A New York appeals court has dismissed a claim for damages brought by a telephone consumer complaining that he had been defrauded by a local telephone carrier's policy of rounding up charges to the nearest whole-minute increment.
The consumer claimed that the carrier, NYNEX Corp., had "secretly and fraudulently" followed a policy of charging for phone calls in whole-minute increments only. The consumer charged the company with violation of the state's public utilities laws, common law fraud, negligent misrepresentation and false advertising.
The appeals court ruled that state law including the "filed rate doctrine," mandated dismissal of all of claims. The court said, "No reasonable consumer would have been deceived into believing that he was being billed by the second, when his monthly statements contained no charges for calls of less than a minute, and when common sense told him that a call of less than a minute was not free."