In Time Warner, a television cable company assessed late fees against its customers when their payments were not received by the due date. Time Warner’s customers filed lawsuits in order to recover the late fees paid in excess of the company’s actual damages caused by the late payments. 802 N.E.2d at 887-889. The Indiana Supreme Court held in Time Warner that the voluntary payment doctrine did not apply to Time Warner’s customers and discussed three main factors to consider when deciding whether to apply the voluntary payment doctrine. Id. at 891. First, that court observed that Time Warner’s customers had to pay the late fees in order to continue to receive cable service. Id. Next, the Time Warner court approved of the comments in the Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment which “limits application of the voluntary payment doctrine to situations where a party has voluntary paid a disputed amount.” Id. (emphasis added). The Time Warner court also stated that “customers in a government created monopoly deserve special protection because they have no where else to go for cable services.” Id. at 892. Finally, the Time Warner court reformulated Indiana’s definition of the voluntary payment doctrine by citing the comments of Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment § 6 cmt. e (Tentative Draft No. 1, 2001) as follows:
[a] more appropriate statement of the voluntary-payment rule, therefore, is that money voluntarily paid in the face of a recognized uncertainty as to the existence or extent of the payor’s obligation to the recipient may not be recovered, on the ground of “mistake,” merely because the payment is subsequently revealed to have exceeded the true amount of the underlying obligation.
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Indiana Utility Law and Indiana Municipal Law: City of Jeffersonville v. Hallmark at Jeffersonville, L.P. 937 N.E.2d 402 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010) (Part 2)
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