MEDINA – Ongoing lawsuits between Envision Waste Services and the Medina County Solid Waste District have returned to Common Pleas Court after the Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled the court erred in dismissing both a $1 million breach of contract claim filed by Envision and a counterclaim filed by the county.

Envision filed the original complaint in Medina County Common Pleas Court two years ago after county commissioners voted not to renew its contract to manage the county’s CPF and recycling programs. Envision’s claim stated it paid about $1 million in landfill fees that were really the county’s responsibility when it managed the CPF from 2010 to 2015 under a contract worth about $27 million.

Ninth District Court of Appeals Judge Donna Carr remanded the case back to Common Pleas Court writing in her judgement Jan. 31 that visiting Judge Richard Markus erred in dismissing Envision’s claim because contract language relating to the landfill fees under dispute was not ambiguous as he ruled.

Carr also wrote Markus was correct in dismissing the county’s counterclaim that Envision breached its contract by halting a recycling program in which it processed blue bags containing pre-sorted recyclable material hauled to the CPF.

However, Carr also ruled Markus had erred in dismissing the county’s counterclaim that Envision failed to properly maintain the CPF facility and the equipment it houses.

“Both matters are back before the (Common Pleas) court to review,” said County Prosecutor Forrest Thompson. Other county officials declined to comment on the appeals court ruling on the grounds that the lawsuit is ongoing.

Envision had managed the trash sorting and recycling activities for the county for more than 20 years. However, high costs to operate the facility and relatively low percentages of trash volume being recycled prompted county officials to cease trash sorting operations at the CPF and replace it with a voluntary recycling program in which residents take their old paper, plastic and metal containers to drop-off bins placed at 54 sites around the county.

Envision had also asked the court for an injunction to prevent the county from awarding new bids to operate the CPF as a transfer station when recycling efforts there were suspended in 2015. Markus was also assigned to that case when Medina County Common Pleas Court Judges Chris Collier and Joyce Kimbler both recused themselves. Markus denied the injunction requested by Envision.

Envision then filed the breach of contract claim over landfill fees. Envision’s complaint against the county cites a paragraph in the bid specifications for its last contract which states: “All federal, state and local fees associated with the operation of the facility shall be considered as pass-through costs. All such costs shall be paid by the county with the exception of state OEPA fees for class I compost and associated class I compost wastes.”

Shortly after Envision was awarded its last contract to operate the CPF, it billed the solid waste district for the local pass-through fees it paid on the disposal of the county’s solid waste at the Central Waste Landfill for the month of January 2010.

Then Sanitary Engineer Jim Troike refused to pay the fees, citing a provision in the new Envision contract which stated: “The cost of transportation and payment of all disposal costs of the end-waste, residue or recyclable material are the responsibility of the contractor.”

Envision appealed Troike’s decision to the Solid Waste Policy Committee which heard arguments from the County Prosecutor’s Office and Envision attorneys before denying the appeal.

Envision stopped billing the county for those landfill fees after the policy committee ruling in 2010, but reserved the right to later seek reimbursement for the fees it paid though the duration of its five-year contract.