observing that “courts have generally upheld tariff liability limitations for ordinary negligence within a regulatory agency’s authority” but “overwhelmingly reject attempts to limit liability either by contract or by tariff for gross negligence, willful misconduct, and fraud” and holding that tariff was unenforceable to the extent it limited liability for fraud
How later courts described this case
- observing that “courts have generally upheld tariff liability limitations for ordinary negligence within a regulatory agency’s authority” but “overwhelmingly reject attempts to limit liability either by contract or by tariff for gross negligence, willful misconduct, and fraud” and holding that tariff was unenforceable to the extent it limited liability for fraud
- noting that “[a] presumption favors the preservation of common-law rights” and that courts should look at whether the state legislature has expressed an intent, “either explicitly or implicitly, that the policies supporting a state rate tariff doctrine were intended to abolish a common law ... claim”
- refusing to decide whether to adopt a state version of the federal filed rate doctrine for tariffs filed with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, but holding that even if the doctrine were to be adopted it would not bar a claim for common-law fraud
- finding that, because the defendant was required to file its 12 tariffs with state commission, “the federal filed tariff doctrine is not controlling in this 13 appeal”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
OPALA, J.,
concurring in the court’s opinion.
¶ 1 The qualifiedly concurring justice invites the court, once again, to expand its inquiry beyond the issues necessary to decide. Mindful as I am of the time-honored principle that appellate courts may not extend their pronouncements beyond the strict framework of matters that must be resolved, I join the court in declining his tempting offer. Myers v. Lashley, 2002 OK 14 , 44 P.3d 553, 561 . See Patterson v. Beall, 2000 OK 92 , 19 P.3d 839, 849-50 (Opala, J., dissenting), for my warning against “hyper-global” pronouncements.