New York, NY: The loan re-financing branch of General Motors Co, is facing a class action lawsuit alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Brought by Monique Perez of California, the lawsuit claims that beginning in late 2013, General Motors Financial Co. Inc. made "virtually daily incessant calls"to Perez' cellphone regaring a debt allegedly owed by another person named "Melanie."
Perez claims that by calling from an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), which can store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator, GM Financial violated the TCPA.
According to the lawsuit, "Plaintiff has never provided any personal information, including her cellular telephone number, to defendant for any purpose. As such, neither defendant nor its agents were provided with prior express consent to place calls via its ATDS to plaintiff' cellular telephone."
The plaintiff alleges members of the class not only suffered privacy violations but also suffered cellular telephone charges or saw a reduction in cellular telephone time that had already been paid for.
Perez is seeking to represent a putative class, made up of all US residents who received any telephone call from the company to a cellphone through the use of an ATDS within the past four years. She is seeking $500 per negligent violation and $1,500 per knowing or willful violation of the TCPA for each class member.
The plaintiff is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Nicholas J. Bontrager of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC; Abbas Kazerounian and Jason A. Ibey of Kazerouni Law Group APC; and Joshua B. Swigart and Jessica R.K. Dorman of Hyde & Swigart.
The case is Monique Perez v. General Motors Financial Co. Inc., case number 8:14-cv-00735, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
