Fulton Dental, LLC v. Bisco, Inc.

This case was brought as a class action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.  Less than two months after the complaint was filed, the defendant moved for leave to deposit with the district an amount in funds that, it stated, was more than the plaintiff, Fulton Dental, could receive on its individual claim.  The district court granted the motion to deposit and held that the deposit—along with the defendant’s willingness to have an injunction entered against it—rendered Fulton Dental’s individual claim and the entire class action moot.  It then entered an injunction, an order entitling Fulton Dental to relief, and judgment in Fulton Dental’s favor (on the same claim it had declared moot), and dismissed the class claims as moot.

We represented Fulton Dental on appeal to the Seventh Circuit. The court of appeals held that the deposit did not moot Fulton Dental’s claim and reversed the judgment.