A federal appeals court upheld a district judge’s decision to blo...
A federal appeals court upheld a district judge’s decision to block AT&T North Carolina customers from pursuing a state court class-action suit alleging that AT&T overcharged them for its federal universal service contribution. The class of affected customers, led…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
by AT&T customer Tomi Bryan, sued in state court alleging violation of North Carolina’s unfair trade practice law. They claimed that AT&T recovered more than its required universal service fund contribution, failed to disclose how it calculated the fee and deceived customers about what the fee covered. AT&T got the case moved to federal court, which dismissed all except the deception claim, sent back to the North Carolina courts. AT&T appealed the remand to the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals, Richmond, on ground the deception claim was actually federal. The 4th Circuit agreed with AT&T, ruled that the claim was without merit and should have been dismissed with the other federal claims. AT&T went back to the state court asking it to dismiss the class action suit as moot, but the state court refused. AT&T returned to the federal district court and got an injunction against further state court proceedings, but the plaintiffs appealed the injunction to the Fourth Circuit. The appeals court (Case 06-1746) ruled that the plaintiffs were improperly trying to keep pursuing in state court a damage claim identical to the one dismissed by the federal tribunal. The court said it would be an abuse of judicial discretion to permit state court prosecution of a federal damage claim ruled invalid under federal law.