
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994                   TAG: 9409270114
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

GILMORE WANTS PHONE CASE REHEARD

Attorney General Jim Gilmore asked the Virginia Supreme Court on Monday to take another shot at a telephone regulation case that was decided by a rare tie vote.

Four days after hearing arguments, the court said Sept. 16 that it was deadlocked 3-3 on the lawsuit involving the state's largest telephone companies. The court has seven members, but Justice Leroy Hassell had excused himself from the case.

The ruling upheld a State Corporation Commission decision that had been challenged by consumer advocates and long-distance telephone companies.

The attorney general's office, the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, AT&T Corp. and MCI Telecommunications Corp. had argued that the SCC improperly extended an experimental plan for loosening regulations last year to the harm of telephone ratepayers.

They asked the Supreme Court to overturn the SCC decision to extend the experiment without public notice or opportunity to comment.

Lawyers for the SCC and Bell Atlantic-Virginia Inc. said the extension was necessary to prevent the experiment from lapsing while state regulators evaluated the companies' performance since the plan began in 1989.

by CNB