provided a very solid TCPA defense.

Of course the best TCPA defense is Troutman Amin, LLP– find out how we do it when the Baroness Brittany Andres takes the stage at Law Conference of Champions— LESS THAN A MONTH FROM 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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