JACO Prevails in Appeal Filed by Competitor ARCA

SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of JACO Environmental by rejecting an appeal of a summary judgment granted against Appliance Recycling Centers of America, Inc. ("ARCA") in January 2009 by a federal court in California in a long-running lawsuit originally filed by ARCA in November 2004.

In the lawsuit, ARCA had 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 Ninth Circuit rejected ARCA's claims, upholding the lower court's decision to dismiss those claims on summary judgment and concluding that none of the statements challenged by ARCA satisfied the necessary elements of a false-advertising claim.

After reviewing the Ninth Circuit opinion, JACO President Terry Jacobsen expressed great satisfaction that the matter was again resolved against ARCA and in favor of JACO, which has consistently expected success in this litigation.

"I am delighted that this distraction is behind us so that we can concentrate fully on cost-effective and environmentally-responsible appliance recycling, in which JACO is a recognized leader," Jacobsen said.

JACO has more than 150 utility contracts in 26 states and the company operates 21 recycling facilities throughout the United States.  JACO was twice awarded the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 and a Best of the Best Award in 2007 by the EPA on the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.  For more information, please contact O. Yale Lewis, Jr. of Hendricks & Lewis PLLC in Seattle, Washington at (206) 624-1933 or at [email protected].

SOURCE Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn, Inc.