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Appellate Court Ruling Favors Cellphone Users
The Daily Journal
February 13, 2001
Cellphone users can pursue claims for damages against their wireless service providers in state court, an appellate court has ruled. An award of monetary damages in a false-advertising suit is not an attempt by the state to regulate the rates charged, the 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded in Speilhotz v. Superior Court (Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company).
Two subscribers and a consumer group sued AT&T Wireless Services, Inc., formerly LA Cellular Telephone Company, for falsely advertising a "seamless calling area" throughout Southern California. On a pretrial motion, the Superior Court sided with AT&T, ruling that an award of damages is rate regulation because it requires the court to determine the value of services provided.
Counsel for the wireless phone service said the company is disappointed with the appellate court's ruling, but Jacqueline E. Mottek, counsel for the plaintiffs and a partner at San Francisco's Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, said, "Defendants have made this argument ad nauseum, and the appellate court rejected it. The claim is that the advertising was false. Damages based on that have nothing to do with rates."