SunPath & National Car Cure Robocall Lawsuit Settlement

Parties agree to settle extended warranty TCPA lawsuit out of court

Posted by Craig Randall

July 28, 2020

On Monday, July 20, 2020, a Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice was approved by Chief Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel in the extended warranty robocall lawsuit Timmerman v. National Car Cure, LLC et al, case number 3:20-cv-00590 in Illinois Southern District Court.

The amount of the settlement is undisclosed in the filing, which was submitted on July 16th.

The suit had been originally filed in St. Clair County, Illinois Circuit Court by Plaintiff Adam Timmerman who accused the defendants of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 by robodialing his cell phone multiple times in early 2020 in an attempt to sell him an extended warranty.

Per the filing, the "Plaintiff and Defendants have reached an agreement to settle all claims by and between them in the above-captioned action and stipulate and agree, pursuant to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, that this action, and all claims for relief and causes of action alleged herein, shall be dismissed with prejudice."

The parties each agreed to pay their attorney's fees and costs.

A copy of the Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with Prejudice can be read here.

A copy of our original post from July 20, 2020 is below:

A lawsuit accusing National Car Cure, LLC, SunPath LTD., and SunPath Funding, LLC of violating, among other things, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991(TCPA) was moved from the Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in St. Clair County, to United States District Court at the request of the Defendants in the case.

The Notice of Removal was filed on June 19th, 2020 and on Monday, June 22nd was randomly assigned to United States Magistrate Judge Reona J. Daly.

The calls were made by or on Defendants’ behalf with their knowledge and approval. Defendants and their companies and affiliates knew about the calls, received the benefits of the calls, directed that the calls be made, and/or ratified the making of the calls. In fact, SunPath and National Car Cure have been put on repeated notice of numerous auto-dialing activities for which they receive tremendous benefit. They specifically engage sellers like National Car Cure to violate the law and then benefit financially.

Extended Warranty Robocall Lawsuit

The suit accuses National Car Cure, a marketer of vehicle service contracts, and SunPath of violating the Illinois Automatic Telephone Dialers Act, two sections of the TCPA, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

The Plaintiff in the suit, Adam Timmerman of St. Clair County, Illinois, accuses the defendants of multiple robocalls to his cell phone in early 2020. Timmerman claims that his number had been registered on the Do-Not-Call registry at least 30 days prior to receiving the automated calls.

The complaint states that although National Car Cure is the party that allegedly robodialed Timmerman, SunPath, which is a provider of vehicle service contracts, has "full knowledge" of the robocalls and profits from them.

"SunPath entities profit from, permit and approve of National Car Cure selling VSCs using an illegally [sic] dialing scheme," the filing states, "Defendants all know of multiple complaints regarding National Car Cure yet still does business with them. National Car Cure could not illegally dial customers without SunPath's approval and support."

Timmerman's lawsuit claims that there are tree types of violations in the case: (1) using automatic telephone dialing systems to make unsolicited marketing calls to cell phones, (2) repeated calls to the Plaintiff's cells phone which is listed on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, and (3) creating fake consent proof from the Plaintiff when none existed.

The suit seeks treble damages of up to $1500 for each violation plus damages, attorneys' fees and costs.

The case is filed as Timmerman v. National Car Cure, LLC et al in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, case number 3:20-cv-590.

You can read a copy of the original filing here, and find a copy of the Notice of Removal here.