Southern District of California Denies Certification of Wrong Number TCPA Class -

On March 28, 2017, the Southern District of California denied class certification in a case arising under the TCPA. Plaintiff alleged that defendant AT&T repeatedly called his cell phone beginning in June 2013 continuing through December 2015, even though he had no account with AT&T. Plaintiff also alleged that on two of the calls, he informed AT&T that they had the wrong number. Nevertheless, the calls continued. Plaintiff filed a series of amended pleadings, all of which through the Third Amended Complaint, defined the class as persons who received violative calls "whose phone number was obtained by skip tracing or through other third parties."

Plaintiff then requested leave to file a Fourth Amended Complaint, which defined the class as those who received violative calls when "Defendant had reached a 'wrong number' or similar notation in defendant's records." The Court denied plaintiff leave to file his Fourth Amended Complaint due to plaintiff's failure to show good cause under Rule 16(b). In particular, plaintiff failed to explain the delay in filing his motion for leave to amend given his knowledge of the facts and his filing of prior several amended complaints.