Village of Coxsackie v. Veolia Water North America – North East, LLC, Slip. Copy 2007, WL2667460 (ND NY 2007)

The firm represented the Village of Coxsackie (the “Village”) in a successful federal court action seeking to enforce a contract against a company hired to run its water and wastewater treatment facilities. The contract required the defendants to staff the facilities with the Village’s existing employees under a leasing agreement that required the Village to pay wages and benefits to the leased employees, and then present the defendants with a monthly itemized bill for those costs. After the Village terminated the contract on the ground that the defendants had failed to properly operate and manage the facilities, the Village sued for breach of contract on the ground that defendants had failed to reimburse it for the leased employees’ wages and benefits over a seven-month period. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York granted the Village’s motion for summary judgment on its claim for breach of contract, concluding that the defendants had submitted no competent evidence challenging any of the costs demanded by the Village and rejecting defendants’ claim that the amount should be offset by sums purportedly owed to the defendants.