Chladek v. Verizon N.Y. Inc.

96 F. App'x 19
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 2004
DocketNo. 03-7690
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 96 F. App'x 19 (Chladek v. Verizon N.Y. Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chladek v. Verizon N.Y. Inc., 96 F. App'x 19 (2d Cir. 2004).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

AFTER ARGUMENT AND UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the judgment of the District Court is hereby AFFIRMED.

Plaintiffs-Appellants appeal from the June 4, 2003 Memorandum and Order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Richard Owen, Judge), which granted DefendantsAppellees’ motion to dismiss the Amended Complaint. On appeal, Plaintiffs-Appellants argue that the District Court’s conclusion that Evans v. Public Serv. Comm’n, 287 F.3d 43 (2d Cir.2002) completely disposed of their claims was erroneous because: (1) Evans assumed but did not find that the contested order of the Public Service Commission was content-neutral; (2) Evans did not address a claim of retaliation; (3) they have sustained injury cognizable under the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996; and, (4) the “sham exception” to the Noerr-Pennington doctrine removes whatever immunity may apply to Defendants-Appellees’ allegedly anticompetitive actions. We assume familiarity with the factual background set forth in the detailed decision of the District Court and refer only to those facts necessary to our disposition.

I.

Plaintiffs-Appellants are information providers (“IPs”) that operate pay-per-call information and entertainment services that customers access via the InfoFone telephone service provided by Verizon N.Y. Inc. (“Verizon”). Verizon also provides billing and collection service to the IPs. On July 17, 1998, Verizon instituted proceedings before the Public Service Commission of the State of New York (“PSC”) to amend its tariffs to withdraw InfoFone service, including its billing and collection services. The PSC instituted proceedings to investigate Verizon’s request, which was contested by several IPs. Verizon and a majority of the IPs reached a settlement of their dispute. By Opinion and Order issued on March 25, 1999 (“Or[21]*21der”), the PSC adopted the settlement, concluding that it would “serve the public interest and fulfill [the PSC’s] statutory obligation to secure adequate service at just and reasonable rates.” The Order authorized Verizon to withdraw its InfoFone billing and collection services on March 24, 2004, following a five-year transition period.

The IPs filed the instant action on March 25, 2002. On April 9, 2002, we issued our opinion in Evans, affirming the dismissal of a case brought by another IP who contested the Order on virtually identical constitutional and statutory grounds.

The District Court concluded that dismissal of the IPs’ constitutional claims was mandated by Evans, because they were “virtually identical” to those dismissed in Evans. It concluded that Evans also mandated the dismissal of the IPs’ statutory claims under the Telecommunications Act because, like Evans, plaintiffs were not telecommunication earners and the services sought — billing and collection — were not services covered under the Act. With regard to the federal and state antitrust claims, the District Court concluded that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine immunized Verizon’s actions from antitrust liability, and, alternatively, that the filed tariff doctrine barred the IPs’ antitrust claims.

II.

The IPs argue that Evans does not mandate dismissal of their First Amendment speech claims because they, unlike the plaintiff in Evans, have alleged that the regulation was aimed at suppressing certain types of speech, ie. adult entertainment. Because the Order was enacted to obviate Y2K compliance issues and to increase competitively priced billing and collection services, it is a content-neutral regulation. See Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 720, 120 S.Ct. 2480, 147 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000) (“government regulation of expressive activity is ‘content neutral’ if it is justified without reference to the content of regulated speech.”); accord Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 450 (2d Cir.2001). Moreover, because the Order affected all IPs equally, from weather information providers to adult entertainment providers, there is no support for the IPs’ contention that the regulation was aimed specifically at adult entertainment providers. The IPs’ First Amendment speech claims were, therefore, properly dismissed.

Evans, however, did not present a First Amendment retaliation claim. The IPs allege that: (1) troubles with Verizon’s call estimates occurred “at some point between 1983 and 1990”; (2) these troubles were discovered in 1996; (3) Verizon’s decision to change their switching hardware was “controversial” and resulted in “administrative actions and lawsuits against [Verizon] by several IPs”; (4) problems with Verizon’s switching hardware prompted several IPs, including appellants here, to commence litigation against Verizon; (5) the result of at least one of these lawsuits was a PSC order to Verizon to reduce rates “to redress the harms resultant to the IPs from the misconduct of the Company”; (6) “the Company’s further motive and purpose in seeking to terminate service to the IPs was retaliation for the IPs [sic] protected activity in petitioning the Government for redress of their legitimate grievances”; and (7) “Upon information and belief, the PSC, as reflected in the March 25 Order, knew or should have known of this retaliatory and content-based motive, and nonetheless approved the termination of service, thereby ratifying the retaliatory and content-based conduct of the Company.”

“ ‘To survive summary dismissal, a plaintiff asserting [a] First Amendment re[22]*22taliation claim[ ] must advance non-eonclusory allegations establishing: (1) that the speech or conduct at issue was protected, (2) that the defendant took adverse action against the plaintiff, and (3) that there was a causal connection between the protected speech and the adverse action.’ ” Garcia v. S.U.N.Y. Health Sci. Ctr. of Brooklyn, 280 F.3d 98, 106-07 (2d Cir.2001) (quoting Dawes v. Walker, 239 F.3d 489, 492 (2d Cir.2001)). To sustain a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must “sufficiently allege that the defendant acted under color of state law.” Colombo v. O’Connell, 310 F.3d 115, 117 (2d Cir.2002) (per curiam), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 961, 123 S.Ct. 1750, 155 L.Ed.2d 512 (2003). A private actor, like Verizon here, “acts under color of state law when the private actor is a willful participant in joint activity with the State or its agents. A merely conclusory allegation that a private entity acted in concert with a state actor does not suffice to state a § 1983 claim against the private entity.” Ciambriello v. County of Nassau, 292 F.3d 307, 324 (2d Cir.2002) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

The IPs have alleged no facts that support a claim of retaliation against the PSC; therefore, the retaliation claim against the PSC must be dismissed.

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Bluebook (online)
96 F. App'x 19, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chladek-v-verizon-ny-inc-ca2-2004.