Court Dismisses Telephone "Rounding Up" Complaint

Fortnightly Magazine - October 15 1997
This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.

A New York appeals court has dismissed a claim for damages brought by a telephone consumer complaining that he had been defrauded by a local telephone carrier's policy of rounding up charges to the nearest whole-minute increment.

The consumer claimed that the carrier, NYNEX Corp., had "secretly and fraudulently" followed a policy of charging for phone calls in whole-minute increments only. The consumer charged the company with violation of the state's public utilities laws, common law fraud, negligent misrepresentation and false advertising.

The appeals court ruled that state law including the "filed rate doctrine," mandated dismissal of all of claims. The court said, "No reasonable consumer would have been deceived into believing that he was being billed by the second, when his monthly statements contained no charges for calls of less than a minute, and when common sense told him that a call of less than a minute was not free."

It explained that the company only had charged the consumer rates that were on file with state regulators. The board said the statute creating the state public service commission was intended to cover the entire subject of rates for utility services and to supersede all common law remedies. The carrier did not conceal its rounding up policy, the court added. Porr v. NYNEX Corp., No. 96-09976, July 7, 1997 660 N.Y.S.2d 440 (N.Y.App.Div.).


48

Articles found on this page are available to Internet subscribers only. For more information about obtaining a username and password, please call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-368-5001.

This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.