BENTON – David Overstreet not only defeated Judy Cates for a Supreme Court seat but also halted a privacy invasion suit that one of her supporters filed against him.
St. Louis lawyer John Driscoll, a top Cates contributor, voluntarily moved to dismiss the suit without prejudice a day after she lost.
Driscoll filed the suit in St. Clair County on Sept. 30.
He claimed Overstreet sent plaintiff Jacqueline Racener five text messages that violated communication privacy law, the federal Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA)..
He proposed a class action with penalties from $500 to $1,500 for each violation.
He sought an emergency order to stop the messages, claiming termination of Overstreet’s campaign after the election would make relief impossible.
Chief Circuit Judge Andrew Gleeson assigned associate judge Jeffrey Watson, who entered an order the same day without notice to Overstreet.
Watson set the order to expire Oct. 10, and he set a hearing Oct. 13.
Overstreet removed the action to district court on Oct. 12.
Driscoll filed a motion for immediate remand to Watson on Oct. 13, identifying his complaint as a petition for discovery rather than a civil suit.
Magistrate Judge Reona Daly denied remand on Oct. 28, finding federal rules don’t contemplate a suit purely for discovery.
“Now that the case is in federal court, federal procedural rules apply,” she wrote.
“There are certain procedures available to litigants in state courts that are not available in federal court, and vice versa, which a litigant must consider before deciding which pleadings to file.”
Overstreet defeated Cates by a large margin, 63% to 37%, with approximately 150,000 votes in a district that included the Metro-East and 35 other southern Illinois counties.