Students to Sue News Service

A group of Winthrop House students will file suit against Harvard Delivery News Service (HDNS) Monday unless they receive reimbursement for newspapers undelivered during the past several years.

HDNS is responsible for delivering the Boston Globe, The New York Times and The Crimson on the Harvard campus.

Daniel C. Esty '81 said yesterday he and his roommates threatened to take HDNS to small claims court in mid-January after numerous attempted phone calls and unanswered letters produced no results.

Mitchell Smith, the newly-appointed manager of HDNS said yesterday he plans to give refund checks to anyone who complained about undelivered papers during the semester, but he will not give them to people who didn't alert HDNS of the problem so that it could correct it before refunds became necessary.

"Refunds for last year will be more difficult because I don't have files on who received papers last year," he added.

Smith issued a flyer earlier this week, stating his intention to improve delivery service, adding complaints should be directed to his office at 495-1994.

Smith added that because he took over yesterday as HDNS manager, he was not familiar with Esty's complaint.

Bad delievery has "been a chronic thing over my two and a half years at Harvard," Esty said, adding, "I think the pattern of neglect the HDNS is demonstrating is a tremendous disservice to the Harvard community."

We'll Sue

In their mid-January letter to HDNS, Esty and his roommates said, "If we do not receive a check for $30, reflecting our estimate of newspapers we have not received over the last two years, by Monday, January 28, we are going to file suit against (HDNS) in Cambridge small claims court."

Joanna Gets Her Gun

Jeffrey B. Matthews '81, one of Esty's roommates, said yesterday he estimated his rooming group had not received 75 daily and 15 Sunday papers during the last two years. The group subscribes to The Boston Globe, The Boston Sunday Globe, The New York Sunday Times and The Crimson.

The maximum sum in damages the group could win in court is $750, Esty said. He added that he has placed a notice of his intentions in Winthrop House dining hall, inviting others to join him. As of last night, about 15 groups of subscribers had singed the notice.

One For Me And...

Esty said if he wins the suit, he will divide the reward among subscribers according to individual losses.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, who oversees HDNS, said he believes Esty will receive a prompt response from Smith if he sends him another copy of the most recent letter.

"I think there's an obligation on the part of the service to provide refunds," Epps said, adding, "My only concern is that people be able to roll out of their beds and read their papers."

Esty said he called HDNS "at least a hundred times--with no exaggeration" last spring, when he first began registering his complaints. He said he finally reached former manager Marty Olive, who promised to reimburse him with a check, but never heard from Olive again or received any refund.

Olive could not be reached for comment yesterday.