Sony Electronics and EWASTE+ have agreed to pay a combined $2.4 million to end their years-long entanglement in a lawsuit over abandoned CRT materials in Ohio.
The joint settlement, which is one of the largest in the Closed Loop Refining and Recovery case, requires Sony to pay $1.3 million and Rochester Computer Recycling and Recovery (RCRR, which does business as EWASTE+), to pay $1.1 million.
The settlement is likely the largest that would be reached in the years-long case, which is before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Closed Loop failed in early 2016, leaving behind approximately 151 million pounds of CRT materials in Columbus. In 2017, the owners of the warehouses holding the inventory sued the companies that shipped materials there, and in 2019 and 2020 they amended their lawsuit to add dozens more defendants, including OEMs.
Warehouses have since been cleared, with the largest stock removed in recent weeks, but the legal battle over cleanup costs continues.
The Sony/EWASTE+ settlement is the second largest in the case, after a $6 million settlement from Kuusakoski Recycling/Vintage Tech. The settlement notes that EWASTE+ shipped 16.4 million pounds of CRT materials to Closed Loop beginning in June 2012 and ending in March 2016, just before Closed Loop closed its doors.
Sony settlement cost increases by almost 10%
Sony actually reached an agreement with the owners, Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA, in November 2020. In this agreement, the electronic brand owner agreed to pay $1.2 million, the sum being partly based on Sony’s market share.
But 10 other defendants, including EWASTE+, opposed Sony’s settlement, arguing that more investigative work needed to be done to determine whether Sony was underpaying. For years, EWASTE+ had actually been under contract with Sony to help the brand owner meet its obligations under New York’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law. EWASTE+ submitted contract documents that showed Sony had explicitly instructed the processor to send CRT materials collected in New York downstream to Closed Loop.
In September 2021, the judge rejected Sony’s settlement, saying it was premature and approving it at that time would have been unfair to the other defendants.
The latest settlement shows Sony paying $115,000 more than it originally agreed to pay, or about 9.6% more. In a statement to the court, Karl Heisler, attorney for Garrison Southfield Park, wrote that the total of $2.4 million they agreed to pay “represents the portion allocated to RCRR based on weight and also includes and reflects appropriate accounting for Sony’s allocated share of cleanup costs, based on RCRR’s allocated share and the potential liability of other recyclers with whom Sony has transacted.
The $1.1 million contribution from EWASTE+ was the first time a settlement sum for the Victor, NY-based processor has been made public.
The combined $2.4 million is 90% of what the owners calculate the businesses owe, according to the settlement. The amount breaks down to over 14 cents per pound for every pound EWASTE+ ships to Closed Loop.
Drama of a trial likely to be avoided
By Friday, September 30, when the Sony and EWASTE+ settlements were filed in court, three dozen defendants had reached settlements and agreed to help fund the multimillion-dollar CRT cleanup projects. The judge has yet to rule on the Sony/EWASTE+ settlements, but all others that have been brought to court have been approved.
Taken together, all the completed deals, including the latest Sony/EWASTE+, total $13.2 million. Chief among these was a $6 million settlement from Kuusakoski Recycling/Vintage Tech, followed by the EWASTE+/Sony joint settlement.
It seems increasingly unlikely that defendants will take their cases to trial. Only eight defendants remain who have not submitted settlement agreements to the court. In a status report to the judge submitted last month, the parties said they were working on agreements to resolve the dispute with all remaining defendants.
Only one known case of CRT abandonment in recent history has gone to trial. This case, which like the closed-loop dispute centered on the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) began when a South Carolina warehouse owner sued local governments that had contracts to send CRT devices to Creative Recycling Systems, which failed and abandoned the hardware in the warehouse.
Most of the defendants decided to settle and help pay for the cleanup, but two counties wanted the judge to make a final decision in a non-jury trial. In the end, the judge put all of the remaining parties on the hook for cleanup expenses, but stuck the owner with most of them.
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Sony Electronics and EWASTE+ have agreed to pay a combined $2.4 million to end their years-long entanglement in a lawsuit over abandoned CRT materials in Ohio.
The joint settlement, which is one of the largest in the Closed Loop Refining and Recovery case, requires Sony to pay $1.3 million and Rochester Computer Recycling and Recovery (RCRR, which does business as EWASTE+), to pay $1.1 million.
The settlement is likely the largest that would be reached in the years-long case, which is before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Closed Loop failed in early 2016, leaving behind approximately 151 million pounds of CRT materials in Columbus. In 2017, the owners of the warehouses holding the inventory sued the companies that shipped materials there, and in 2019 and 2020 they amended their lawsuit to add dozens more defendants, including OEMs.
Warehouses have since been cleared, with the largest stock removed in recent weeks, but the legal battle over cleanup costs continues.
The Sony/EWASTE+ settlement is the second largest in the case, after a $6 million settlement from Kuusakoski Recycling/Vintage Tech. The settlement notes that EWASTE+ shipped 16.4 million pounds of CRT materials to Closed Loop beginning in June 2012 and ending in March 2016, just before Closed Loop closed its doors.
Sony settlement cost increases by almost 10%
Sony actually reached an agreement with the owners, Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA, in November 2020. In this agreement, the electronic brand owner agreed to pay $1.2 million, the sum being partly based on Sony’s market share.
But 10 other defendants, including EWASTE+, opposed Sony’s settlement, arguing that more investigative work needed to be done to determine whether Sony was underpaying. For years, EWASTE+ had actually been under contract with Sony to help the brand owner meet its obligations under New York’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law. EWASTE+ submitted contract documents that showed Sony had explicitly instructed the processor to send CRT materials collected in New York downstream to Closed Loop.
In September 2021, the judge rejected Sony’s settlement, saying it was premature and approving it at that time would have been unfair to the other defendants.
The latest settlement shows Sony paying $115,000 more than it originally agreed to pay, or about 9.6% more. In a statement to the court, Karl Heisler, attorney for Garrison Southfield Park, wrote that the total of $2.4 million they agreed to pay “represents the portion allocated to RCRR based on weight and also includes and reflects appropriate accounting for Sony’s allocated share of cleanup costs, based on RCRR’s allocated share and the potential liability of other recyclers with whom Sony has transacted.
The $1.1 million contribution from EWASTE+ was the first time a settlement sum for the Victor, NY-based processor has been made public.
The combined $2.4 million is 90% of what the owners calculate the businesses owe, according to the settlement. The amount breaks down to over 14 cents per pound for every pound EWASTE+ ships to Closed Loop.
Drama of a trial likely to be avoided
By Friday, September 30, when the Sony and EWASTE+ settlements were filed in court, three dozen defendants had reached settlements and agreed to help fund the multimillion-dollar CRT cleanup projects. The judge has yet to rule on the Sony/EWASTE+ settlements, but all others that have been brought to court have been approved.
Taken together, all the completed deals, including the latest Sony/EWASTE+, total $13.2 million. Chief among these was a $6 million settlement from Kuusakoski Recycling/Vintage Tech, followed by the EWASTE+/Sony joint settlement.
It seems increasingly unlikely that defendants will take their cases to trial. Only eight defendants remain who have not submitted settlement agreements to the court. In a status report to the judge submitted last month, the parties said they were working on agreements to resolve the dispute with all remaining defendants.
Only one known case of CRT abandonment in recent history has gone to trial. This case, which like the closed-loop dispute centered on the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) began when a South Carolina warehouse owner sued local governments that had contracts to send CRT devices to Creative Recycling Systems, which failed and abandoned the hardware in the warehouse.
Most of the defendants decided to settle and help pay for the cleanup, but two counties wanted the judge to make a final decision in a non-jury trial. In the end, the judge put all of the remaining parties on the hook for cleanup expenses, but stuck the owner with most of them.