Judge Reaffirms Dismissal Of Tennessee Cable Association Challenge
Says Planned Municipal Cable Build Doesn’t Harm Trade Association
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 6/27/2008 12:18:00 PM
A Davidson County, Tenn. judge Friday reaffirmed her decision to dismiss a challenge by the state's cable association of a planned municipal cable build by the electric utility of Chattanooga.
In April, Chancellor Ellen Lyle of Chancery Court in Nashville ruled that the Tennessee Cable and Telecommunications Association suit was filed in the improper court. Hamilton Count is the proper jurisdiction for the suit. Also, an individual operator might be harmed by the video system planned by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, but not a trade association, she opined.
Following that ruling, Comcast of the South filed a similar suit to that of the TCTA, but in Hamilton County. The operator alleges the municipal build will be improperly subsidized by utility rate-payer money, a violation of state law. A decision is pending in that case.
