Company description::
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FILED
AGAINST CHICAGO AREA WASTE COLLECTORS
OVER LAST YEAR’S GARBAGE STRIKE
CHICAGO, Illinois, January 21, 2004 --- Breach of Contract, Unjust Enrichment
On January 16, 2004, a class action lawsuit was filed on the behalf of approximately 8 million customers in over 1 million homes and businesses throughout the Chicago Metropolitan area, all of whom suffered complete cessation of their contracted and scheduled garbage pickup and disposal service during the last year’s much-publicized garbage strike. The impact of the strike, which lasted from October 1, 2003 through October 10, 2003, was exacerbated by unseasonably warm weather during that time period.
The suit has been filed on behalf of the class of “all persons, entities, towns, municipalities, cities, beneficiaries and all other such customers of the Defendants who suffered suspension of their scheduled garbage pickup and disposal service from October 1, 2003 through October 10, 2003, inclusive.” The amount of monetary damages suffered by each individual class member during this ten day garbage strike is estimated to be somewhere between $4 to $100 per class member.
Waste collectors specifically named in the suit include Waste Management, Groot, Onyx, Allied Waste, and BFI, among others, all of which failed to provide the proper adjustments, pro-rations, credits, or rebates to their customers for the missed pickups that occurred during the strike. The Complaint is brought in two counts and alleges that customers were improperly charged for services that the garbage collectors never, in fact, provided and that these monies have since been unjustly retained.
The first count alleges that that from October 1, 2003 through October 10, 2003, the Defendants breached their contractual obligations in that they: (a) failed to provide garbage pick-up at the customers’ contractually specified service locations; (b) failed to provide garbage pick-up at the contractually specified frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.); (c) failed to dispose of said garbage; (d) improperly charged and over-billed Plaintiffs as if said services had, in fact, been provided; and (e) have since failed to adjust pro-rata, credit, or rebate the improper charges back to their customers.
The second count of the Complaint seeks restitution and disgorgement of retained profits from the strike for garbage pickups and disposal services that never occurred. In addition, count two alleges that the named Defendants improperly “double-dipped,” by improperly overcharging customers for disposal service which was already included in the contracted rate: To wit, many customers were forced to incur additional out-of-pocket costs in order to haul and/or dump their own garbage at Defendants’ various landfill sites throughout the area; once there, the Defendants routinely exacted an additional charge from customers which typically averaged between $10 to $45 per load, per customer, when Defendants should have instead allowed these customers to dispose of their trash for no charge during the strike.
The suit was filed by attorneys Robert J. Shelist and Mark A. Schwartz of SHELIST & SCHWARTZ, LLP, located at 822 W. Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60607. The firm specializes in class action and collection matters involving consumer fraud, securities fraud, and other such corporate malfeasance.
Contact information:
Tel: (312) 563-8054 Schwartz’s Cell Phone: (312) 907-8045
Fax: (312) 850-2820 Shelist’s Cell Phone: (312) 613-7919
Email: rjsattorny@aol.com.
schwartzlawfirm@comcast.net
Mark A. Schwartz, M.D., J.D.
3223 Lake Ave #394
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
tel: 312 907-8045
fax: 312 850-2820
email: schwartzlawfirm@comcast.net
mschwartz@alaron.com
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