Pac Bell dials wrong number in pre-paid calling card case. (Law).

HERE'S a phone call one local business chose not to accept.

A now-defunct provider of pre-paid calling card machines at Los Angeles International Airport won $4.6 million in damages last month in a lawsuit against Pacific Bell Telephone Co., now SBC Communications Inc.

The judgment, entered June 18 in L.A. Superior Court, claims that SBC breached a written agreement with Tel-Rom Inc. of Woodland Hills. In its suit, Tel-Rom claims that in August 1999, SBC abruptly cancelled the agreement only days before receiving the five-year contract.

"That was by telephone call," said Michael McCann, a partner at Cappello & McCann LLC in Santa Barbara, representing the shareholders of Tel-Rom. "There was also a one-line letter saying, 'We're not going to use you.' They didn't give us a reason."

Instead, SBC hired another subcontractor, Kellee Communications Group Inc. of L.A., to handle the contract to provide prepaid calling card services at LAX and Ontario International Airport. Tel-Rom claims Kellee conspired with SBC to win the contract when it withdrew as the subcontractor for AT&T Corp., which was a competing bidder.

As a result, McCann said, AT&T did not have time to renegotiate with a different subcontractor and lost the bid.

In addition, Tel-Rom claims SBC reneged on a separate agreement to provide prepaid calling card services and machines at San Francisco International Airport, McCann said. Tel-Rom could not install enough machines to pay for commission revenue that went to SBC under its contract, the ruling says.

Tel-Rom, a subsidiary of Woodland Hills-based Star Telecom Network Inc., went out of business in January 2002, McCann said.

Spokesman John Britton said SBC will appeal the verdict.

Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at [phone] ext. 225, or at [e-mail].