Correction This story originally incorrectly described Wes Hawthorne's involvement with the trash hauling consortium Tulsa Refuse Inc. The story has been corrected.
The city is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a former trash hauler that claims its constitutional rights were violated when the city switched to its new trash system last year.
Sundance Trash Services LLC claims in a lawsuit filed in Tulsa County District Court last month that the city has both "rendered useless" and "taken" unspecified millions of dollars worth of "property rights and business" by forbidding anyone but the new trash hauler from serving residential customers.
City and state records list Sundance's owner as Wes Hawthorne, who also was one of dozens of shareholders in the hauling consortium Tulsa Refuse Inc., which had operated the city's trash system for about 30 years.
In a response filed Monday, the city asks District Judge Linda Morrissey to dismiss the case on the grounds that Sundance possesses "no constitutionally protected property interest to collect residential solid waste ... as a matter of law."
The company's claims surround a city ordinance forbidding the operation of a trash service without a city-issued license, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which forbids taking private property for public use without compensation.
The city countered that municipal ordinances "are an independent source of law to which courts will look to determine if a property interest exists," and that without a city contract, Sundance has no such interests.
The city's new trash hauler, NeWSolutions, is a consortium that includes seven of the former members of Tulsa Refuse. The consortium won a contract in a bidding process after the Tulsa Refuse contact expired July 1.
After a temporary trash system, NeWSolutions formally took over Oct. 1.
Sundance, the city's response points out, had no direct contract with the city.
"Assuming Sundance somehow possessed every single right stated in the (Tulsa Refuse) agreement, its claims would still fail," the response says.
Although the Sundance petition does not specify what property rights were lost, the company's lawyer, Danny Richey of Tulsa, had told the Tulsa World that it included "trucks, pulleys, routes, revenue."
He said Tuesday that he could not comment on the city's request for dismissal because he had not seen the document.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: City asks judge to toss ex-trash hauler's claim
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