Judge Denies AT&T Motion to Dismiss FirstNet Dealer's Tortious Interference Claims

U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr for Northern Texas in Dallas denied, via electronic order Friday (docket 3:23-cv-355), AT&T’s Sept. 9 motion to dismiss EDN Communication’s fraud and tortious interference complaint for failure to state a claim. AT&T may file an amended motion to dismiss based on 5th Circuit case law within 28 days, said Starr’s order. EDN in January 2018 became AT&T’s “first and only” minority-owned FirstNet authorized dealer, said its July 27 complaint. But the relationship soured when AT&T “surreptitiously, systematically, and with racist animus,” appropriated money due to EDN and “usurped” EDN’s contacts and value and converted them “to the sole property of AT&T,” said the complaint. It also alleged AT&T stole EDN’s trade secrets, and “inserted an all-white AT&T sales team” to replace EDN and to “destroy the sales organization” that EDN had built, costing the plaintiff more than $100 million in actual damages.