Consumers Seeking Class Status in Action Over Phone Charges

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Consumers Seeking Class Status in Action Over Phone Charges

By AMANDA BRONSTAD

Staff Reporter

Four Southern California residents have sued Verizon Communications Inc., claiming the phone company reaped millions of dollars in profits through an “unjustified” equipment rental charge on consumer bills.

The suit also names Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE, which merged in 2000, creating Verizon.

Equipment rental charges go back years well before deregulation when phone companies leased phones to consumers as part of their basic service. After deregulation in 1984, consumers could buy their own phones.

The suit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, alleges that Bell Atlantic and GTE continued to charge the fee to consumers, whether or not they rented a phone.

The litigation is the second effort to stop the practice and recoup what the plaintiffs claim are overcharges. The original suit, filed in October 2000, was dismissed last year when a judge ruled the case needed to be heard before the California Public Utilities Commission.

But in an appellate decision on Sept. 12, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Wendell Mortimer Jr. overturned the dismissal.

“It is not contested that well over 100,000 people for the last 14 years have been sent out these bills with this hidden cost,” said Dan Stormer, an attorney at Hadsell & Stormer Inc. representing the consumers.

The class, which has yet to be certified, would include many older people who are more likely to have rented rotary phones.

Richard Drooyan of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, which represents the phone companies, could not be reached for a comment.

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