N. L. v. Credit One Bank, N.A.

N. L. v. Credit One Bank, N.A.

Opinion

 [*1165]  BRESS, Circuit Judge:

Over a period of four months, Credit One Bank's vendors made 189 automated calls to an eleven-year-old boy's cell phone. Credit One was trying to collect past-due payments from a customer, but, unbeknownst to the bank, the customer's cell phone number had been reassigned to Sandra Lemos, who in turn had let her son, N.L., use the phone as his own. N.L.  [*1166]  sued Credit One [**3]  for the torrent of unwelcome calls. Among other things, he alleged that Credit One violated ] the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which makes it unlawful to call a cell phone "using any automatic telephone dialing system," or ATDS, without the "prior express consent of the called party." 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A).

The principal question in this case is whether Credit One can escape liability under the TCPA because the party it intended to call (its customer) had given consent to be called, even though the party it actually called had not. Consistent with every circuit to have addressed this issue, we hold that this argument fails under the TCPA's text, most naturally read. Credit One is therefore liable under the TCPA for its calls to N.L. We affirm the district court in this and all respects.

Credit One is a national bank that provides credit card services. When its customers fall behind on payments, Credit One hires vendors to make collection calls to the delinquent cardholders. D.V. was a Credit One customer who, in 2014, gave the bank his consent to be called on a cell phone number ending in - 9847 (the plaintiff here disputes that D.V. gave sufficient consent, but we will assume D.V. did so). About [**4]  two years later, and without Credit One's knowledge, the phone number was reassigned to Sandra Lemos. Lemos then allowed her minor son N.L. to use the number.

When D.V. fell behind on his credit card payments, three of Credit One's vendors started calling the - 9847 number to collect the outstanding amounts. The vendors ultimately called the number 189 times between February 20, 2017 and June 13, 2017. In one instance, N.L. received eight calls in a single day, all before noon. On another occasion, Credit One vendors called N.L. six times; three calls were made in the same hour and two were made within a minute of each other. To place the calls, the vendors used dialing systems that call specific numbers from preset lists.

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