P.R. Telephone Co. v. Telecomm. Regulatory Board

15 F. Supp. 3d 162, 2014 WL 1356652, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47900
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 5, 2014
DocketCivil No. 13-1186 (DRD)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 15 F. Supp. 3d 162 (P.R. Telephone Co. v. Telecomm. Regulatory Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
P.R. Telephone Co. v. Telecomm. Regulatory Board, 15 F. Supp. 3d 162, 2014 WL 1356652, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47900 (prd 2014).

Opinion

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION NUNC PRO TUNC

DANIEL R. DOMÍNGUEZ, District Judge.

Pending before the Court are: Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) filed by co-defendant WorldNet Telecommunications, Inc. (hereinafter “WorldNet”), Docket No. 14; Response to Motion to Dismiss filed by Puerto Rico Telephone Co. (hereinafter “PRTC”) Docket No. 15; WorldNet’s Reply to Response to Motion to Dismiss, Docket No. 18; (d) Report and Recommendation issued by the Magistrate Judge Silvia Carreno-Coll (hereinafter “Magistrate Judge”), Docket No. 25. For the reasons set forth below, defendant World-Net’s request for voluntary dismissal without prejudice is granted.

Factual and Procedural Background

The purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“The Act”) is to promote competition in the local telephone services market. See 104 P.L. 104, 2; Puerto Rico Tel. Co. v. Telecommunications Regulatory Bd., 189 F.3d 1, 7 (1st Cir.1999). The Act imposes statutory duties on incumbent local exchange carriers (“ILECs”) to share their networks with competitive local exchange carriers (“CLECs”), 47 U.S.C. § 251(c). ILECs have the duty to offer its retail services at wholesale rates to competing carriers that will resell the services at retail prices, 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(4). The ILEC may negotiate and enter into binding agreements with CLECs these agreements referred to as interconnection agreements must be submitted to the state utility commission for approval or rejection, 47 U.S.C. § 252(a)(1). When seeking jurisdiction over a determination other than an approval or rejection, of an interconnection agreement, there must be a “substantial nexus between the commission’s determination and the interconnection agreement.” Puerto Rico Tel. Co., 189 F.3d at 10.

The Court notes that the Magistrate Judge’s Report & Recommendation is unopposed by either party therefore the Court hereby adopts all the finding of fact as stated in said Report and Recommendation Docket No. 25. Suffice it to say that this case concerns the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico’s (herein after “the Board”)interpretation of a 2010 interconnection agreement entered into by PRTC and co defendant WorldNet. The crux of the matter lies in the Board’s [164]*164determination that WorldNet could have a ten (10) day extension to formally request mediation, as to a particular dispute it was having with PRTC. For obvious reasons PRTC is in disagreement with the ten (10) day extension granted by the Board and its findings on the matter. As such PRTC filed suit in federal court claiming this Court had jurisdiction to review the Board’s order granting the extension pursuant to Section 252. WorldNet filed a Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), Docket No. 14, alleging this court lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

As such this matter was referred to the Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation, (D.E. 14, 15 and 18). On February 6, 2014, the Magistrate Judge entered a Report and Recommendation, Docket No. 25. The Magistrate Judge recommended that the co-defendant’s motion to dismiss, Docket No. 14, be GRANTED and the complaint, Docket No. 1 be DISMISSED. As of this date, no objections have been timely filed, thus, the Court deems this matter submitted. For the reasons set forth below, the Report and Recommendation issued by the Magistrate Judge, Docket No. 25, is hereby adopted in toto, as supplemented herein.

Standard of Review

The district court may refer dispositive motions to a United States Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B); Rule 72(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R.Civ.P.”); Local Civil Rule 503 of the Local Rules of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico (“L.Civ.R.”). See: Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 96 S.Ct. 549, 46 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976).

An adversely affected party may contest the Magistrate’s report and recommendation; 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), in its pertinent part states: “within ten days of being served with a copy, any party may serve and file written objections to such proposed findings and recommendations as provided by rules of court. A judge of the court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made. A judge of the court may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate”. Failure to file objections within the specified time waives the right to appeal the District Court’s order, See: Local Rule 510.2(A), Thomas v. Am., 474 U.S. 140, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985).

“Absent objection, ... [a] district court ha[s] a right to assume that [the affected party] agree[s] to the magistrate’s recommendation.” Templeman v. Chris Craft Corp., 770 F.2d 245, 247 (1st Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1021, 106 S.Ct. 571, 88 L.Ed.2d 556 (1985). Moreover, “failure to raise objections to the Report and Recommendation waives that party’s right to review in the district court, and those claims not preserved by such objections are precluded on appeal.” Nogueras-Cartagena v. United States, 172 F.Supp.2d 296 (D.Puerto Rico, 2001) affirmed by Nogueras-Cartagena v. United States, 75 Fed.Appx. 795 (1st Cir. (Puerto Rico) 2003) (not selected for publication in the Federal Reporter, No. 03-1113), cert. denied by Nogueras-Cartagena v. Department of Justice, 540 U.S. 1183, 124 S.Ct. 1424, 158 L.Ed.2d 87 (2004), Davet v. Maccarone, 973 F.2d 22, 30-31 (1st Cir.1992).

In the instant case, no objections to the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation have been filed. Thus, in order to accept the unopposed Report and Recommendation, the Court needs only satisfy itself by ascertaining that there is no “plain error” on the face of the record. [165]*165Nogueras-Cartagena v. United States, Id.; See: Douglass v. United Servs. Auto, Ass’n, 79 F.3d 1415, 1419 (5th Cir.1996) {en banc) (extending the deferential “plain error” standard of review to the unobject-ed legal conclusions of a magistrate judge); Nettles v. Wainwright,

Related

Pacific Indemnity Co. v. Deming
140 F. Supp. 3d 152 (D. Massachusetts, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 F. Supp. 3d 162, 2014 WL 1356652, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pr-telephone-co-v-telecomm-regulatory-board-prd-2014.