The internet service provider and public utility company filed the initial lawsuit against the city in Montana First Judicial District Court on Aug. 27 and is seeking $1.5 million in damages, alleging city staff unlawfully interfered with its operations within city rights of way from the summer of 2015 to April 2020.

The city’s counterclaim, filed April 19, asserts that TSI&T’s allegations are baseless and that to “prevail on its claim for tortious interference, TSI&T must prove malice… The City did not act with malice.”