Intelsat Corp. v. MULTIVISION TV LLC

736 F. Supp. 2d 1334, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94328, 2010 WL 3368655
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 24, 2010
DocketCase 10-21982-CIV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 736 F. Supp. 2d 1334 (Intelsat Corp. v. MULTIVISION TV LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Intelsat Corp. v. MULTIVISION TV LLC, 736 F. Supp. 2d 1334, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94328, 2010 WL 3368655 (S.D. Fla. 2010).

Opinion

ORDER

CECILIA M. ALTONAGA, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE came before the Court on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction (the “Motion”) [ECF No. 8], filed on June 16, 2010. The Court held a hearing on the Motion on August 4, 2010, at which Plaintiffs, Intelsat Corporation and Intelsat, LLC (collectively, “Intelsat”), and Defendants, World Wide Broadcast, Inc. (“World Wide”) and Pablo Goldstein (“Goldstein”), were present. The Court has carefully considered the file, oral arguments, Goldstein’s testimony, and the applicable law.

I. BACKGROUND

This case involves the alleged theft of satellite bandwidth under the Federal Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 605, as well as state law claims of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, conversion, tortious interference with business relations, and conspiracy. The request for a preliminary injunction seeks to prohibit Defendants’ alleged unlawful transmission and reception through an Intelsat satellite from a satellite uplink facility in Morocco.

On September 6, 2005, Defendant, Javier Eduardo Romero (“Romero”), managing member of Defendant, Multivision TV LLC (“Multivision TV”), signed, purportedly on behalf of Multivision TV, a Master Service Agreement (“Multivision MSA”) with Intelsat in which Intelsat promised to provide telecommunication services to Multivision TV in exchange for charges and fees. (See Chernow Aff. ¶¶ 3, 6 [ECF No. 8-2]). At the time the agreement was executed, Multivision TV did not exist, having been administratively dissolved by the State of Florida nearly a year earlier. (See id. ¶ 4). Over the next several years, Multivision TV and Romero did not meet the payment obligations under the Multivision MSA, and so, on November 10, 2009, Intelsat terminated the Multivision MSA and all other service contracts with Multivision TV. 1 (See id. ¶¶ 6-7).

On November 16, 2009, four days after the Multivision MSA was terminated, World Wide entered into a Master Service Agreement (“World Wide MSA”) [ECF No. 22-2] with Intelsat in which Intelsat promised to provide telecommunication services to World Wide according to separately executed service orders in exchange for charges and fees. (See id. ¶ 8). On December 9, 2009, Intelsat and World Wide executed a service order. (See Goldstein Decl. ¶¶ 14-16). According to World Wide, it entered the agreement with Intelsat to become a “new player” in the bandwidth resale business. (Id. ¶ 13). However, there appears to have been some confusion between Intelsat and World Wide about the type of business World Wide was planning to conduct.

*1337 During its negotiations with Intelsat, World Wide indicated its intention to “resell” the bandwidth it leased from Intelsat. (See id. ¶¶ 13, 17). Intelsat indicates the resale of bandwidth is not uncommon when done in a certain manner. 2 (See Reply 9 n. 6 [ECF No. 28]). Intelsat does have customers who own and operate satellite uplink facilities, lease satellite bandwidth from it, and then sublease bandwidth at their uplink facilities to programming providers. (See id.). Consistent with this business model and after World Wide signed the Service Order, Defendant, Carlos Velasquez (“Velasquez”), 3 registered World Wide as the owner and operator of the satellite uplink site “Morocco 3.” (See Johnson Aff. ¶¶ 3-4 [ECF No. 8-1]). Although not explicitly pleaded, Intelsat appears to have believed World Wide owned and operated Morocco 3, and that World Wide intended to sell satellite uplink services to customers who did not have transmission facilities. (See Reply 9; World Wide MSA ¶ 3. 1). Evidently though, World Wide intended only to lease bandwidth from Intelsat for resale to a third party without providing additional services. (See Goldstein Decl. ¶¶ 13, 17). After the Service Order was signed by World Wide on December 9, 2009 and Morocco 3 was registered with Intelsat, the antenna began transmitting and receiving through transponder 72 on satellite IS-905. (See Johnson Aff. ¶¶ 5-7).

On February 9, 2010, Intelsat terminated the World Wide MSA and all World Wide service agreements because of nonpayment. (See id. ¶ 6). Between February 10 and 11, 2010, Intelsat contacted World Wide’s Florida office and Velasquez, the on-site technician at Morocco 3, to demand that the transmissions stop, but the transmissions from Morocco 3 did not cease. (See id. ¶ 6-9). At the hearing, Goldstein, president of World Wide, stated that when he became aware Morocco 3 was transmitting, he contacted his customer to demand the transmissions stop. He testified, “[T]hey cut me [Goldstein] off, all conversations. They didn’t respond to me. I tried text messaging. I tried emails, phone calls. I tried everything I could to get them to stop[,] and they just wouldn’t stop. They just wouldn’t even respond to me.” (Hr’g Tr. 18).

Around March 4, 2010, Intelsat began transmitting an “incentive carrier” to the portion of the transponder previously allocated to World Wide in order to degrade or interrupt the signal from Morocco 3. Morocco 3 responded by increasing the strength of its own signal to overcome the effect of Intelsat’s efforts to jam the transmission. (See Johnson Aff. ¶ 10-11). This increase in power output had the potential to cause interference for other users of the transponder. (See id.). The risk of interference led Intelsat to terminate the incentive carrier on March 9, 2010. Intelsat then contacted World Wide and Morocco 3 to ask them to reduce the power of the transmission, and the site complied within two hours. (See id. ¶ 12).

On March 25, 2010, after determining Morocco 3 was still transmitting and receiving through the transponder, Intelsat began to move its customers to other tran *1338 sponders. (See id. ¶¶ 14-15). Finally, on April 26, 2010, once its customers’ transmissions were relocated, Intelsat muted the transponder by turning off the signal amplifier. (See id. ¶ 15). Later that day, Morocco 3 stopped transmitting. (See id. ¶ 16).

On June 16, 2010, Plaintiffs filed suit against Multivision TV, Romero, World Wide, Goldstein, and Velasquez seeking to recover damages and to enjoin Defendants from transmitting or receiving through Plaintiffs’ satellites. (See Compl. [ECF No. 1]). Plaintiffs subsequently filed a First Amended Complaint. (See Am. Compl. [ECF No. 22]). World Wide and Goldstein have appeared in the case to defend, but the remaining three Defendants have not yet appeared. Plaintiffs filed a Verified Return of Service (the “Multivision Service Aff.”) [ECF No. 30-1] showing Plaintiffs served Multivision TV on June 17, 2010.

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736 F. Supp. 2d 1334, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94328, 2010 WL 3368655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/intelsat-corp-v-multivision-tv-llc-flsd-2010.