ST. LOUIS — A woman is suing a debt collector, citing alleged telephone harassment and invasion of privacy while attempting to collect a debt.
Katherine Sims filed a complaint July 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Eastern Division against Caliber Home Loans Inc. alleging that the defendant violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that she received calls from the defendant using an automatic telephone dialing system or robocalls in an effort to collect a debt. The plaintiff allegedly told the debt collector that such calls were unwanted and should stop and informed the company why she left her home. She claims she still received calls and was told that they would only stop if the debt has been paid.
As a result, Sims claims the calls caused diminished battery life on her phone, wasted her phone plan minutes, wasted her time and violated her privacy.
The plaintiff holds Caliber Home Loans responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to have the prior express consent before calling, made calls using an automatic telephone dialing system and ignored the plaintiff's request for the calls stop and continued to call her cellphone.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment for statutory damages of $500 per call, award of treble damages of $1,500, injunction prohibiting from calling the plaintiff's cellphone and other relief as may be just and proper. She is represented by Patrick J. Helwig of Barry & Helwig LLC in Minneapolis and Kimberly Wirth of Law Offices of William A. Mueller LLC in Belleville, Illinois.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Eastern Division case number 4:17-cv-01916-HEA