Judge’s Patience Wearing Thin in AT&T’s Tower Fight With N.Y. Village
The village of Muttontown, New York, will file a letter motion by Monday for a discovery stay in its cell tower fight with AT&T (see 2302210056), said U.S. Magistrate Judge Lee Dunst for Eastern New York in Central Islip in…
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a text-only order Tuesday (docket 2:22-cv-5524). AT&T’s letter in opposition to the discovery stay is due March 13, it said. AT&T alleges Muttontown improperly denied its application to build a 165-foot-tall cell tower to remedy service gaps in its wireless coverage (see 2210090001). Muttontown seeks the discovery stay as it awaits the ruling of U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert on the village’s motion to dismiss AT&T’s complaint. Dunst’s order said his schedule won't be adjourned “absent a showing of good cause and confirmation that the parties have complied with their meet and confer obligations.” Muttontown will be permitted no reply brief unless the court grants leave, it said. “Further, the parties are on notice that their repeated filings demonstrate a continued disregard for compliance” with Dunst’s “individual rules,” it said. Future failure to comply with the rules “may result in a denial of requested relief,” it said. More than five months after the filing of AT&T’s Sept. 15 complaint, Muttontown hasn't filed a formal answer. Time and again during the litigation, Dunst instructed the parties to meet and confer on joint status reports, only to watch them respond with separate filings (see 2301200043).