WASHINGTON-AT&T Wireless Services Inc., despite winning a California appeals court ruling last summer that capped liability at $5,000 for failing to connect a 911 cell phone call from carjack victim Marcia Spielholz, has decided to quietly settle the personal injury lawsuit with the California woman for possibly several million dollars.
“There’s been a preliminary settlement that seems to be to everybody’s satisfaction,” said Steven Crosby, vice president of external affairs for AT&T Wireless.
Crosby said an oral agreement was reached between Spielholz and AT&T Wireless, managing partner of Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Co., about two weeks ago.
The two sides agreed not to disclose the terms of the settlement, but a source close to the litigation said Spielholz may receive $5 million to $8 million from AT&T Wireless.
In December 1994, after repeated mobile phone 911 calls went unanswered, carjackers caught up with Spielholz in the Beverlywood section of Los Angles and shot her in the face.
The assault caused severe, permanent injury to Spielholz, an attorney and professional colleague of Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard.
Spielholz’s ordeal gained national attention in recent years and helped fuel a consumer group’s push-against strong cellular industry resistance at times-to remedy the “dead zone” problem.
On a related front, Spielholz is part of a class-action lawsuit that charges L.A. Cellular with false and deceptive advertising of its cellular coverage area by not disclosing significant gaps in its “seamless calling area.”
Why did AT&T Wireless, which was in the driver’s seat in the Spielholz litigation, settle out of court?
Crosby would not say.
Gretchen Nelson, Spielholz’s attorney, declined any comment.
Last July, the 2nd District Court of Appeals in California capped L.A. Cellular’s liability at $5,000 as a result of Spielholz’s inability to call 911 during the Los Angeles carjacking. But now AT&T has agreed to what is believed to be a multimillion-dollar payoff.
The timing of the AT&T Wireless-Spielholz settlement two weeks ago coincides with two huge wireless policy issues that have been hanging in the balance.
The accord between Spielholz and the nation’s top mobile phone company was struck as the cellular industry was pursuing two major lobbying campaigns in the nation’s capital. One effort involves securing liability protection in Congress for failed 911 calls, a benefit enjoyed today by landline carriers that, unlike wireless carriers, file tariffs with states that regulate them.
The other initiative was to dissuade the FCC from mandating new rules advocated by consumer activists on how to improve 911 access for analog cellular subscribers.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association gained ground on both fronts last week. The FCC adopted a technology-neutral approach to dead zones, which critics say will lead cellular carriers to embrace an industry-backed solution that is not optimal.
The idea is to give analog mobile phone customers the best possible chance of getting through to 911 by enabling phones to access frequencies of both cellular carriers in emergencies.
Meanwhile, the two lawmakers-Senate communications subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)-who showed up last Wednesday for a hearing on wireless 911 legislation signaled support for shielding wireless carriers against lawsuits like the one Spielholz brought against AT&T.
Wireless lobbyists said Hollings’ absence at the hearing and his lack of any declared opposition to the bill suggests the South Carolina lawmaker might go along with the legislation.
Hollings, strongly backed by the trial lawyers’ lobby, opposes a bill that would give liability protection for year 2000 computer malfunctions.
“We are not going to reduce the ability of citizens to sue when they are wronged … Fritz Hollings doesn’t walk away from these type of things,” said Maurie Lane, a spokesman for Hollings.
The House in February overwhelmingly approved a similar wireless 911 bill. The measure, in addition to protecting wireless carriers from some lawsuits-makes 911 the universal emergency telephone number and encourages the development of automatic vehicle crash notification technology.
