Attorneys who bagged millions of dollars in fees from a $56-$75 million class action settlement in Chicago federal court against a cruise line and others accused of making illegal telemarketing calls, are alleging the defendants are trying now to sabotage the settlement by using bogus grounds to challenge 45,000 of 58,000 claims submitted.
The Chicago firms of Edelson P.C. and Loevy & Loevy are representing plaintiffs in a class action against Caribbean Cruise Line, phone polling and telemarketing company Economic Strategy Group and timeshare operators Berkley Group and Vacation Ownership Marketing Tours.
The 2012 suit alleged defendants violated the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act by placing millions of unsolicited telemarketing calls, in which an automated voice said recipients could be eligible for a “free cruise” if they took a political survey. However, taxes and fees had to be paid for the cruise. Recipients were given a different package if they would tour a Berkley Group timeshare property. Defendants tried to mask the illegal calls as legitimate survey calls, the suit alleged.
The case settled in 2016, with defendants agreeing to pay between $56 million and $76 million, depending on how many people submitted claims.
On May 18, plaintiff attorneys charged defendants were attempting to undermine the settlement by contesting 75 percent of claims approved by the settlement administrator. Defendants based their challenges on their “admittedly” incomplete records, which documented two million calls, when one defendant's own testimony reported nearly 50 million calls were made, plaintiffs contended.
“Defendants are now attempting to use the challenge process to limit the total payout to the Class to something closer to the $56 million 'floor,' rather than the $76 million 'ceiling.' The Court has recognized that Defendants have repeatedly tried to use the fact that their records were incomplete to their advantage,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers alleged.
The attorneys further alleged defendants are trying to “undo the procedure the Parties put in place to account for Defendants’ flawed records.”
Caribbean Cruise Line and the others also want the 45,000 challenged claimants to be sent notice, at plaintiffs' expense, that their claims are under challenge and they must give proof of the calls they say they received.
“If there is no basis to lodge the challenge in the first place, then sending notice lacks a basis as well. Moreover, no additional information is needed from those individuals to determine that Defendants’ en masse challenge is not valid,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys maintained.
Plaintiff attorneys want U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly, who has presided over the class action, to reject defendants' alleged invalid challenges and only allow notices for valid challenges.
The four plaintiffs who lodged the suit are each receiving $10,000. Edelson and Loevy & Loevy will collect between $15.3 million and $19 million, according to how much is paid in claims. Claimants are each receiving at least $500.
Defendants are represented by attorneys from the firms of Greenspoon Marder, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Rose, Harrison & Gilreath, of Kill Devil Hills, N.C.; and the Chicago-based firms of Tabet, DiVito & Rothstein; Mayer Brown; and the Forde Law Offices.