Landlord Countersues T-Mobile, Crown Castle for Alleged Cell Tower Deceit

T-Mobile’s assignment of sublease rights to Crown Castle and in turn to Dish Network without notifying Academy Medical prevented Academy “from exercising its contractual right to object to the sublease,” alleged the property owner in a counterclaim Thursday (docket 1:22-cv-00910) in U.S. District Court for New Mexico.

T-Mobile and Crown Castle contend that Academy is blocking Crown Castle from further upgrading the cell tower leased on its property for Dish’s 5G network buildout (see 2211300001). Academy’s countersuit alleges long-term deceit by T-Mobile and Crown Castle gave it good cause for blocking further modifications to the tower.

Academy’s counterclaim came a day after its motion to dismiss the T-Mobile-Crown Castle complaint for failure to state a claim (see 2301120013). Academy’s counterclaim “does not moot” the filing of its motion to dismiss, Academy said Thursday. The plaintiffs and defendant don't disagree about the “plain language” of the lease agreement but “about the duties it imposes as a matter of law,” it said.

Academy had no knowledge of the sublease agreement between Crown Castle and Dish or between T-Mobile and Dish “until after the inception of this litigation,” said the counterclaim. The city of Albuquerque granted a building permit in November 2020 “for the purpose of removing and replacing antennas on the monotower” on the leased property, it said.

Dish “was apparently involved in the completion of this work based on records now produced,” said Academy. The property owners didn't receive notice of the construction, nor did it have an opportunity “to approve or reject the modifications,” as the lease agreement required, it said. The work, completed in May 2021, increased the height by 10 feet, and “added a hat-shaped upper half to the monotower that was two to three times larger than the original circumference,” said Academy. “The girth of the lower preexisting part of the monotower also increased substantially,” it said.

During the construction, Academy received complaints from its tenants on the west side of the building, adjacent to the tenants' parking lot, said the counterclaim. “The tenants reported screws falling on their vehicles and considerable debris in the parking area that made them worried about damage to their vehicles,” it said.

An Academy tenant received notice from Crown Castle in March that Dish intended to collocate the existing tower on the site and that the FCC required Dish to notify tenants in the surrounding area, said the counterclaim. “Collocation is the use of one structure to mount or deploy multiple mobile telecommunications antennas belonging to more than one wireless service provider,” it said.

Crown Castle falsely represented to Academy that its proposed modifications to the cell tower would not change the character of the monotower or the site, said the counterclaim. But a collocation “is a substantial change as it would convert a single tenant cell tower to one that would accommodate multiple carriers,” it said. After speaking with an Albuquerque planning examiner, it said, Academy realized the May 2021 construction “was not only unauthorized but was most likely the first stage in the collocation of the monotower,” all without its knowledge.

Academy’s counterclaim alleges T-Mobile and Crown Castle “actively breached their obligations” to the property owner by failing to notify Academy that Crown Castle had a “sublease interest” in the cell tower site, and failing to notify it of any other subleases that T-Mobile may have granted, including to Dish. Academy also alleges T-Mobile and Crown Castle misrepresented to Albuquerque they had a “permanent easement” on Academy property. T-Mobile and Crown Castle didn't comment.