San Francisco, California - Appliance recycler JACO Environmental says it has won out in a judgment from the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected an appeal by Appliance Recycling Centers of America Inc. (ARCA).
The appeal was against a ruling by a federal court in California in January 2009, and is part of a long-running lawsuit, originally filed by ARCA in November 2004.
In the lawsuit, ARCA unsuccessfully claimed that JACO made false and misleading statements about JACO's refrigerator and freezer recycling services -- specifically its system for safely handling contaminated polyurethane foam from those units -- to the California Public Utilities Commission and utilities in several states.
But the appeal court rejected ARCA's claims, upholding the lower court's decision to dismiss those claims on summary judgment.
The court concluded that "none of the statements challenged by ARCA satisfied the necessary elements of a false-advertising claim," said a 13 May statement from JACO.
JACO president Terry Jacobsen commented: "I am delighted that this distraction is behind us so that we can concentrate fully on cost-effective and environmentally-responsible appliance recycling."
JACO has more than 150 utility contracts in 26 states and operates 21 recycling facilities throughout the US.
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