Time Warner Cable Inc. will give nearly $230,000 to a Texas woman who complained that the cable company harassed her with 153 robocalls even after she complained about them having the wrong phone number, a Manhattan federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Araceli King, of Irving, Texas, accused Time Warner Cable of harassing her by leaving messages for Luiz Perez, who once held her cellphone number. She made it clear who she was in a seven-minute discussion with a company representative but the calls did not stop.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered Time Warner Cable Inc. on Tuesday to make the $229,500 payment to King, citing the New York-based company's "particularly egregious" behavior as it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, according to the New York Daily News.
King sued last year, saying she had repeatedly asked the company to stop making the calls.
Susan Leepson, a Time Warner spokeswoman, said the company is reviewing its options and determining how to proceed.
Hellerstein tripled the $1,500 penalty for each call because "a responsible business" would have tried harder to find Perez and address the problem, according to Reuters.
The judge noted that 74 of the calls were made after Time Warner received a copy of King's lawsuit in March 2014, and that it was "incredible" to try and believe that Time Warner Cable still did not know she objected.
King's lawyer, Sergei Lemberg, said his client is delighted, according to Cleveland.com. He believes that the decision sends a message to consumers to "stop taking it on the chin" when it comes to robocalls and that it's necessary for companies to pay attention to human beings, even when technology is used to make repeated calls.
