The Missouri Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments today — May 10 — in St. Louis County’s appeal of a lower court ruling awarding roughly $1.16 million to three waste haulers over the establishment of trash-collection districts.

County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Wallace last September ordered the county to pay a total of $1,159,903.90 to American Eagle Waste, Meridian Waste and Waste Management in their suit alleging the county failed to provide the state-required two years’ written notice it was establishing eight trash districts in unincorporated areas.

The three haulers were outbid in 2008 for contracts to provide exclusive service to trash-district residents.

Wallace awarded $261,086.65 to American Eagle Waste; $99,224.20 to Meridian and $799,593.05 to Waste Management.

She ruled in September 2010 that the county breached an implied contract with the haulers by not providing two years’ written notice. Wallace decided in January 2011 the three haulers were entitled to damages.

County Counselor Patricia Redington contends the notice requirements under state statute were not applicable to the county because of its charter status.

“… County contends that the notice requirements of Section 260.247 RSMo were not applicable to county’s program and created no rights in haulers,” the county’s appeal brief stated. “The trial court entered partial summary judgment in haulers’ favor on liability for breach of implied-in-law contract … and then entered judgment in haulers’ favor in the amount of $1,159,903.90 after bench trial on May 31, 2011.”

The trash haulers are represented by Jane Dueker.

In their appeal brief, the haulers contend, “If the county wanted to enter the trash-hauling market before the mandated two years expired, it was required to hire the existing haulers and pay them what they would have received had they continued to provide the service. It is undisputed that the county never complied with this law.”

In its appeal, the county also is disputing the amount of damages owed the haulers.

During a trial May 31, 2011, the plaintiffs called C. Eric Ficken, a certified public accountant and certified valuation analyst who is certified in financial forensics, as an expert witness. Ficken testified that American Eagle was damaged in the amount of $5,221,733; Meridian Waste was damaged in the amount of $1,984,484 and Waste Management was damaged in the amount of $15,991,861.

But those figures, which totaled roughly $23.2 million, were based on what the haulers would have billed or invoiced to customers, and not on the revenue they would have actually received.

Wallace disagreed with the haulers’ contention they were owed $32.1 million and awarded them roughly $1.16 million.

Redington contends the trial court erred in granting judgment for the haulers “because haulers failed to provide any evidence to support a claim for either restitution or damages in that the testimony and exhibits all were provided by a hired accountant who relied only on hearsay data that was not reasonably reliable so that the testimony and exhibits should have been excluded …”

The haulers filed the suit in May 2008.

County Circuit Court Judge Steven Goldman dismissed the case the next month, but the plaintiffs appealed the decision, first to the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals and then to the state Supreme Court.

Both courts refused to review the ruling. The case returned in July 2008 to the Court of Appeals, which in October 2008 reversed and remanded Goldman’s original decision. The suit went to U.S. District Court in 2009 with the addition of federal claims by the haulers, and a trial tentatively was set until Judge Charles Shaw sent the case back to the county circuit court in March 2010.

This case is the last to be heard of four suits brought against the county related to the trash-district program. The county has prevailed in the three previous lawsuits.