Thank you Chattanoogan for reporting the big news that no one else does. This is a big story under the radar.
Hats off to American Heritage Apartments, Inc. for challenging governMint fee grabbing in a major way.
As reported in the Chattanoogan, the appeals court of East Tennessee recently ruled that the Hamilton County Wastewater Treatment Authority could not fee grab from multi-unit apartment complexes by applying an additional $8.00 per month to each apartment unit for “maintenance.”
A structure usually has one sewer or wastewater service line, just as a home does. Duplexes will have dual lines, sometimes depending on who the inspector was. In other words, a sewer line is connected to each building, not each apartment unit.
Instead of charging the apartment owners $8 a month per line, the WWTA was counting the number of apartments and multiplying the number of units contained in the structure times $8 per month, as I understood. The application per apartment unit is fee grabbing.
If I understand the appeals court ruling, WWTA will be required to refund the “class” meaning all apartment complexes back to the date of filing for billing under the multi-unit model. Get your governMint check book out fellors. If this is a class and is refundable back to date of filing in Chancery Court, this is a great outcome for all multi-unit structures. Lots of big refund checks.
This will cover all municipalities served by WWTA, including Soddy Daisy, Signal Mtn, Collegedale, East Ridge and Red Bank.
If I misunderstood the ruling from appeals court please explain. It appears the apartment are indeed a class, and can obtain refunds back to the date of filing.
April Eidson
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Without going into all of the particulars, the Court of Appeals considered two issues:
(1) Whether the plaintiff had standing to bring a private cause of action, and
(2) If the plaintiff had standing to bring a private cause of action, whether the complaint could be certified as a class action lawsuit .
With respect to class action certification, you are correct. The Court held that the complaint qualified for class action certification.
With respect to the ruling on the first issue, though, the Court held that the Plaintiff could maintain a private cause of action. The Court did not reach the merits of the underlying claim. Accordingly, it is undetermined whether the WWTA will be required to refund any of the fees it charged.
Trevor Atchley