Telecommunicaciones v. at&T

Plaintiff-appellant Fax Telecommunicaciones Inc. (""Fax""), a former purchaser of AT&T long-distance telephone services, brought this action alleging breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, and fraudulent inducement to contract against defendant-appellee AT&T (""AT&T""), for which Fax sought a declaratory judgment, specific performance, and compensatory and punitive damages. In essence, Fax claims that AT&T promised to file a new contract tariff with the Federal Communications Commission (""FCC"") for the telephone services it proposed to provide to Fax. Based on this promise, Fax purchased long-distance telephone services from AT&T. However, AT&T never filed the new contract tariff with the FCC, and instead billed Fax pursuant to the applicable filed tariff, which was significantly more expensive. Because Fax only paid AT&T what Fax calculated it owed under the promised rates, AT&T counterclaimed for an additional $2,321,390.71 in unpaid telephone charges which Fax owed under the filed tariff, plus pre-judgment interest. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Joanna Seybert, District Judge) granted AT&T's motion for summary judgment in part and dismissed it in part, granting judgment for AT&T on its counterclaim and dismissing all but one of Fax's claims based on the district court's application of the filed rate doctrine. Fax appeals, contending that the filed rate doctrine does not bar its dismissed claims. We affirm.