McDonnell Douglas Corporation v. General Telephone Company of California and General Telephone and Electronics Corporation

McDonnell Douglas appeals here from an order granting General Telephone’s motion for summary judgment in a suit in which McDonnell sought to recover excise taxes paid over a five and one-half year period on telephone services provided by General Telephone. The thrust df the district court’s order was that McDonnell had failed to state any cause of action under applicable federal statutory or common law.

McDonnell’s appeal presses the view that at least three causes of action were stated: First, General Telephone’s collection of excise taxes between 1966 and 1971 violated a duty imposed on General Telephone by the Federal Excise Tax Reduction Act of 1965, 26 U.S.C. §§ 4251-4254 (“the 1965 Act”) to conduct its billing practice so as to confer the benefits of the Act on its customers, including McDonnell. Second, General Tel ephone’s billing practice was discriminatory as to McDonnell and thus violated the anti-discrimination provisions of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C. § 202 as amended (“the 1934 Act”). Finally, McDonnell argues that General Telephone violated a fiduciary duty owed to its customers, including McDonnell, when it established and carried out the…