The Ackerson Group, Chartered, a Washington, D.C. law firm, announced that telecommunications provider MCI WorldCom was ordered to stop a fiber optic cable installation project, and to remove its equipment and supplies. In a class action lawsuit by landowners, the court found that MCI WorldCom's fiber optic installation was a "willful trespass." The court cited earlier decisions in which the plaintiff and other landowners had already proven that they owned the land. The court order also quoted a document in which MCI WorldCom acknowledged that it had not been authorized to enter the plaintiffs' land.
Fiber optic cables have come under increasing legal attacks in recent years. According to the landowners' attorneys, more than 50 class actions have been filed nationally on behalf of landowners on pre-existing railroad, pipeline and utility rights of way, which often are preferred by telecom companies. In many cases courts have held that adjacent landowners own the land under railroads and other utilities, and only they can grant rights to fiber optic cable companies.
MCI WorldCom claims to have more than 45,000 miles of fiber optic cable in the United States, and it is defending nationwide and statewide landowner class actions in Washington, D.C., Indiana and elsewhere. A similar class action arising on the very same railroad right of way was certified as a nationwide class against AT&T earlier. AT&T has agreed to pay an average of $45,000 per mile to landowners to settle a part of that lawsuit.
For more information, visit The Ackerson Group, Chartered, a Washington, D.C. law firm, at www.ackersonlaw.com.