United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
F I L E D
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
April 12, 2004
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT Charles R. Fulbruge III
Clerk
No. 01-21084
TELNET INCORPORATED; PRESCOTT LEGAL
SERVICES INCORPORATED; FOREST AMERICA
GROUP, Incorporated,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,
versus
MCI WORLDCOM, doing business as LDDS
Worldcom, formerly known as LDDS Communications,
Inc.; WORLDCOM Management Company Incorporated;
WORLDCOM TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for
the Southern District of Texas
(USDC No. H-98-CV-2020)
_______________________________________________________
Before REAVLEY, DAVIS and DeMOSS, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that this opinion should not be
published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R.
47.5.4.
The district court’s order denying class certification is affirmed for the following
reasons:
1. Rule 23(b)(1) is not a problem for individual suits, for those individuals would
not have their interests substantially impaired and there would be no risk of incompatible
standards of conduct imposed on MCI WorldCom. Rather, each claimant might prevail
only by proving that its individual situation and circumstances entitled it to a better
negotiated charge pursuant to the 1991 Interexchange Order of the FCC.
2. No injunction could be ordered under Rule 23(b)(2). Tariffs have been
forbidden since 2003. No one rate could be justified to all customers.
3. Again, the necessity of establishing a legal rate and loss to each claimant
justifies the rejection of a class treatment as the superior adjudication required by Rule
23(b)(3). At best, no one could claim a rate under the filed tariff without proving that all
individual facts and circumstances entitled that one to equal treatment. The district court
did not abuse its discretion in denying class certification.
AFFIRMED.
2