However, the Plaintiff has refused to pay the bill, arguing that Plaintiff is owed much more than that by the City for the incorrect prior sewer assessments by the department. Plaintiff refuses to pay any bills owed to the City until the instant matter is resolved to Plaintiff's satisfaction. As the City can receive advice on the tax and municipal law issues from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the City seeks your counsel solely on the equity issues contained in this complaint. Discuss the probable equitable defenses to the claim and the remedies sought by the Plaintiff. Plaintiff is a Vermont Corporation with a principal place of business in the City of Hardrock, State of Vermont.
Defendant is a properly organized Vermont municipality.
Upon information and belief, an exception to this sewage disposal fee exists for businesses within the City of Hardrock involved in the manufacture of granite memorials. In such cases, the granite memorial manufacturer is charged a sewage disposal fee at a flat rate per employee working on the site as opposed to a percentage of the business' metered water usage. Plaintiff was never informed by the City of Hardrock of this alternative sewer disposal fee structure for granite manufacturing businesses. Plaintiff has been billed at the normal sewer disposal fee structure as a percentage of Plaintiff's voluminous metered water usage. Defendant did not deny that the inappropriate sewer disposal fee had been assessed against Plaintiff, but it has unreasonably and unjustly refused to return the mistakenly-paid sums to Plaintiff.