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Small Texas Landfill Operator Headed to Trial Against Two of Nation's Largest Waste Management Companies

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 September 2007, 12:06 CDT

Attorneys representing Brazoria County Disposal Corp. are set to go to trial in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against two of the top three solid waste management companies in the nation, Waste Management Inc. of Houston and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Republic Services Inc.

Noted Houston trial lawyer W. Mark Lanier is serving as lead counsel for Brazoria County Disposal in the trial scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Sept. 5, in Judge Ben Hardin's 23rd District Court in Angleton, Texas.

"This is a classic David-and-Goliath battle," says Mr. Lanier. "These two Goliaths thought they could take our clients' property simply by making false claims and relying on forgery, but we don't think they're going to get away with it."

The case stems from a series of contracts that Brazoria County Disposal entered into in 1992 to sell several tracts of land and an affiliated landfill to Brazoria County Recycling Center.

Under the contracts, Brazoria County Recycling agreed to pay royalties to Brazoria County Disposal that would have eventually amounted to more than $20 million for the use of a landfill, and a payment of $1.3 million that was to be made when other tracts of land were approved for landfill use by state regulators. The agreement extended the financial obligations to any companies that might purchase Brazoria County Recycling in the future. Brazoria County Recycling's parent company merged with Waste Management Inc. in 1995. Waste Management sold the landfill to Republic Services in 1998.

However, shortly after the original sale of the land in 1992, the president of Brazoria County Recycling asked state regulators to stop processing the application for the other tracts of land to be used as a landfill, which essentially eliminated the possibility that the company would pay the $1.3 million under the earlier agreement. The lawsuit further alleges that Brazoria County Recycling, Waste Management and Republic Services worked together to hide the transfer of the property while using fraudulent contracts to deprive Brazoria County Disposal of the royalty payments it was owed.

The lawsuit says Waste Management and Republic Services falsely told SEC regulators that Brazoria County Disposal was a subsidiary of Waste Management, and that an executive vice president and general counsel of Waste Management forged the signature of Brazoria County Disposal on a document that purported to terminate the underlying royalty agreements.

For more information on the upcoming trial, please call Kevin Roberts at The Lanier Law Firm at 713-659-5200, or contact Bruce Vincent at 214-559-4630 or bruce@legalpr.com.

Source: Business Wire

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