Opinion ID: 421797
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timeliness of the Extension Order

Text: 51 By its terms, the ENFIA Agreement required the FCC to make its determination regarding extension prior to the end of Phase I; absent a timely Commission decision, the agreement was to terminate at [229 U.S.App.D.C. 216] the end of Phase I. ENFIA Agreement p 11, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,131-32. Phase I, the parties specified, was to expire three years from the effective date of [the] Agreement, id. p 10, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,131, a date that must be determined by reference to the date of release of a Commission Order accepting and approving [the] Agreement, id. p 6, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,131. Although the parties executed the ENFIA Agreement on December 13, 1978, the FCC did not issue its Acceptance Order until April 16, 1979. Looking only to the terms of the ENFIA Agreement itself, then, one would conclude that the FCC's Extension Order, which was released on April 14, 1982, complied with the timetable negotiated by the parties, albeit by the barest of margins. 52 MCI correctly observes, however, that the provisions of the ENFIA Agreement itself do not constitute the only available evidence of the parties' intent. Notwithstanding the apparent clarity of the deadline for FCC action established by Paragraph 11 of the ENFIA Agreement, MCI urges that we look also to the terms of the Illustrative Tariff that accompanied the agreement. That tariff, unlike the agreement itself, specified an exact date by which the FCC was required to act to implement Phase II--a date that unfortunately did not coincide with the timetable promulgated in Paragraph 11. Under the terms of the original tariff, the FCC's extension decision was due by February 1, 1982: In the event the FCC does not determine Factor P prior to February 1, 1982, this tariff and the rates and charges contained herein will expire on February 28, 1982. Illustrative Tariff 18, reprinted in J.A. 223. This discrepancy between the ENFIA Agreement and the tariff was eliminated in tariff amendments--filed by AT & T, served on all parties to the agreement and users of ENFIA service, and accepted by the FCC--that brought the deadline for FCC action specified by the tariff into line with the timetable established by Paragraph 11. 15 53 MCI objects strenuously to the manner in which these amendments were filed, but we need not address its factually opaque challenge because we do not treat the amendments as dispositive. If the amendments conform to the parties' original intent, we view them as unnecessary to the Commission's authority to extend the ENFIA Agreement; if the amendments contravene the intent of the parties, they cannot justify the Commission's lateness despite their technical procedural correctness. See ENFIA Agreement p 17, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,132. In either case, the original intent of the signatories to the ENFIA Agreement will control our disposition, and it is to an analysis of that intent that we now turn. 54 Our conclusions regarding the parties' intent depend, of necessity, primarily on the weight we attribute to Paragraph 11 of the ENFIA Agreement and the deadline provision of the Illustrative Tariff. To the extent that both provisions can be given meaning, we must strive to do so. See, e.g., Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority v. Mergentime Corp., 626 F.2d 959, 961 (D.C.Cir.1980); Papago Tribal Utility Authority v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 610 F.2d 914, 929 (D.C.Cir.1979). But, as we read the provisions, they are fundamentally inconsistent: Paragraph 11 conferred on the FCC authority that was to continue in existence until the end of Phase I, while the original tariff provision purported to terminate that authority two-and-one-half months before Phase I was to expire. MCI's argument that Paragraph 11 and the tariff can be reconciled is thus unavailing. 55 It is necessary, therefore, to choose between the deadline established by Paragraph 11 and the one specified in the accompanying tariff. Under ordinary circumstances, this choice would be aided by the maxim that a specific contractual clause, if inconsistent with a more general clause, [229 U.S.App.D.C. 217] should be read as modifying or nullifying the general clause. 3 A. CORBIN, CONTRACTS § 547 (1960); see Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hill, 193 U.S. 551, 558, 24 S.Ct. 538, 540, 48 L.Ed. 788 (1904). In this case, however, it cannot be said that one of the relevant provisions is more specific than the other. Both Paragraph 11 and the Illustrative Tariff speak directly to the deadline for FCC action to implement Phase II. And, while it is true that the tariff specified a date certain on which the FCC's authority under the contract was to expire, the timetable that can be discerned by reading Paragraph 11 in light of Paragraphs 6, 10, and 19 is no less certain and no less specific. 56 Furthermore, strict adherence to the tariff provision alone would grossly distort the intent of the signatories of the ENFIA Agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the provisions of the tariff were made subordinate to those of the contract itself. The tariff, after all, was not characterized as the primary embodiment of the parties' intent, but was intended to reflect the agreement reached herein, i.e., in the ENFIA Agreement itself. ENFIA Agreement p 6, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,131 (emphasis added). And the propriety of tariff amendments, the parties provided, was to be judged by their faithfulness to the terms of the ENFIA Agreement itself and not by reference to any subsidiary manifestation of the parties' original intent. Id. p 17, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,132. 57 As a result, the most reasonable interpretation of the February 1, 1982 deadline set forth in the original tariff is one that characterizes it as merely illustrative. AT & T argued, and the FCC apparently agreed, that the tariff provision constituted an attempt to project the date of FCC approval of the ENFIA Agreement and thus the date the Commission's authority to implement Phase II would expire. Consistent with Paragraph 18 of the ENFIA Agreement, which looked for FCC approval within approximately sixty days of December 13, 1978, id. p 18, reprinted in 43 Fed.Reg. at 59,132, the dates in the Illustrative Tariff were based on the assumption that the Agreement would be approved by the F.C.C. and, therefore, would be effective by March 1, 1979. AT & T Transmittal No. 46 (Nov. 10, 1981), reprinted in J.A. 333, 334. Since that assumption proved overly optimistic, the illustrative dates failed to coincide with the timetable established by the parties in Paragraph 11. But we have found no evidence that the parties intended the dates inserted in the Illustrative Tariff to prevail over the language of the ENFIA Agreement itself, and, accordingly, we conclude that the FCC's Extension Order was timely. 16 58