B&B Owners Press Their Case to Intervene in AT&T Cell Tower Fight vs. Walla Walla

Barbara and Everett Knudson, the bed-and-breakfast owners who seek to intervene on the side of Walla Walla, Washington, in the city’s cell tower dispute with AT&T (see 2401170024), “meet the standard for intervention as of right,” said their reply Tuesday (docket 4:23-cv-05162) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington in Richland in support of intervention. The city supports their intervention, but AT&T opposes it (see 2402010001). The Knudsons’ B&B sits just 500 feet from the site of AT&T’s proposed 65-foot tower. AT&T doesn’t contest that the Knudsons’ motion is timely or that the Knudsons “are situated such that the disposition of this action may impair or impede their ability to protect their interests,” said their reply. AT&T is wrong when it asserts that the Knudsons’ interests aren’t protectable by the court and that their interests are “adequately represented” by the city, it said. The Knudsons also meet the standard for permissive intervention, said their reply. The Knudsons won’t raise new claims, and their motion is timely, it said. “That leaves only the question of whether there is common question of law and fact between the movant’s claim or defense and the main action,” it said: “There is.”