"Human Intervention" In Calling System Dooms Plaintiff's TCPA Claim

Another Florida district court, another favorable ruling for companies facing TCPA lawsuits.  In Pozo v. Stellar Recovery Collection Agency, Inc., U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony E. Porcelli granted summary judgment for defendant Stellar Recovery Collection Agency, Inc. ("Stellar") after determining that the "point and click" dialing system it used to call the plaintiff did not constitute an automatic telephone dialing system ("ATDS") under the TCPA.¹  This follows a recent decision out of the Southern District of Florida—Strauss v. CBE Group, Inc.—that granted summary judgment on similar grounds.

Background.  The plaintiff claimed that he received several debt collection calls from Stellar and that the calls continued even after he told Stellar that it was calling the wrong person.  The parties disagreed over the number and content of calls but agreed that Stellar placed the calls using the web-based LiveVox Human Call Initiator (HCI) dialing system.  The sole