Summary Judgment Denied: PA State Rep. Bradford Stuck in Individual Capacity TCPA Suit for Prerecorded Calls

The decision allows for TCPA suits against any person sending prerecorded calls.

This Monday is not shaping up to be a good day for Rep. Matt Bradford of Pennsylvania, who just lost his attempt at summary judgment in an individual capacity TCPA suit arising from his use of prerecorded robocalls in Perrong v. Bradford. Another great win for Andrew Perrong and Perrong Law LLC.

Judge Wolson’s full 18-page opinion is here. Incredibly well reasoned, but I might be just a little biased. Leave it to Wolson to craft a great opinion, even quoting Blondie, “When it comes to robocalls, you can only call those who, like Blondie, have said, ‘Call me. Call me on the line.’”

There’s a number of other great quotable notables in this one:

“What’s left is to ensure that Rep. Bradford is a person under the statute. He is.”

“In his individual capacity, there’s little question that Rep. Bradford is a “person” under the TCPA because he’s an individual. He argues otherwise, but his arguments all focus on the idea that the definition of “person” does not extend to a sovereign. He’s right, but the argument misses the point.”

“Rep. Bradford violated Mr. Perrong’s clearly established rights.”

“The right that Section 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) creates is clearly established. The statutory text is not ambiguous.”

“The TCPA applies to “individuals,” of which Rep. Bradford is obviously one. Although the FCC has concluded that the TCPA does not apply to a state government, an individual legislator is not the government, nor does he act for the government when he exercises his discretion and makes individual decisions to publicize events to his constituents.”

“In this case, that written word is the TCPA, and it could not be clearer that it applies to all calls that any individual makes using a prerecorded voice, including an individual serving as a state legislator.”

To add insult to injury and really rub salt into the wound, the taxpayers of Pennsylvania were on the hook for over $30,000 in legal fees defending this case over maximum liability of $7,500. They spent 4x more than max statutory damages in defending a state representative for actions taken in his individual capacity and still lost. Talk about a bad day!