As I often say, the most unfair rule in American law is that individuals involved with TCPA violations taken by their employer can be personally sued for them.

For instance if you are a lowly call center employee who happens to field an illegal call made by your call center’s autodialer you might be sued personally. So too of the call center manager. So too of any marketing director or executive that structured the campaign.

Its nuts.

No where else in the law do you see liability attaching to individuals who had only tangential–or no actual–role in tortious conduct. And most of the time corporate execs responsible for misconduct face no penalties at all.

but in TCPAWorld folks are constantly being sued individually, and many times to good effect.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, however, has pushed back pretty hard on that concept and the district courts in Pennsylvania have taken note.

For instance in Perrong v. Chase Data, 2024 WL 329933 (E.D. Pa. Jan 26, 2024) the Court dismissed all TCPA claims against an individual business owner. This is true although the owner was alleged to have taken personal steps in connection with the illegal calls.

The Court reasoned as follows:

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has raised “doubt” as to whether “common-law personal participation liability is available against corporate officers under the TCPA.” City Select Auto Sales, Inc., 885 F.3d 154, 160 (3d Cir. 2018). The court’s opinion noted that because “Congress has demonstrated in many statutes that it ‘kn[ows] how to impose’ personal-participation liability ‘when it cho[oses] to do so,’ the argument that Congressional silence indicates such an intent is a weak one at best.” Id. at 161 (quoting Cent. Bank of Denver N.A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N.A., 511 U.S. 164, 176–77 (1994)) (alterations in the original).

Since City Select, courts in this circuit have found that “a corporate officer is not liable under the TCPA common law personal liability principles.” KHS Corp. v. Singer Fin. Corp, 376 F. Supp. 3d 524, 530 (E.D. Pa. 2019) (finding no personal liability although defendant “personally directed and participated in” a TCPA violation); see also Kline v. Advanced Ins. Underwriters, LLP, No. 1:19-cv-00437, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110453, *19 (M.D. Pa., June 23, 2020) (noting personal liability for corporate officers does “not appear to be a cognizable theory of liability under the TCPA.”). All claims against Macklai are dismissed accordingly

Very solid.