''Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez'', 577 U.S. ___ (2016), was a case in which the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

clarified whether a case becomes

moot Moot may refer to: * Mootness, in American law: a point where further proceedings have lost practical significance; whereas in British law: the issue remains debatable * Moot court, an activity in many law schools where participants take part in s ...

when a party provides a settlement offer that satisfies a named

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...

's claims in a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

suit and whether a

government contractor A government contractor is a company (privately owned, publicly traded or a state-owned enterprise)either for profit or non-profitthat produces goods or services under contract for the government. Some communities are largely sustained by governme ...

is entitled to "derivative sovereign immunity".

Background

Telephone Consumer Protection Act

The

Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) was passed by the United States Congress in 1991 and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush as Public Law 102-243. It amended the Communications Act of 1934. The TCPA is codified as ...

prohibits individuals from sending unsolicited telephonic communications. Specifically, the Act prohibits individuals from "mak ngany call" or "using any automatic telephone dialing system" to contact a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service without the prior consent. A text message is considered the equivalent of a "call" under the Act. Private citizens may file a lawsuit against individuals who violate the act. If successful, plaintiffs may recover $500 for each violation or their "actual monetary loss" (whichever is greater), and damages may be tripled if the defendant "knowingly" or "willfully" violated the Act.

Gomez's class action claim

In the year 2000, the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

contracted with the Campbell-Ewald Company to develop a multimedia

military recruiting Military recruitment refers to the activity of attracting people to, and selecting them for, military training and employment. Demographics Gender Across the world, a large majority of recruits to state armed forces and non-state armed gr ...

campaign. Beginning in 2005, Campbell proposed a campaign where young adults would receive text messages; the Navy agreed to implement the program on the condition that the messages would only be sent to "individuals who had 'opted in' to receipt of marketing solicitations on topics that included service in the Navy." Campbell then generated a list of 100,000 cellular phone numbers that they believed were owned by young adults "between the ages of 18 and 24 who had consented to receiving solicitations by text message." In May 2006, Campbell authorized the transmission of a text message to those phone numbers, which encouraged individuals to learn more about service in the Navy. Jose Gomez received the text message, but he alleged that he never consented to receive the message. He then filed a class action lawsuit in the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, m ...

on behalf of a nationwide class of individuals who had received the text message, but had not previously consented to its delivery.''Campbell-Ewald'', slip op. at 3. The suit alleged that Campbell's transmission of the text message violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. Gomez's lawsuit claimed costs and attorneys fees, which he claimed should be tripled in light of Campbell's conduct, as well as an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

to prevent future unsolicited messaging. Before Gomez's class was certified, Campbell proposed a settlement (pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68), which offered to pay Gomez's costs and $1503.00 for every text message that he could prove that he received, but they did not agree to pay attorneys fees. After Gomez rejected this settlement offer, Campbell filed a motion to dismiss on the basis that the case was now

because the settlement offer provided Gomez complete relief. The district court denied the motion and allowed class action claims to proceed. Prior to trial, Campbell filed a separate motion for summary judgment, claiming that it was entitled to sovereign immunity "as a contractor acting on the Navy's behalf." The district court granted the motion, but on

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

revered the district court's ruling. In 2015, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a

circuit split In United States federal courts, a circuit split occurs when two or more different circuit courts of appeals provide conflicting rulings on the same legal issue. The existence of a circuit split is one of the factors that the Supreme Court of ...

about whether a complete settlement offer can cause a case to become moot.

Opinion of the Court

In a majority opinion written by

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President ...

, the Court held that "an unaccepted settlement offer has no force" and, under

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (officially abbreviated Fed. R. Civ. P.; colloquially FRCP) govern civil procedure in United States district courts. The FRCP are promulgated by the United States Supreme Court pursuant to the Rules Enabling ...

68, it does not render a lawsuit moot. Additionally, Justice Ginsburg held that the government contractor in this case was not entitled to derivative sovereign immunity.''Campbell-Ewald'', slip op. at 1, 12-14.

References

External links