Property Owner Seeks Dismissal of Cell Tower Improvement Complaint

Academy Medical, the defendant property owner that a T-Mobile and Crown Castle complaint alleges blocked Crown Castle from upgrading the cell tower leased on its property for Dish Network’s 5G network buildout (see 2211300001), wants the complaint dismissed for failure to state a claim, said its motion Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-00910) in U.S. District Court for New Mexico.

The entire complaint is “predicated on the untenable position” that a lease agreement solely between Academy Medical and T-Mobile grants a sublessee, Crown Castle, “the right to command Academy Medical to perform acts for the benefit of a contractually unrelated party” in Dish, said the motion. The plaintiffs don't show they have standing to bring the complaint, so Academy Medical asks the court to dismiss all three counts, it said.

If the court finds the plaintiffs have standing, it should find they don't plead a plausible claim, and should dismiss the complaint “in any event as a matter of law,” said the motion. T-Mobile and Crown Castle oppose the motion, it said.

Nothing in a 2014 amendment to the lease agreement “refers to subleases, sublessees, sublessors or confers any benefits to them,” said Academy Medical’s motion. In August 2021, Crown Castle asked Academy Medical to sign an authorization advising the city of Albuquerque that Academy Medical consented to a Dish permit to improve the cell tower site, it said. Academy Medical at the time didn't know Dish had acquired an interest in the site or what Dish’s interests entailed, it said. “Equally troubling was the fact that the attached authorization did not indicate a time frame or an expiration date for the requested permission, nor did it indicate the length of the proposed construction.”

When Academy Medical asked for more information, it learned Crown Castle had subleased an interest in the site to Dish, said the motion. With this new information, Academy Medical realized the governmental approvals weren't for lessee T-Mobile or its use of the site, it said.

When Academy Medical declined to give consent, T-Mobile and Crown Castle insisted the lease agreement “binds Academy Medical to an infinite number of unknown entities with equal and potentially conflicting rights” to improve the site. But the “plain language” of the lease agreement “does not make that bargain,” it said. The lease agreement grants only lessee T-Mobile the right to improve the site, it said. Crown Castle isn't a lessee, nor is Dish, it said. Neither has “a contractual right to make demands on Academy Medical,” and so the complaint “fails in its entirety,” it said.