Opinion ID: 809580
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Royalty Fees Contract

Text: Plaintiff Wilkening’s company, Big Bin Services, Inc. (“Big Bin”), purchased a piece of property in Lowndes County, Georgia. Big Bin then obtained a permit to operate a landfill on the site. In 1991, Plaintiff Wilkening sold Big Bin and its assets to Equivest Waste Solutions. At the same time, Big Bin agreed to pay Plaintiff Wilkening royalty fees of “$1.00 for each ton of waste, if any, delivered to the Landfill (including any contiguous and/or vertical expansions thereof approved by the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources) . . . and accepted by Big Bin . . . .” (Emphasis added). The contract defined “contiguous” to mean “any property within a one mile radius of the Landfill.” Thus, Big Bin agreed to pay royalty fees for “waste” delivered to the landfill or to an expansion 1 “We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same legal standards that bind the district court.” Storfer v. Guar. Trust Life Ins. Co., 666 F.3d 1277, 1278-79 (11th Cir. 2012). 2 Case: 12-11852 Date Filed: 10/02/2012 Page: 3 of 10 on any property within one mile of the landfill. In 1998, through a series of mergers and corporate name changes, Defendant Veolia Pecan Row Landfill, LLC (“Veolia Pecan Row”) became the owner and operator of Big Bin’s “Landfill.” Defendants Veolia Pecan Row and Veolia ES Evergreen Landfill, Inc. (“Veolia Evergreen”) are both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Veolia ES North America, LLC. In 2002, Defendant Veolia Evergreen acquired an already-permitted landfill from the Deep South Regional Solid Waste Management Authority (“Deep South Authority”). Veolia Evergreen’s landfill is adjacent to, and shares a common boundary with, Veolia Pecan Row’s landfill. Veolia Evergreen acquired this adjacent landfill intending to move Veolia Pecan Row’s operations and waste stream to the Evergreen landfill once the Pecan Row landfill reached capacity, which it did in 2010. In addition, between 2002 and 2010, the two landfills shared Pecan Row’s mailing address, front entrance, scales and some internal roads.