San Diego residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Republic Services for charging services it failed to provide during the month-long strike by its workers in Chula Vista and San Diego.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Qihai Chen, a Carmel Valley resident, against Republic and its subsidiary Allied Waste.
The 14-page class-action lawsuit accuses Republic of illegal enrichment and advantageous competitive practices.
“The Defendants continued to bill Plaintiff and the Class (the other consumers) for services that they knew they could not provide or simply chose not to provide,” the lawsuit reads.
The document says the neighbors decided to file a joint lawsuit because they individually lack the resources to sue Republic in federal court.
The lawsuit demanded that Republic stop charging for services it did not provide between December 17 and January 17, that they repay expenses they had to pay for lawyers after the company refused to accept their demands, and that it now also grant them compensation.
The plaintiffs employed the services of two law firms.
Councilman John McCann proposed in the middle of the month that Chula Vista residents stop paying monthly bills to the company did not regularly pick up trash for nearly a month.
The company partially collected organic waste on a few occasions, but the service was poor and irregular because 250 workers remained on strike.
"Republic Services cannot charge for collection service that it did not perform," McCann stated. “If someone doesn't provide the service, our Chula Vista residents should use that money to do the work themselves,” he said.
Many Chula Vista residents drove their trash to the municipal landfill in Otay Mesa.
The company charges at least $47 a month for residential service, but rates go up for multifamily and commercial complexes.
The striking workers obtained an increase of $5 per hour under a ten-year contract.
