T-Mobile Wants to Supplement Its Tower Suit vs. N.Y. Village With New Claims

T-Mobile alleged in a July 7 complaint the village violated the Telecommunications Act through its “unreasonable and unsupportable denials” of T-Mobile’s applications to build a 105-foot monopole cell tower (see 2307110008). After T-Mobile filed the lawsuit, the village’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA) issued a written resolution July 18 denying the cell tower application, and the local planning board did the same July 27, said the letter motion. As with Chestnut Ridge’s previous village board denial, T-Mobile contends the ZBA and planning board denials aren’t supported by substantial evidence contained in the written record, as the TCA requires, it said. T-Mobile now seeks to supplement its complaint, under Rule 15(d), by adding allegations or claims about those most recent denials, it said. The court should grant T-Mobile’s supplement request because none of Rule 15(d)’s exceptions “apply here,” it said. There “unquestionably is no undue delay” as the ZBA and planning board written resolutions were issued in the past two weeks, it said. T-Mobile’s motives also can’t “reasonably be called into question,” it said. T-Mobile “is simply seeking to exercise its rights under Rule 15(d) to assert facts and bring additional claims” arising out of Chestnut Ridge’s “actionable conduct that occurred subsequent” to the filing of the T-Mobile complaint. The request also should be granted because the village said it doesn’t oppose the request, it said.