Court Opinion

ID: 9797589
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:24:53.347766+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:57:21.396862
License: Public Domain

BOUDREAU, J.,
concurring in result:
¶ 1 I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion. I write separately only because I would expressly adopt the filed *591tariff doctrine (also known as the filed rate doctrine) in Oklahoma and then recognize the fraud exception to the doctrine.
If 2 Satellite Systems, Inc. (SSI) sued Birch Telecom of Oklahoma, Inc. (Birch). SSI asserted two theories of liability, breach of contract and fraudulent inducement. Birch moved to dismiss both theories on the ground that both are precluded by the filed tariff doctrine. The trial court agreed that the breach of contract theory is precluded by the filed tariff doctrine but allowed the fraud theory to go forward.
¶ 3 The trial court certified for appeal its interlocutory order denying Birch’s motion to dismiss the fraud theory. The majority opinion affirms the trial court, holding that “even if a state filed rate doctrine has been adopted in Oklahoma, it does not bar a common law fraud claim.”'
¶4 The majority opinion neither adopts nor rejects the filed tariff doctrine. Rather, it creates an exception to a doctrine it has not adopted. Without this court explicitly adopting the doctrine, the question of whether to create an exception to the doctrine is purely hypothetical.
¶ 5 It has long been the rule that we do not give advisory opinions or answer hypothetical questions. Dank v. Benson, 2000 OK 40, 5 P.3d 1088, 1091; Keating v. Johnson, 1996 OK 61, 918 P.2d 51, 61; Application of Fun Country Development Authority, 1977 OK 138, 566 P.2d 1167; City of Shawnee v. Taylor, 1943 OK 11, 132 P.2d 950; Shinn v. Oklahoma City, 1939 OK 29, 87 P.2d 136 (1939). For this reason, I would expressly adopt the filed tariff doctrine and then recognize the fraud exception to the doctrine.