SPSA Prevails in Lawsuit

Virginia judge throws out case against C&D company.

The Circuit Court for the city of Suffolk, VA, has ruled in favor of the Southeastern Public Services Authority on the remaining issues in the Holland Enterprises lawsuit. All of the claims now have been dismissed. The judge in the case determined that SPSA is free to continue its construction demolition debris disposal program. 

Privately owned Holland Enterprises had filed a $20 million lawsuit against SPSA insisting that it could not enter the CDD disposal market without making certain findings with regard to whether the private sector was adequately providing such services. The company operates a private landfill. SPSA’s position has been that the plain language of the statute makes clear that the finding requirements are imposed only when setting up a refuse collection and disposal system, and are not required when offering various services as part of its existing system.

 

In his decision, Judge Rodham T. Delk, Jr. concluded that SPSA’s construction of the statute is correct: “I hold that the extension of SPSA’s waste disposal operation to include CDD waste was not a new system requiring the Section 15.2-5121 statutory findings. It was simply a new service.  SPSA was therefore free to institute the new service without making the Section 15.2-5121 findings.”

 

Gary Bryant, SPSA’s legal counsel, characterizes the ruling as “eliminating a burdensome hurdle that Holland Enterprises tried to erect in an attempt to avoid competing with SPSA.” 

 

He explained that the ruling means not only that SPSA may continue its CDD disposal program, but also that SPSA “is free to provide any additional services as part of its refuse collection and disposal system as long as those services do not involve establishing a new system.  The ruling recognizes the discretion given to SPSA, a public authority, to operate its refuse collection and disposal system in a manner that best serves the public.”