| Bid to protect Cowboys in fax lawsuits defeated 04/05/2001 By George Kuempel / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The Texas House handed the Dallas Cowboys a defeat off the field Wednesday, overwhelmingly rejecting a measure to shield the football team and some other businesses from potentially costly class-action lawsuits.
In some of the most contentious floor debate this session, opponents said a three-line provision belatedly inserted in a lengthy telemarketing bill was aimed solely at getting the Cowboys out of a legal jam.
"This is a special-interest matter" being pushed "because of the firepower of the Dallas Cowboys," argued Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas, who questioned the bill's author, Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton.
"This is a private sweetheart deal," said Mr. Wolens, his voice often rising.
Mr. Solomons acknowledged that he added that provision to his bill after Cowboys officials came to him with their concerns.
But he said it would protect more than 2,000 other organizations and businesses – including the Boy Scouts – faced with multimillion-dollar class-action suits because they hired telemarketers who broke the law.
"A lot of these businesses will go belly up and bankrupt" because of overzealous attorneys, he said.
Mr. Solomons said he wanted to prohibit people receiving illegal fax sales solicitations from suing telemarketers and their clients as a group if the lawsuits were filed on or after Jan. 1, 2000.
The Cowboys were sued after a telemarketing company they hired was charged with violating state and federal consumer protection laws, according to lawyers familiar with the cases. At least two lawsuits are pending in state courts, and lawyers want them classified as class actions.
The Dallas Mavericks face a similar suit.
Rep. Dale Tillery, D-Dallas, offered an amendment to kill the Solomons provision, calling it "exceedingly bad policy." He said such disputes should be settled by the courts.
"If we don't want the judges legislating from the bench, we should not as legislators start litigating from the House floor," he said.
Others agree that the Legislature should stay out of pending litigation.
"This is an abuse of the legislative process," said Rep. John Smithee, a Republican from Amarillo.
Mr. Solomons tried unsuccessfully to block Mr. Tillery's amendment, telling his colleagues, "It's a vote for the plaintiffs' attorneys or business."
He said greedy lawyers are seeking to win millions in damages from the Cowboys and others through class-action lawsuits for violations of state deceptive trade practices and other laws by a telemarketing firm they had hired, American Blastfax Inc. in Dallas.
Mr. Solomons said that because Blastfax has little or no assets, the lawyers are focusing on the Cowboys and other "deep pockets," by seizing on a mistake that was made in the current law.
Under Texas law, each party in a class-action lawsuit that receives an illegal fax can be awarded at least $500.
Mr. Solomons said the law "was never intended to go after people who hired American Blastfax."
Another backer of the change, Rep. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, called the lawsuits "a cash cow, and you know it."
They lost, by a vote of 87-55. The House later tentatively approved the rest of the telemarketing bill, which bolsters consumer rights against unwanted telemarketing calls.
T. Dean Malone, a Dallas lawyer in one of the cases against the Cowboys, said his clients have indicated that thousands of unsolicited faxes had been sent on the Cowboys' behalf.
The Cowboys said in a prepared statement Tuesday that the team had been victimized by fraudulent marketing practices used by fax broadcast companies.
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