Plaintiffs in Dish Class-Action Complaint Ask to Refile

With the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals having ruled in an interlocutory appeal in a class-action contract breach complaint on Dish Network dropping Turner and Fox programming in 2014, plaintiffs are asking permission to file an amended complaint that includes claims and allegations in conformity with the 8th Circuit's interpretation. In a motion (in Pacer) filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Missouri, plaintiffs said the 8th Circuit ruling (in Pacer) on the lower court's partial grant and partial denial of a Dish motion to dismiss noted they hadn't stated a claim since Dish not crediting the subscribers isn't by itself a breach of good faith and plaintiffs didn't allege the company dropped the programming in bad faith. Plaintiffs said they wanted to amend the claim to allege Dish dropped Turner and Fox programming in bad faith and/or willfully and wantonly breached its customer form agreement. Examples include evading the spirit of the bargain by failing to obtain Fox and Turner programming for which the class members had selected and paid Dish in advance, Dish dishonesty by failing to let subscribers know about the dropped programming, and continuing to market programming packages that included Turner and Fox after the takedown, the plaintiffs said. Dish didn't comment Friday.