KHS Corp. v. Singer Fin. Corp.
KHS Corp. v. Singer Fin. Corp.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff KHS Corporation ("KHS") brings suit against Singer Financial Corporation ("Singer Financial") and Paul Singer ("Singer") under the junk fax provision *526of the Telephone Consumer Protect Act ("TCPA"). The TCPA creates a private right of action, and allows a party to sue an individual or entity that sends it faxes that are advertisements and that are unsolicited. KHS contends that in 2015 Singer Financial sent it eight such faxes.
I. FINDINGS OF FACT
On February 25, 2019, the Court held a bench trial. At trial, William Schwemlein, an officer of KHS, testified for KHS. With Defendants' consent, KHS introduced the deposition of its expert, Christopher Lee Howard, in lieu of live testimony. Paul Singer, the corporate officer of Singer Financial, testified on behalf of the defense. Upon consideration of the evidence presented at trial, I make the following findings.
KHS Corporation is a family business currently owned and operated by two brothers, William and Karl Schwemlein, and located in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Its primary business is manufacturing components for aircraft engines. When not in the manufacturing plant or visiting clients, the Schwemlein brothers work in a small office, adjacent to the manufacturing plant, that they shared only with their secretary. This office includes a fax machine, with the fax number 215-947-8388. KHS considers this fax machine to be necessary for its machine shop business because some clients preferred to send purchase orders and receive technical information by fax. Because of this, KHS has had a continuous policy of never giving permission to anyone to send faxed advertisements to its fax number.
Singer Financial Corporation is a private financial lending company. Paul Singer is the sole shareholder and corporate officer. It was Paul Singer's practice, beginning when he worked as a mortgage broker for another company in the early 1990s, to drive around and jot down posted phone numbers of commercial real estate companies. He would then call those numbers, identify himself, and ask if he could send some information about his business by fax. If the person on the other end of the phone gave Paul Singer a fax number, Paul Singer would add that fax number to his list of contacts.
When Paul Singer established Singer Financial in 1992, he brought with him his list of contact information for potential clients from his previous job, including fax numbers. Singer Financial has continued to maintain a list of fax numbers, and has sent thousands of faxes to the numbers on this list. Paul Singer decided when Singer Financial should send faxes and who the faxes should be sent to, and approved the content and design of the faxes.
At some point, an entry for "Ambassador Realty" was added to Singer Financial's database of fax numbers. Pl.'s Ex. 5. This entry included Karl Schwemlein's name and KHS's fax number. Id.
The Schwemlein brothers also owned and managed two commercial real estate entities in Philadelphia: Central Square Center, Inc., acquired in October 1992, and Ambassador Center, Inc., acquired in 1995. In 1995, the Schwemlein brothers posted signs listing the phone numbers they used for their commercial real estate business at Ambassador Square (the property owned by Ambassador Center, Inc.). They did the same thing in 2007 at Central Square Center. If someone were to call the phone numbers on the signs, a phone would ring in the KHS office.
If William or Karl Schwemlein received a cold call from a real estate company or lender, he would say that KHS was not interested. If the KHS secretary received a cold call from a real estate company, she was instructed to only take the caller's *527number, and no one at KHS would ever return the call. The Schwemlein brothers had a policy of never giving out the KHS fax number for any purpose related to their commercial real estate holdings. Although the Schwemlein brothers used business cards that listed the KHS fax number, they only gave these cards to visitors to the KHS plant or to potential KHS customers.
Singer Financial did not receive permission from KHS to send it faxed advertisements. While Paul Singer testified to a conversation in which he remembers receiving the KHS fax number from Karl Schwemlein, this conversation could not have occurred as described. Paul Singer testified that, in 1990 or 1991, when he was working for his previous employer, he drove past one of the commercial real estate properties owned by the brothers, wrote down the phone number on the sign, called the number, and spoke to Karl Schwemlein. During that phone call, Paul Singer testified, he identified himself and his business and asked if he could send information by fax. Karl then allegedly gave Paul Singer the KHS fax number, and Singer added it to his database of fax numbers.
It would have been impossible for Paul Singer to get Karl Schwemlein's number in this way in 1990 or 1991, because the Schwemlein brothers did not acquire any commercial real estate until October 1992, and did not post signs listing their phone number at any commercial real estate sites until 1995. In addition, if this conversation had occurred, it would have been inconsistent with the Schwemlein brothers' policy of never giving out KHS's fax number for any purpose related to their commercial real estate business.
Nevertheless, in 2015, Singer Financial sent eight faxes to KHS's fax number.
II. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is "a remedial statute that was passed to protect consumers...." Gager v. Dell Fin. Servs., LLC ,
A. Singer Financial Corporation's Liability
As discussed above, I found that Singer Financial sent eight faxes to KHS in 2015. See supra Section I. Therefore, the remaining issues as to Singer Financial's liability are: (1) whether these faxes were advertisements, and (2) whether these faxes were unsolicited.
1. The faxes were advertisements
The TCPA defines an "advertisement" as "any material advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services."
The faxes here were plainly advertisements because they promoted the commercial availability of loans offered by Singer Financial. Six of the seven faxes for which images were recovered stated that Singer Financial offers "commercial or business loans secured by real estate," and the seventh stated that Singer Financial offered "loans." The faxes also included specific details about the loans offered by Singer Financial, including the starting interest rate and the available loan amounts. These faxes did not merely provide information about the loans offered by Singer Financial, but promoted the sale of these loans. The faxes emphasized that the loans could be obtained quickly, including the phrases "funds available now," "funds available today," and "loans approved in minutes!!" This language was not neutral information about Singer Financial's financial products, but was intended to persuade the reader to take out a loan from Singer Financial. Thus, all eight faxes sent from Singer Financial to KHS in 2015 were advertisements.
2. The faxes were unsolicited
A fax is unsolicited if it "is transmitted to any person without that person's *529prior express invitation or permission, in writing or otherwise."
As a statutory exception to the general illegality of unsolicited faxed advertisements, the TCPA allows unsolicited faxed advertisements when (1) the sender and the recipient have an established business relationship, (2) the recipient voluntarily communicated its fax number to the sender or made its fax number available for public distribution, and (3) the fax contains a notice meeting certain requirements.
B. Paul Singer's Personal Liability
KHS asks the Court to find that Paul Singer is personally liable for the faxes sent by Singer Financial to KHS. KHS relies on the legal principle, applied by numerous district courts confronted with this issue, that common law personal-liability for corporate officers applies to TCPA violations. See Pl.'s Trial Mem. at 6-9. Under this theory, a corporate officer can be liable for faxes sent by his company if he participated in or directed the violation. See Zubik v. Zubik ,
Recently, however, the Third Circuit, in extremely strong dicta, expressed doubt that "common-law personal-participation liability is available against corporate officers under the TCPA." City Select Auto Sales, Inc. v. David Randall Assocs., Inc. ,
The majority opinion's dicta also considered and rejected another possible source of personal liability for corporate officers under the TCPA: whether a corporate officer can be liable as a "sender" of unsolicited faxed advertisements. City Select Auto Sales ,
Following the Third Circuit's lead in its majority opinion, I find that a corporate officer is not liable under the TCPA under common law personal liability principles. Therefore, even though Paul Singer personally directed and participated in the sending of unsolicited faxed advertisements to KHS, he is not personally liable. In addition, there is no evidence that the faxes were really sent on Paul Singer's behalf, rather than Singer Financial's behalf. The faxes were advertisements promoting Singer Financial's products and services, and were sent to individuals and entities that Singer Financial hoped to do business with as a corporation. Therefore, Paul Singer was not a "sender" under the TCPA, and is not personally liable under the text of the statute.
C. Damages
Under the TCPA's private right of action, a plaintiff may recover the actual monetary loss from a TCPA violation, or $ 500 in damages for each TCPA violation, whichever is greater.
Here, there is no evidence that Singer Financial willfully or knowingly sent unsolicited faxed advertisements to KHS. Singer Financial believed that, because KHS's fax number was listed in its database of contacts, it had received permission from KHS at some point. Additionally, KHS never asked Singer Financial to stop sending it faxed advertisements. Because of the lack of evidence of a willful and knowing violation, I decline to exercise my discretion to increase the damages above $ 500 per violation.
III. CONCLUSION
Based upon the evidence presented at trial and an examination of the relevant law, I find that Singer Financial Corporation committed eight violations of the TCPA by sending eight unsolicited faxed advertisements to KHS Corporation. I also find that Paul Singer is not personally liable for these violations. I will enter judgment against Singer Financial in the amount of $ 4,000.00.
Although Karl Schwemlein did not testify at trial, I credit William Schwemlein's account of his brother's practices related to handling cold calls from real estate companies or lenders and sharing KHS's fax number. The brothers spent almost all their workday together in the same small office, where they were privy to most of each other's phone calls and conversations.
The faxes were sent on the following dates: February 15, 2015; March 28, 2015; April 5, 2015; May 25, 2015; June 15, 2015; August 15, 2015; August 29, 2015; and November 27, 2015. Howard Dep. at 18:11-20.
When Paul Singer was shown these faxes at trial, he stated that the faxes had been sent by Singer Financial. The Singer defendants' counsel conceded at trial that the eighth fax, for which no image was recovered, was substantially similar to the other seven.
Although images of only seven faxes were produced at trial, the Singer defendants' counsel conceded at trial that the eighth fax was similar to the other seven. Because I find that all seven of the faxes for which images were produced were advertisements, I find that the eighth fax was as well.
The minority opinion, also in dicta, takes the opposing view. City Select Auto Sales ,
Reference
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- KHS CORP. v. SINGER FINANCIAL CORP.
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- 7 cases
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- Published