Texas telecommunications company sues Comcast claiming tortious interference
A small Texas telecommunications company has filed a lawsuit against cable giant Comcast, alleging tortious interference with contract.
In the lawsuit, Anthony Luna claims Comcast dug up and destroyed cables owned by his company, Telecom Cable. Luna alleges that Comcast workers cut cables and disrupted service to his customers in the Houston area. The complaint filed June 14 claims that Telecom Cable had to fold after a six-week effort of trying to restore service as customers deserted the company.
According to Luna’s attorney, he had been doing business in the Houston area since 2007, and Comcast offered to buy out his small cable operation in 2013. Luna declined. Comcast then began installing its own cables in shared utility easements, a normal industry practice. Telecom sent Comcast a map of its infrastructure and marked its cables with orange paint and flags, so that Comcast workers would not accidentally damage the cables. However, Luna soon began receiving shortage outages and finding that his cables had been cut. Luna claims that Telecom Cable’s lines were cut repeatedly and he was forced to close the business as customers terminated their service and switched to Comcast.
Luna is seeking damages in excess of $1 million, including punitive damages, for tortious interference with contract, negligence, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting.