Cedar Greene, LLC v. City of Charlotte

731 S.E.2d 193, 222 N.C. App. 1, 2012 WL 3174109, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 942
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedAugust 7, 2012
DocketNo. COA12-212
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 731 S.E.2d 193 (Cedar Greene, LLC v. City of Charlotte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cedar Greene, LLC v. City of Charlotte, 731 S.E.2d 193, 222 N.C. App. 1, 2012 WL 3174109, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 942 (N.C. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

McCullough, Judge.

Defendant City of Charlotte (“the City”) appeals from the trial court’s summary and declaratory judgment finding and concluding that the City’s reimbursement policy for the disposal of supplemental solid waste collected from multi-family complexes constitutes unlawful, unreasonable, and arbitrary discrimination in the provision of a public enterprise service in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-314 (2011). On appeal, the City argues the trial court erred in (1) denying its motion to dismiss with respect to both plaintiffs under Rule 12(b)(1) of our Rules of Civil Procedure; (2) granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and denying its motion for summary judgment after finding the City’s reimbursement policy is discriminatory in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-314; and (3) imposing a specific injunctive remedy against the City to correct the discriminatory practice. After careful review, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

By local ordinance, and pursuant to statutory authority to engage in “public enterprises” under Chapter 160A of our General Statutes, the City furnishes solid waste services to multi-family complexes, including apartment complexes, condominiums, and trailer parks, that maintain dumpsters or compactors for the storage and collection of solid waste within its corporate limits. The City provides to each multi-family complex a fixed number of solid waste collections per week in accordance with a formula based on the ratio of residential units to dumpsters at the complex. This primary collection is provided by the City through a private contractor, Republic Services, Inc. (“Republic”). If a multi-family complex desires to receive any additional weekday collections, the complex must privately contract for such supplemental collection service.

[3]*3In addition to its primary collection service, the City provides for the disposal of solid waste collected from multi-family complexes through the reimbursement of disposal fees charged by the City’s designated landfill for the disposal of residential solid waste. Pursuant to the City’s ordinances, the City levies on each separate multi-family complex an annual disposal fee for the disposal of all solid waste collected from the complex. This annual disposal fee, in the amount of $27 per residential unit, corresponds to the fees charged by the City’s designated landfill to dispose of the total amount of solid waste that a unit within a multi-family complex produces during one year. Accordingly, the annual disposal fee is calculated to account for the cost of the disposal of all solid waste collected from each multi-family complex through both the primary collection and any supplemental collections.

Pursuant to its contractual agreement with Republic, the City provides reimbursement to Republic for all disposal fees paid on account of both the primary collection and any supplemental collections for which Republic is hired. However, the City does not provide any reimbursement of disposal fees to supplemental collection service providers other than Republic. Republic was awarded the contract with the City after submitting a bid for the services, as did five other companies. In order to obtain the lowest possible rate for its primary collection service, the City included its reimbursement policy for disposal fees as a provision in the guidelines for consideration by the companies choosing to submit a bid for the services.

Plaintiff Cedar Greene, LLC (“Cedar Greene”) owns and operates a residential apartment complex comprised of 224 units, known as Cedar Greene Apartments, within the corporate limits of the City. Accordingly, Cedar Greene Apartments is entitled to receive such solid waste services from the City. Based on the City’s formula, Cedar Greene Apartments receives primary collection once per week by the City through Republic.

Cedar Greene sought to engage plaintiff O’Leary Group Waste Systems, LLC (“O’Leary,” collectively with Cedar Greene, “plaintiffs”) to provide supplemental collection services at a rate lower than that charged by Republic, on condition that the City provide reimbursement of the supplemental collection disposal fees. Specifically, O’Leary offered to provide supplemental collection service at a rate of $12.50 per pickup from dumpsters and $125.00 for pickup from compactors, versus Republic’s rates of $16.95 per pickup from dumpsters and $168.98 per pickup from compactors.

[4]*4O’Leary represented to the City that it was prepared and willing to meet all uniformly applicable requirements the City may impose on providers of supplemental collection, including those requirements imposed on Republic under the City’s contractual agreement, in order to receive reimbursement from the City of the supplemental collection disposal fees. Such requirements include (1) using designated vehicles for supplemental collection of solid waste from multi-family complexes, (2) not commingling solid waste from multi-family complexes with waste from other sources, (3) disposal of such solid waste at the designated landfill, (4) submitting to monetary penalties if it disposes of waste not from multi-family complexes, and (5) allowing the City to monitor collection to ensure compliance with these requirements. Nonetheless, the City informed O’Leary that it would continue to reimburse disposal fees for supplemental waste collected from multi-family complexes only to Republic and that it would not reimburse such disposal fees to O’Leary or any other supplemental collection provider. O’Leary did not previously submit a bid for the City’s waste disposal business.

On 23 May 2011, plaintiffs commenced the present action by filing a verified complaint for declaratory judgment in Mecklenburg County Superior Court, alleging that the City’s program of reimbursing supplemental collection disposal fees, for which Cedar Greene had already paid the City by way of the annual disposal fee levied on all multi-family complexes, to only those multi-family complexes who hire Republic for supplemental collection services, violated N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-314 and the equal protection clauses of the North Carolina and United States Constitutions. After the City removed the case to federal court based on the federal constitutional claim, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on 27 June 2011 removing the federal claim, and the case was then remanded pursuant to the parties’ joint motion to remand. On 26 July 2011, the City filed its answer to plaintiffs’ amended complaint and a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ action pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of North Carolina’s Rules of Civil Procedure, alleging that neither plaintiff had standing to bring the claims set forth in their amended complaint.

On 22 September 2011, plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment, and on 4 November 2011, the City also filed a motion for summary judgment. The trial court conducted a hearing on the parties’ respective motions on 15 November 2011, and on 14 December 2011, the trial court entered a summary and declaratory judgment denying the City’s motion to dismiss and motion for summary judgment and [5]*5granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. The trial court’s order concluded the City’s policy of supplemental collection disposal fee reimbursement was in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-314. In light of that conclusion, the trial court made no ruling on plaintiffs’ constitutional equal protection argument. The trial court ordered the City to

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
731 S.E.2d 193, 222 N.C. App. 1, 2012 WL 3174109, 2012 N.C. App. LEXIS 942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cedar-greene-llc-v-city-of-charlotte-ncctapp-2012.