Navy Federal Credit Union TCPA Class Action Settlement Approved

A $2.75 million settlement between Navy Federal Credit Union and a consumer Class alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act has been preliminarily approved.

Lead plaintiff Ronald Munday brought the class action lawsuit against Navy Federal Credit Union in Oct. 2015, claiming the company violated the TCPA by autodialing him on his cellphone without consent.

Specifically, Munday’s complaint alleges that around Feb. 2015 Navy Federal Credit Union used an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) to robocall his cell phone.

When he answered the calls, Munday reported hearing a period of silence before an Navy Federal representative came on the line, an indication of the use of an ATDS.

According to Munday, the representatives from Navy Federal indicated that they were calling for someone else, a person that he didn’t know named “Joshua Selter.” Although Munday repeatedly asked Navy Federal to stop calling, the unwanted phone calls allegedly persisted.

Because Navy Federal used an ATDS and didn’t have his express written consent to robocall his cell phone, Munday alleges that the calls were violations of the TCPA.

Navy Federal Credit Union stated they found a “gap” in their system logic that allowed for the repeated automated telephone calls to individuals and telephone numbers that were previously coded as “wrong numbers” and agreed to take action to resolve the issue, according to a joint motion for preliminary approval of settlement submitted in March.

Discovery in the case revealed that between Oct. 9, 2011, and March 14, 2016, Navy Federal employed an automatic phone dialing system to call 90,726 unique telephone numbers that were identified as “wrong numbers.” The $2.75 million TCPA settlement will apply to individuals who owned these numbers.

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton initially denied the motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement, citing “a notable deficiency as to the scope of the proposed release” of claims in the case.

Judge Staton ruled that the release included a “without limitation clause” that made the notice “unclear whether there is any real limitation on the release of claims of any and every kind against the defendant.

“The release does not appropriately track the extent and breadth of plaintiff’s allegations in the complaint,” the judge noted in May.

Now, after a court hearing and additional revisions, Judge Staton has deemed the settlement acceptable.

“The revised language removed several phrases — including, for example, ‘without limitation’ — that the court disapproved in its prior order,” the judge stated.

Additionally, the court deemed the Armed Services YMCA as an inappropriate cy pres recipient, with insufficient relation to the settlement Class and so the cy pres recipient has been changed to the Consumer Federation of America.

A final settlement fairness hearing is scheduled for Feb.17, 2017.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

Munday is represented by Sergei Lemberg, Stephen Taylor and Trinette Kent of Lemberg Law LLC.

The Navy Federal Credit Union TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Ronald Munday v. Navy Federal Credit Union, Case No. 8:15-cv-01629, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: The Navy Federal Credit Union TCPA Class Action Settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: On Sept. 30, 2017, Top Class Actions viewers who filed valid claims for the Navy Federal Credit Union TCPA class action settlement started receiving checks in the mail worth as much as $287.99!

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If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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