Stokes v. DISH Network, No. 15-2901 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs filed suit on behalf of themselves and a putative class of DISH subscribers, seeking monetary relief for Turner and FOX News services interruptions. The court concluded that, under Colorado law, the subscription agreement between DISH and its customers, which is comprised of both a Digital Home Advantage Plan Agreement and a Residential Customer Agreement (RCA), is not illusory. In this case, the district court’s interpretation of Section 1.I. and Section 7.A. of the RCA improperly converted the covenant of good faith and fair dealing into an additional contract term. It allowed plaintiffs to recover monetary relief for services interruptions, a remedy that is unambiguously precluded by the express terms of the parties’ contractual bargain. Therefore, the duty of good faith and fair dealing may not be applied to require DISH to provide any monetary relief when it deletes or changes programming for which subscribers have already paid. Because plaintiffs' claims for class-wide monetary relief failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Beam and Smith, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Contracts. Under Colorado law, the subscription agreement between DISH and its customers, which is comprised of both a Digital Home Advantage Agreement and a Residential Customer Agreement, is not illusory; since the subscription agreement is not illusory, the district court erred in granting plaintiffs monetary relief for service interruptions since that remedy is unambiguously precluded by the express terms of the parties' contractual bargain; as a result, plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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