N.Y. Village Asks Judge to ‘Disregard’ AT&T Supplemental Authority Letter About Case in Mo.

U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert for Eastern New York in Central Islip should “disregard” AT&T’s May 12 supplemental authority letter asserting a decision in its case in Western District of Missouri supports AT&T’s rationale for denying the motion of the village of Muttontown, New York, to dismiss AT&T’s cell tower complaint (see 2305150037), the village wrote the judge in a letter Monday (docket 2:22-cv-05524). The ruling in Western Missouri isn’t “pertinent to the subject case” because the decision is from a district court located in a different circuit, and is predicated upon 8th Circuit precedent, not the “controlling” 2nd Circuit precedent, said Muttontown. The subject matter in AT&T’s complaint against Muttontown also is fully briefed and AT&T failed to seek approval to file the letter under Seybert’s individual rules and practices, said the village. The facts of AT&T’s case in Western Missouri also “are clearly distinguishable from those at bar, which are not in dispute and would be applied to the case law standards” set by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 2nd Circuit, it said. AT&T alleges in both lawsuits the municipalities’ denials of AT&T applications to build new cell towers failed to comply with the statute’s requirements that the denials be supported by substantial evidence in a written record. AT&T also alleges in both complaints the denials are an unlawful prohibition of the statute’s provisions for personal wireless services.