City and County of Denver v. Qwest Corp.

• Decision Date: 26 February 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99SA219.,99SA219.
• Citation: 18 P.3d 748
• Parties: CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, Appellant, v. QWEST CORPORATION, a Colorado corporation; McImetro Access Transmission Services, Inc., a Colorado corporation; AT & T Communications of the Mountain States, Inc., a Colorado corporation; ICG Telecom Group, Inc., a Colorado corporation; and Teleport Denver, Ltd., a Colorado limited partnership, Appellees.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

18 P.3d 748

CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, Appellant, v. QWEST CORPORATION, a Colorado corporation; McImetro Access Transmission Services, Inc., a Colorado corporation; AT & T Communications of the Mountain States, Inc., a Colorado corporation; ICG Telecom Group, Inc., a Colorado corporation; and Teleport Denver, Ltd., a Colorado limited partnership, Appellees.

No. 99SA219.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

February 26, 2001.

J. Wallace Wortham, City Attorney, David W. Broadwell, Donald E. Wilson, Andrew L. Weber, and Alice J. Major, Assistant City Attorneys, Kissinger and Fellman, P.C., Kenneth S. Fellman, Denver, CO, Attorneys for City & County of Denver.

Brownstein Hyatt & Farber, P.C., Andrew W. Loewi, David S. Chipman, Beth A. Doherty Quinn, Qwest Corporation, Roy Adkins, Federico Alvarez, Denver, CO, Attorneys for Qwest Corporation.

Colorado Municipal League, Geoffrey T. Wilson, Denver, CO, Amicus Curiae For Colorado Municipal League.

Holland & Hart, LLP, Gregory A. Eurich, Joseph W. Halpern, Denver, CO, Attorneys for AT & T Communications of the Mountain States, Inc.

Baker & Hostetler, LLP, John B. Moorhead, Michael J. Roche, Denver, CO, Attorneys for ICG TeleCom Group, Inc., and Teleport of Denver, Inc.

Petrie, Bauer, Vriesman & Hecht, LLP, Charles B. Hecht, Denver, CO; Jenner & Block, David Handzo, Janis C. Kesterbaum, MCIWorldCom., Inc., Thomas F. O'Neil, Kevin P. Gallagher, Washington, DC, Attorneys for McImetro Access Transmission Services, Inc.

Justice COATS delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The City and County of Denver appeals from the judgment of the Denver District Court granting declaratory relief for the plaintiff-telecommunications companies and dismissing Denver's inverse condemnation counterclaim in an action to declare invalid sections 10.5-1—10.5-41 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code. Because key provisions of the city ordinance conflict with a state statute regarding a matter of mixed state and local concern and the statute is not itself unconstitutional or invalid for any of the reasons asserted by Denver, the district court did not err in finding the ordinance invalid. Similarly, because the state statute granting telecommunications providers the right to occupy and utilize the public rights-of-way for the efficient conduct of their business does not authorize the taking of private property from Denver, the district court did not err in dismissing Denver's counterclaim. Therefore the judgment of the district court is affirmed.

I.

The current controversy arises out of the 1996 decision of the United States Congress to substantially deregulate the telecommunications industry, and the state and local legislation implementing that decision. On February 8, 1996 the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law. See 47 U.S.C. §§ 151-614 (1994 & Supp. 1998), Pub.L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996) (the "Federal Telecommunications Act"). One of the express purposes of the Federal Telecommunications Act was "to promote competition and reduce regulation" of telecommunication providers. Id. This was to be accomplished, in part, by requiring state and local governments to regulate public rights-of-way on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis. 47 U.S.C. § 253.

On April 12, 1996, the state approved Senate Bill 96-10, which among other things added the new Article 5.5, entitled, "Rights-of-Way: Telecommunications Providers," to Title 38 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. See ch. 75, secs. 1-8, §§ 38-5.5-101 to -108, 1996 Colo. Sess. Laws 298, 298-305. Like the federal law, Senate Bill 96-10 expresses an intent "to encourage competition among the various telecommunications providers, to reduce the barriers to entry for those providers, to authorize and encourage competition within the local exchange telecommunications market, and to ensure that all consumers benefit from such competition and expansion." § 38-5.5-101(1)(a), 10 C.R.S. (2000). It further declares that its goals, which include providing citizens with affordable access to a wider range of telecommunications services at comparable rates throughout the state, can be accomplished only if telecommunications providers are allowed to develop "ubiquitous, seamless, statewide communications networks." § 38-5.5-101(1)(b). While expressly acknowledging the right of political subdivisions¹ to exercise their lawful police powers, Senate Bill 96-10 grants telecommunications providers a right to occupy public rights-of-way without additional authorization or a franchise from local municipalities and explains that "[t]o require telecommunications companies to seek authority from every political subdivision within the state to conduct business [would be] unreasonable, impractical, and unduly burdensome." Id. In addition to barring political subdivisions from requiring providers that had already obtained the subdivision's consent or already lawfully occupied a public highway of the subdivision before enactment of the statute to seek additional consent, Senate Bill 96-10 specifically prohibits political subdivisions from levying any tax, fee, or charge on telecommunications providers for the right or privilege of engaging in a business or for use of a public highway other than certain license and permit fees that are reasonably related in time and occurrence to the costs directly incurred by the political subdivision. § 38-5.5-107. It also expressly bars the collection of any such taxes, fees, and charges through the provision of in-kind services as a condition of consent to use a highway. § 38-5.5-107(3).

Effective November 1, 1997, Denver enacted Ordinance No. 628-97 (the "Ordinance"), which is the object of challenge in this action. Denver Code §§ 10.5-1 to 5-50 (1997). It enacts a comprehensive regulatory scheme, requiring telecommunications providers to obtain a "Private Use Permit" before occupying or using (or continuing to occupy or use) public rights-of-way in Denver.² In order to obtain such a "permit," the telecommunications provider must, among numerous other things, pay annual fees (which may include in-kind compensation to Denver in the form of facilities, fixtures, or services), on a per-foot usage basis for facilities in the City's right-of-way or, at the provider's choice, an annual use fee of 5% of its gross revenues. Denver Code §§ 10.5-16, 5-17. The Ordinance reserves to Denver the right to deny or revoke permits for a number of reasons, including the breach of any city ordinance, regulation, or condition of the permit.³ A number of telecommunications companies— Qwest Corporation,⁴ AT & T Communications of the Mountain States, Inc., MCIMetro Access Transmission Services, Inc., ICG Telecom Group, Inc., and Teleport Denver, Ltd.—brought separate actions, challenging the validity of the Ordinance and seeking declaratory, injunctive, and other relief. The parties subsequently entered into stipulations under which Denver agreed not to enforce the challenged provisions of the Ordinance pending the outcome of the cases, and the telecommunications companies agreed to adhere to the unchallenged provisions of the Ordinance. Denver filed a counterclaim against Qwest for inverse condemnation, and in April 1998, the district court consolidated the actions. In an order dated May 12, 1998, the district court dismissed Denver's counterclaim for failure to state a claim for relief. In orders dated March 5, 12, and 19, 1999, it granted motions for judgment on the pleadings in favor of the telecommunications companies and denied their various motions for partial summary judgment. On May 25, the district court accepted the parties' stipulation to dismissal of all remaining claims and granted the parties' Request for Entry of Judgment, declaring the Ordinance invalid.

More specifically, in its Order of March 5, 1999, the district court found that the provisions of Senate Bill 96-10 limiting municipal control over telecommunications providers were not preempted by the Federal Telecommunications Act. However, because the issues of telecommunications services governed by Senate Bill 96-10 involved at least a mixture of state and local concerns, it would preempt any inconsistent local ordinance. The district court further found that by requiring continued consent for the use of public rights-of-way and exacting compensation for that consent, the Ordinance required a municipal franchise in violation of Colorado constitutional, statutory, and case law. Accordingly, the district court declared the provisions of the Ordinance enacting this municipal franchise void as a matter of law.

Denver appealed the district court's orders granting judgment on the pleadings in favor of the telecommunications companies and its earlier order dismissing Denver's counter-claim directly to this court.⁵

II.

By granting the Plaintiffs' motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to C.R.C.P. 12(c), the district court necessarily determined, in light of the controlling law and undisputed facts, that the matter could be finally resolved at that stage. Smith v. TCI Communications, Inc., 981 P.2d 690 (Colo.App.1999). Judgment on the pleadings is appropriate if, from the pleadings, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Burns Int'l Sec. Servs. Inc. v. Int'l Union, UPGWA, 47 F.3d 14, 16 (2d Cir.1995); see also Tripp v. Parga, 847 P.2d 165 (Colo.App.1992)

; 5A Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1367, at 509-10 (1990) ("A Rule 12(c) motion is designed to provide a means of disposing of cases when the material facts are not in dispute and a judgment on the merits can be achieved by focusing on the content of the pleadings and any facts of which the court will take judicial notice.").

The district court's preemption ruling was therefore proper and can be sustained on review only to the extent that it is dictated by a proper application of the law to the undisputed facts of the...