Opinion ID: 2339712
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Abuse of Discretion in Determining the Ultimate Merits of Taranto's Defenses During Class Certification

Text: Taranto presented evidence that some fax targets had consented to receiving fax advertisements and that additional fax targets had an established business relationship with Taranto. These are absolute defenses under 47 U.S.C. § 227. The district court found that Taranto had presented no evidence of express prior consent to send the fax advertisements to the entities on the two lists, and, in fact, Taranto had never seen one of the lists and had not sought consent from the parties on the other list. The district court determined that even if, in individual cases, consent was given or an established business relationship existed, common questions predominated among the recipients of a mass broadcast. The district court found that the possibly small number of lawful transmissions would not defeat class certification for the many targets of the unlawful transmissions. Finally, the district court held, Taranto bore the burden of proving its affirmative defenses at trial, and it was improper to place the burden on the plaintiff to establish prior to class certification that the defenses would not apply to all class members. Taranto complains on appeal that this finding determines the ultimate validity of the claims or defenses at issue, in violation of Dragon I, 277 Kan. at 780-81, 89 P.3d 908. The text of the district court order does not demonstrate that the district court determined the ultimate merits of Defendant's defenses, as Taranto alleges. The district court findings instead go to whether the affirmative defenses served to bar class certification, either by reducing the numerosity of the class or by creating highly individualized issues regarding each plaintiff. Evidence from discovery suggested that Taranto had not obtained widespread consent to send fax advertisements, that it had made no effort to limit its fax transmissions to established customers, and that it would be relatively easy to winnow out those plaintiffs with whom Taranto had an established business relationship. In short, the district court did not require the plaintiffs to prove their relationships with Taranto at the time of certification; the opportunity to present such proof will still be available to Taranto if the case proceeds to trial. If additional evidence demonstrates that class certification is inappropriate because of the affirmative defenses, the district court will have the discretion to decertify the class.