LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - Fort Smith, Ark., doesn’t owe its citizens anything for deceiving them about a municipal recycling program for several years since it didn’t charge extra for the service, the state’s highest court ruled, overturning a judge’s award of $745,000 in damages.
Jennifer Merriott filed a class action on behalf of her fellow citizens after news reports revealed that for three years Fort Smith had been trucking recyclables to a landfill even as it advertised its recycling program and urged residents to separate their trash. The city dropped its recycling program in 2014 after a no-cost contract expired and the processor proposed charging $35 a ton. The city restored the program again in July 2017 after news of the cancellation broke.
Merriott sued the city for “illegal extraction,” a claim provided under the Arkansas Constitution for government charges that are used for unauthorized purposes. A district judge awarded the class nearly a quarter of a million dollars after a bench trial, but the Arkansas Supreme Court, in a March 16 decision, reversed.
The Supreme Court agreed with Merriott that the $13.28 monthly fee could be considered equivalent to a tax and subject to illegal extraction claims. Citizens can sue cities and counties over any such charge unless it is fair, reasonable and bears a reasonable relationship to the benefits citizens receive in exchange for paying it, the court said.
In this case, however, Fort Smith used the money for its intended purpose, the court ruled.
“The circuit court’s findings that Fort Smith failed to notify the public, deceived citizens, and destroyed public trust are indisputable,” the court said. “But those facts do not make the sanitation fee’s relationship to the services less reasonable.”
The high court also rejected the claim Fort Smith unjustly enriched itself, ruling that while cancelling the recycling program conflicted with public policy, “Merriott offered no evidence that Fort Smith gained anything from its deception.”