Supreme Court hears argument on class action spam Case

Of interest to class action lawyers is the case of Campbell-Ewald Company v. Gomez currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. The issues presented are: whether a case becomes moot when the plaintiff receives an offer of complete relief on his or her claim; whether the answer to the first question is different if the case is a putative class action; and, whether the doctrine of derivative sovereign immunity for government contractors is restricted to property damage arising out of a public works project. Oral argument on the matter occurred on October 14, 2005. The case arose out of an unsolicited text message that Jose Gomez received. This spam text was a violation of Federal law. Campbell-Ewald attempted to quash the putative class action by offering Mr. Gomez the maximum offered under Federal law for spam texting -$1500. William Riley commenting on this case stated, “This represents a dangerous approach that defendants could exploit to continue their economic wrongdoing to an entire class of individuals – while minimizing their economic risk of that wrong doing.” Williams Law Group, LLC will continue to monitor the case and its certain impact on class action law.