Solid Waste Fees Class Action

The North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld a decision by the North Carolina Superior Court that allows a class action lawsuit to proceed concerning solid waste fees in Carteret County.

Background

Carteret County does not provide trash and recycling services to county residents. They do provide access to a landfill and waste collection sites that have dumpsters and other waste receptacles. The county funds these sites by levying fees to county property owners.

Plaintiffs allege that the fees are unlawful because they cannot be charged to residents who have never used the sites, nor can they be charged to those who hired a private collection service. In addition, the revenue the county has collected exceeds the cost of operating the sites, which is in violation of state law.

By statute, counties may charge fees for solid waste services including a fee for the use of the disposal facility. However, this can only be applied to those who use the facility and which may not exceed the cost of operating the facility. An additional fee, called an availability fee, can also be charged, but it cannot be charged to property owners served by a private contractor and the fee may not exceed the cost of providing the facility.

The plaintiffs argue that Carteret County charged green box fees to people who never used a green box site and unlawfully charged both the green box fee and landfill fee to people who had private waste collection services. Plaintiffs also alleged that the fees the county charged exceeded the cost of operating these county waste disposal sites.

Bryson Attorneys

Bryson attorneys Martha Geer, Scott Harris, Jim DeMay and Hunter Bryson are leading this case along with co-counsel from Lewis & Roberts, PLLC.

Further References

Supreme Court of North Carolina Decision

Read the full opinion here: https://assets.law360news.com/2455000/2455871/carteret.pdf

Law360 article here: https://www.law360.com/articles/2455871