Court Opinion

ID: 9660763
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:20:19.950452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:21.930288
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). The filed tariff doctrine applies where the legal rights of a regulated entity and its customers in respect to a rate are measured solely by the filed rate. Maj. op. at 719, n.3, citing Keogh v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., 260 U.S. 156, 163 (1922). The theory underlying the doctrine is that the lawfulness of the rates has been established by the filing and that no customers can claim that a rate has "injured" them "in their "business or property" within the meaning of the antitrust laws. Square D Co. v. Niagara Tariff Bureau, 476 U.S. 409, 416 (1985).
The cornerstones of rate regulation under the Wisconsin Insurance Code are competition and rate-setting by the insurers. Section 625.01(2)(c), Stats. 1991-92; Committee Comment, West's Wis. Stat. Ann. *730ch 625 at 2 (1980). There is no active supervision by Wisconsin officials of title insurance rates. Rate filings are at most checked for mathematical accuracy. FTC v. Ticor Title Insurance Co., —U.S. —, 119 L. Ed. 2d 410, 420 (1992). The remedies provided under the insurance code for rates declared excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory are prospective only. Sections 625.11, 625.22, Stats. 1991-92.
I conclude that the system of title insurance rate regulation in this state does not constitute a sufficiently comprehensive or pervasive control of rates to ensure that only lawful rates are charged to consumers, and therefore the regulatory system does not implicate the filed tariff doctrine.