Parties in 3 ROW Lawsuits vs. Rochester Seek Pretrial Mediation

The city of Rochester conferred with plaintiffs Verizon, Crown Castle and Extenet, and the parties agree another attempt to resolve their dispute through mediation “makes sense in advance of trial,” Rochester counsel Patrick Beath wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian Payson for Western New York Friday. They agree Payson should be mediator, given her “familiarity with the issues and the parties,” said Beath’s letter (docket 6:20-cv-07129). All can be available for a joint mediation in February, he said. Each of the three cases was “separately mediated” during discovery, but none was resolved, he said. A bench trial consolidating the three cases is scheduled to begin June 1 (see 2212200065). Common to all three complaints are the allegations that Rochester’s wireless deployment fees significantly exceed a reasonable approximation of the city’s actual costs of maintaining the rights-of-way used or occupied by telecommunications service providers, in violation of Section 253 of the Telecommunications Act.