Settlement: $883,500

Case San Barajas, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated v. Dixieline Lumber Company, No. GIC 841991

Court:    Superior Court of San Diego County, San Diego
Judge:   Yuri Hofmann
Date:      11/9/2006

Plaintiff:

Attorney(s)

Gene Stonebarger, Lindsay & Stonebarger, Sacramento, CA

Todd Atkins, Atkins & Davidson APC, San Diego, CA

James Lindsay, Lindsay & Stonebarger, Sacramento, CA

Defense

Attorney(s)

Robert J. Hatem, Klinedinst PC, Los Angeles, CA

Facts & Allegations

In January 2005, named plaintiff San Barajas, 30s, entered a Dixieline Lumber store to purchase house wares. She brought her items to the register and offered the cashier her credit card for payment. When Barajas was presented with the sales slip to sign, the slip contained a portion of print that possessed a line for the card member to write down their phone number. Barajas signed her name, wrote down her phone number, and left with her items. A few days later, Barajas felt uncomfortable with the fact that she had written her phone number on a slip of paper that held her credit card information so she retained counsel.

Claiming that presenting her with a pre-printed credit card authorization slip that presented a line for her telephone number violated the California Song-Beverly Consumer Act, Barajas sued the Dixieline Lumber Company, San Diego for damages. The lawsuit was filed on January 31, 2005 and sought class certification. Counsel for Dixieline Lumber opposed class certification on the grounds that the class was too small to warrant certification since the percentage of those presented with the form that entered their telephone numbers was miniscule and that Dixieline Lumber never orally requested any customer's phone numbers, nor did Dixieline Lumber take any action with the numbers after they had been presented by its customers. Despite the argument by the defense, class certification was granted and, per the statute of limitations pertinent to filing procedure, members of the class consisted of any Dixieline Lumber customer who made a credit card purchase at a California location from Jan. 31, 2004 through March 8, 2005, the last date that the phone number entry field appeared on their authorization slip.

Plaintiffs' counsel argued that the mere presentation of an entry field requesting a customer's telephone number alongside their signature on a credit card authorization slip violated the Song Beverly Consumer Act.

Dixieline Lumber argued that the number of people who actually entered their phone number equaled a very small percentage of the class in the suit and sought to have the class restricted to those who actually entered the information. In addition, Dixieline Lumber filed a cross-complaint against the providers of the credit card processing software, SalePoint Inc., San Diego, for placing the phone number entry field on the authorization slip.

Injuries/Damages

An estimated 250,000 Dixieline Lumber customers were presented with credit card sale authorization slips from January 31, 2004 through March 8, 2005.

Plaintiffs' counsel maintained that the presence of the request violated the privacy and identity protection security of the customers and was a violation of Song-Beverly.

The defense denied that Dixieline had any knowledge that the phone number entry field constituted a violation of law or that any records were kept of the requested information. Dixieline Lumber maintained that the information was never utilized by any of its employees for any purpose.

Result

The parties agreed to a settlement that awarded a $20 gift card to any customer who paid for their Dixieline Lumber purchase by credit card during the stipulated time frame and $325,000. The estimated value of the settlement, including the value of the gift cards was $883,500 and Dixieline Lumber will administer the claim itself by advertising the award to its customer base within its stores as well as on its website.

Plaintiff(s)

San Barajas and Class of Approximately 250,000

$883,500 plaintiff's total award

Demand None reported

Offer None reported

Insurer(s)

            self insured for Dixieline Lumber Company

Plaintiff

Expert(s)

            None reported

Defense

Expert(s)

            None reported

Post-Trial

Dixieline Lumber's cross-complaint against SalePoint was not resolved at the time that this report went to press.

Editor's Note

None reported

Plaintiff(s)

Demographics

            San Barajas and Class of Approximately 250,000

                        Age: None reported

                        Occupation: None reported

                        Gender: None reported

                        Married: None reported

                        Children: None reported

                        Children Description: None reported

Written By –Joshua Couzens