JACKSONVILLE – A Duval County consumer claims a Tallahassee debt collector called him approximately 100 times in an attempt to collect an alleged debt.
Thomas Smalls filed a complaint on Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division against Monterey Financial Services Inc. alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in November 2015, he started receiving calls from the defendant, who utilized an automatic telephone dialing system or a prerecorded voice. The suit states that on June 1, he revoked his consent to be called, but despite the revocation, the defendant continued to call. As a result, he alleges he suffered from invasion of privacy, stress, anxiety, nervousness, embarrassment, expenditure of his time, exhaustion of his telephone battery and caused the risk of personal injury due to distraction and trespass.
The plaintiff holds Monterey Financial Services Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to satisfy the demands of plaintiff to cease calling and failed to remove plaintiff's stored contact number from its autodialer.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendant, damages, costs, interest, attorney's fees, enjoinder from further violations and other relief the court may deem just. He is represented by Frank H. Kerney III of Morgan & Morgan PA in Tampa.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division Case number 3:16-cv-01229