Harmon v. Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co.

In his complaint plaintiff alleges that for some time prior to February, 1959, defendant had furnished him with two-party residential telephone service. The regular monthly charge therefor was a flat rate of $3.50 plus 35 cents tax, making a total charge of $3.85 per month. Up to and including February 13, 1959, plaintiff had paid in full for all service charges for which he was billed. On the statement dated March 13, 1959, defendant billed plaintiff for message units and tax thereon in the amount of 52 cents in addition to the regular monthly service charge and tax of $3.85. On the statement for April 13, 1959, defendant billed plaintiff for message units and tax thereon in the amount of $1.03 in addition to the regular monthly service charge and tax thereon. Plaintiff claimed that no one had made any calls from his number which were subject to a message unit charge and advised defendant that he would not pay such charges unless and until they were identified as to date and telephone number. Defendant refused either to identify the aforesaid calls or to eliminate them from its statements. Plaintiff refused to pay the aforesaid charges. As a consequence, defendant disconnected…