N.J. Residents Lack Standing to File Motion to Dismiss, Verizon Tells Judge

Verizon is seeking a deadline extension to respond to the Oct. 17 motion of seven Belmar, New Jersey, residents to dismiss Verizon’s complaint to force Monmouth County, New Jersey, to approve the carrier’s application to install nine small wireless facilities in the public rights of way (see 2310180031). Verizon’s counsel, Edward Purcell of Price Meese, asked U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp for New Jersey in Trenton for the extension in a letter Monday (docket 3:23-cv-18091).

The same seven residents previously moved Sept. 27 to intervene in Verizon’s dispute with the county (see 2309280027). Verizon thinks its deadline to respond to the residents’ motion to dismiss should be delayed pending the court’s decision on their motion to intervene, Purcell told the judge. The carrier wants the court to convene a scheduling conference to discuss the issue, he said.

The putative intervenors lack standing to file their motion to dismiss because they aren’t parties to Verizon’s action against Monmouth County, said Purcell. The residents recently requested and obtained an adjournment of their motion to intervene for one motion cycle from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20, “which is one cycle prior” to the Dec. 4 “return date” for their motion to dismiss, he said.

By filing their motion to dismiss without party standing, the residents are forcing Verizon and the court to spend time and resources “on a dispositive motion that they may never be allowed to file,” said the Verizon counsel. The carrier asks that the court delay Verizon’s response deadline and return date for the motion to dismiss until after the residents’ intervention motion is decided, he said.

Verizon has discussed its request with the residents’ counsel and has been told that the residents can’t consent “to an indefinite adjournment of their motion to dismiss,” Purcell told the judge. The residents also won’t consent “to a joint request for a court scheduling conference,” he said. In light of the parties’ disagreement, Purcell wants the judge to conduct a scheduling conference to resolve the dispute, he said. Given that Verizon "must otherwise begin to prepare its response" to the motion to dismiss very shortly, Purcell asks that the conference be convened "as soon as possible," he said.