TCPA Class Action Against The Buccaneers Is Mooted … Rematch Already Underway

As we recently discussed, in Stein, et al. v. Buccaneers LP, No. 13-2136 (M.D. Fla.), the Bucs filed a motion to dismiss a putative TCPA class action on the ground that its pre-certification offer of judgment mooted the named plaintiffs' claims.  In response to the motion to dismiss—indeed, one day later—plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification.  Although Judge Merryday immediately denied plaintiffs' class certification motion as "premature" and lacking "evidentiary support," he did not rule on the underlying motion to dismiss.

That no longer is the case.  Last week, Judge Merryday granted the Bucs' motion to dismiss, concluding the "Rule 68 offers of judgment preceded the motion to certify the class" and thus there was a lack of a "jurisdictionally necessary case or controversy."  From the get-go, Judge Merryday was suspicious of the motives behind the lawsuit; he candidly stated "something else must be going on here."  That "something else," he