Manchester to Hire Attorney For Class Action Lawsuit

Manchester Aldermen unanimously passed a resolution to retain counsel in regard to a class action lawsuit against the city of Manchester.

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Mayor David Willson explained that Manchester is one of 233 cities involved in this lawsuit. 

The City of Town and Country is also named in the lawsuit.

Alderman Paul Hamill stated the litigation stems from a class action settlement with AT&T.

"Several years ago AT&T agreed to settle a claim related to its failure to pay gross receipts taxes to municipalities for its phone services. Since that settlement, the plaintiff claims that  AT&T has included the cost of data services in calculating the taxes and has passed those taxes onto consumers. The plaintiff claims that doing so is a violation of the Internet Tax Freedom Act ("ITFA")  which prohibits taxes on internet access," Hamill stated in an email to Patch.

Hamill also said that although the city will retain an attorney, Manchester will not use city money to pay its attorney fees. Manchester and other cities paid a portion of the AT&T settlement to the St. Louis County Municipal League, Hamill explained. He said the Municipal League will use the money it received from that settlement to pay for the defense of its cities.

"As a result, Manchester should not incur any attorney's fees in the case," Hamill stated.

For more details on the city's litigation representation, see the agenda and supporting documents included in the PDF portion of this article.