ST. LOUIS — U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh has certified a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action against Innate Intelligence LLC, a business that handles advertising and management of 12 chiropractic offices across the country.
Limbaugh held that a proposed class of more than 10,000 members met the requirements of a Rule 23 class certification in terms of numerosity, commonality, typicality and adequacy of representation.
Plaintiff Levine Hat Co. filed suit in 2016 against Innate as well as Nepute Enterprises LLC and ProFax Inc., claiming Innate contracted with ProFax to send tens of thousands of unsolicited ad faxes to people with whom Innate had no preexisting relationship.
The suit claims that through discovery, Levine obtained documents that purportedly shows all the transmissions Innate hired ProFax to make. The transmission logs show that 9,553 fax transmissions were sent by ProFax to 8,542 persons in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Washington and Wisconsin, the order states.
One ad in particular sent on July 5, 2016 offered a free "lunch 'n learn stress management for your employees."
The lawsuit was initiated a week later, the order indicates.
Levine claims the plaintiff was "annoyed and disturbed by receiving the fax," having lost employee time, as well as wasted its fax machine, ink and paper.
It also argues that an opt-out notice at the bottom of the fax did not comply with requirements under law.
In an order issued Feb. 9, Limbaugh wrote that "notably, none of the defendants argues that the factors of Rule 23 are not met."
"Innate and Nepute did not oppose class certification at all," he wrote.
"Although discussion of the merits is sometimes necessary in establishing whether the Rule 23 requirements are met, ProFax’s arguments do not go to whether any of the Rule 23 factors --- numerosity, commonality, typicality, adequacy, and superiority --- are met here."