PHILADELPHIA – A Delaware County man who says he received illegal telemarketing calls on his cell phone from a pair of digital marketing companies in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has dismissed his own case.
Robert A. Murphy IV of Delaware County initially filed a complaint on Oct. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, against pr.business, LLC of Boca Raton, Fla. and YEXT of New York, N.Y.
The suit stated pr.business, LLC is doing business as “Onboarding Alexa and Alexa Signup.” Murphy alleged in January, he began to receive dozens of calls from pr.business, which was working on behalf of YEXT, attempting to offer him “placement on the Amazon Alexa Network.”
Murphy asserted the calls were made using an automatic telephone dialing system and made without his prior written consent, thereby being in violation of the TCPA, according to the suit.
On Dec. 20, both pr.business and YEXT filed matching responses to Murphy’s lawsuit, denying its allegations of conclusions of law to which no legal response was required and asserting no less than 23 affirmative defenses.
These defenses included failure of the plaintiff to state a claim, prior express consent to make the calls, no use of an automatic telephone dialing system to make the calls, the defendants not engaging in willful or knowing misconduct, no violation of any “Do Not Call” registry and no violation of the Pennsylvania Telemarketing Registration Act, among others.
On May 20, counsel for the parties filed a stipulation in which Murphy agreed to dismiss his individual claim against the defendants with prejudice and the putative class claims against the defendants without prejudice.
Prior to dismissal, Murphy sought monetary damages, to enjoin the defendants from further engaging in the alleged unlawful conduct, a trial by jury and all other just relief.
The plaintiff was represented by Glenn Ellis of The Freiwald Law Firm, in Philadelphia.
The defendants were represented by Julian E. Neiser of Spilman Thomas & Battle in Pittsburgh, plus Bryan A. Merryman of White & Case, in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:19-cv-04909
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com