Access Telecom Inc. v. MCI Telecommunications
| Citation | 197 F.3d 694 |
| Decision Date | 01 December 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-50881,98-50881 |
| Parties | (5th Cir. 1999) ACCESS TELECOM, INC. Plaintiff-Appellant v. MCI TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION; MCI INTERNATIONAL, INC.; SBC COMMUNICATIONS, INC.; SBC INTERNATIONAL, INC.; SBC INTERNATIONAL LATIN AMERICA; TELEFONOS DE MEXICO, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
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[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
Before REYNALDO G. GARZA, HIGGINBOTHAM, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
I.
During 1993 and 1994, Access Telecom, Inc. (ATI), a corporation based in Texas, exported U.S. phone services to customers in Mexico. These services allowed Mexican customers to place U.S.-based phone calls directly from Mexico. Customers first called ATI in Texas and then entered the new phone number they wanted to call. ATI dialed that new number from the U.S. and effectively spliced the customer's first call to the new call, enabling the customer to communicate with the new destination. As a result, each call had two legs: the Mexican leg from Mexico to Texas and the U.S. leg from Texas to the final destination.1
The benefit to ATI's customers from this arrangement was that the cost of the two-legged call was less than the cost of a normal call from Mexico through Telfonos de Mxico (Telmex). The price discrepancy existed because Telmex had a government granted monopoly until 1996. Thus, the rate on a typical call from Mexico to California was controlled by Telmex for its entire length. Under ATI's setup, Telmex controlled only the rate for the Mexican leg of the call. The applicable rate for the U.S. leg of the call was a U.S. rate.
The Mexican leg of each call was carried on toll free numbers that ATI received from MCI. MCI in turn leased the lines for these numbers from Telmex. In other words, MCI leased the Telmex lines that connected Mexico to Texas. Telmex's lines crossed the border into Texas where they interconnected with U.S. lines. Telmex's contracts with MCI apparently neither foresaw nor forbid the subsequent "reorigination" as practiced by ATI or other companies, and in fact, MCI offered similar reorigination services of its own.
ATI's contracts with MCI incorporated the terms and conditions of MCI's U.S. "filed tariff" which provided that MCI calls may not be acquired and used for resale in foreign jurisdictions once MCI's foreign partners have blocked or interrupted MCI or have threatened to do so for such reasons. The tariff also stated that MCI was not liable for acts or omissions of other companies who furnished a portion of MCI's 800 service. Finally, the tariff prohibited the use of MCI services for unlawful purposes.
Mexican law required a permit to be a provider of telecommunications services in Mexico. ATI never obtained such a permit, maintaining it did not need to do so because it was not a provider. Under ATI's interpretation of Mexican law, a provider was an entity that both owned and operated telecommunications infrastructure within Mexico, which ATI did not do (as opposed to reselling service directly or indirectly, which ATI perhaps did do). Subsequent to the time period relevant in this lawsuit, Mexico revamped its telecommunications laws and now explicitly requires a permit to engage in resale activity.
In October 1993, Jose Rivas Moncayo of the office of the Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT), sent MCI a letter requesting that MCI halt the services of companies offering "call-back services." Call-back involved a procedure whereby a customer called a U.S. company, and the U.S. company did not answer the call. Instead, the company would use a form of caller-id to locate the customer and then call the customer back. Under call-back services, Telmex received no revenue for the initial outbound call because that call was never "answered." Such services used Telmex phone lines to communicate location information without paying Telmex anything for that privilege. ATI's service, however, paid Telmex exactly what Telmex had contracted with MCI to receive for outbound calls using the lines from Mexico to Texas. ATI's service did not operate through call-back, and MCI did not terminate ATI's service. Subsequent to the time period relevant in this lawsuit, the SCT issued further communications condemning practices that achieve similar results as "call-back" services.
On April 19, 1994, Telmex notified MCI of its intention to disconnect customers who were using its service for resale. The list of 85 customers that it provided, however, did not include ATI. On April 29, 1994, MCI received another letter, requesting a list of customers in the resale business, but MCI refused to provide such a list. The letter requesting customers was written on Telmex letterhead by an employee of SBC International, a subsidiary of Southwestern Bell. Southwestern Bell is part of a consortium that owns a controlling stake in Telmex.
Telmex allegedly began disconnecting 800 numbers on July 21, 1994, without warning. Previously it had assured MCI that it would give notice of disconnection so MCI could warn MCI's customers. On September 28, 1994, Telmex sent MCI a list of prohibitions on the use of MCI's numbers, threatening to terminate all of MCI's Mexican business without notice if MCI did not cooperate. ATI's numbers, save three, were disconnected on October 19, 1994; the rest were disconnected soon thereafter. At this time, ATI was earning approximately $3 million a year.
There is disagreement whether MCI provided Telmex with ATI's numbers. According to the deposition of Carol Ansley, an SBC employee, Ansley sent Rafael Perez Aguilar of Telmex a list of ATI's numbers, and Ansley testified that as far as she knew, MCI had not provided SBC with ATI's numbers. ATI, however, discovered a cover memo written by Ansley, stating that "attached you will find a list of I-800 numbers MCI has identified as being with Access Telecom." ATI also notes that John Bachman, an MCI manager, sent an e-mail on October 18, to an MCI employee, Laura Alvarado, instructing her to "take down" ATI's numbers. In Alvarado's deposition, however, she insists that she did not provide the numbers to Telmex. Even MCI has stated that the provision of ATI's numbers to third parties without permission would be in violation of U.S. law.
In an effort to continue providing service to its customers, ATI sought alternative service from AT&T. According to ATI, MCI immediately informed SBC and Telmex of ATI's attempt to obtain service from AT&T. Telmex allegedly assured MCI that ATI would not be able to reestablish the numbers through AT&T. ATI ultimately could not obtain alternate service through AT&T. ATI's business collapsed, along with approximately 80 other similar U.S. companies.
II.
In June 1995, MCI commenced arbitration proceedings seeking to recover payment of ATI's phone bill, ultimately receiving an award for nearly $1.2 million. In July 1995, ATI sued Telmex, SBC, and MCI in Texas state court, alleging claims of breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, negligent misrepresentation, promissory estoppel and federal and state antitrust violations. The case was removed and transferred to the Western District of Texas. The federal court granted Telmex's motion to dismiss all claims against it for lack of personal jurisdiction.
ATI moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of the lawfulness of its activities, which the district court denied. MCI and SBC moved for summary judgment on all of ATI's claims, which the district court granted. The court held that the filed tariff doctrine barred ATI's claims for negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract. The district court granted summary judgment on a promissory estoppel claim, holding that ATI could not justifiably rely on representations by MCI as to Mexican law.
The district court also held that ATI could not recover on its claim alleging that MCI tortiously interfered with ATI's customer contracts because this was essentially a breach of contract claim and was barred by limitation of liability provisions in MCI's tariff. In addition, the court rejected ATI's claim that MCI conspired with Telmex and SBC to block ATI from contracting with AT&T for service because ATI never sought or obtained a permit from the SCT and thus ATI's prospective relations with AT&T would have been illegal. Finally, the district court rejected ATI's antitrust claims on the ground that the conduct of which ATI complained did not have a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on U.S. domestic or import commerce or export business.
On appeal, ATI challenges the dismissal of its tortious interference and antitrust claims, the denial of summary judgment in ATI's favor with respect to the lawfulness of ATI's activities, and the dismissal of Telmex on personal jurisdiction grounds. ATI separately complains that merits discovery was improperly limited.
III.
The proper resolution of many issues in this case depends on the characterization of ATI's business. ATI characterizes its business as exporting U.S. reorigination services to Mexican customers. The defendants characterize ATI's business as providing a Mexican telecommunications service in Mexico. At first glance, the defendant's characterization has appeal. No matter how ATI's business is described, the end result enabled Mexican customers to make long distance phone calls in Mexico for prices less than those generally charged by the Telmex monopoly. This characterization, however, confuses the ends with the means.
In the past, phone calls may have been seen as indivisible commodities. Today, that is too simple a view. Admittedly,...
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