3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative Inc. v. U.s. West Communications, Inc.

MEMORANDUM *

The plaintiffs (“Independents”) brought this action for breach of tariff and related state law causes of action against the defendant U.S. West Communications Inc., now known as Qwest. The Independents *699 allege that Qwest breached their filed tariffs by refusing to pay terminating access charges for all Qwest-transported interex-change calls as measured by the Independents.

The district court granted summary judgment for Qwest without interpreting and applying the Independents’ tariffs, finding that federal law as interpreted by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) does not obligate Qwest to pay terminating charges for traffic for which it is not the originating carrier. The district court concluded that the filed tariff doctrine, also known as the filed rate doctrine, had no application because “[t]his is not a dispute about rates” and “Plaintiffs offer no controlling legal authority — not one case — that supports this novel proposition that the filed rate doctrine forms the basis for a breach of contract action.” We reverse and remand for further proceedings on the Independents’ claims.

The district court erred in faffing to interpret the tariffs at…