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Court of Appeals Accepts Broad View of the Filed Rate Doctrine as a Bar to Claims

By E.L. Lipman

In an answer to a certified question that was rendered yesterday, a panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that the ?filed-rate doctrine? barred court actions against electric utilities which challenge the adequacy of services provided, at certain approved rates, under tariffs that had been earlier-approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

The plaintiffs in the suit had sought contractual damages from Xcel Energy, a provider of electricity service to residential customers in Minnesota, for claimed failures in maintaining the points of connection between the utility?s electricity distribution wires and the homes of the plaintiff customers. The plaintiffs argued that this maintenance was required under the tariff but not rendered by Xcel Energy.

Reversing the lower court?s denial of Xcel Energy?s motion to dismiss, the appellate panel held that the filed rate doctrine barred claims challenging both the amount of utility rates charged under an approved tariff as well as the services that are delivered at those approved price levels ? declaring that the distinction between these two types of challenges ?as no more than semantic.?

As the panel notes, this broader view of the field rate doctrine, with its attendant greater deference to the rate-making functions of the Public Utilities Commission, places Minnesota on one side of a divide that has earlier split the federal circuit courts of appeal.

The panel?s complete analysis is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on January 23, 2008 (boomark / email).