Waste Management dodges $380,000 verdict over buried power line dispute
Waste Management granted Dasht an easement to reach the billboard parcel through a gated keypad lock. Dasht’s owner had the code. In 2016, Waste Management changed it, saying the owner had knocked over trees and dumped debris in the easement area without permits.
With the gate locked, Dasht’s owner testified a Waste Management employee told him that for $30,000, he would get the company to restore access. The owner wrote checks totaling $12,250 – but from other businesses he owns, not from Dasht’s account.
That mattered. Georgia law treats a corporation as separate from its owner. Because the checks were not drawn on Dasht’s account, the court found no evidence Dasht itself suffered economic loss. A Waste Management district manager had testified the employee was “[a]bsolutely not” authorized to accept such payments.
The buried power line
Nobody knew a Georgia Power line was buried under the second parcel. It served Waste Management’s facilities, not Dasht’s. Dasht claimed Waste Management refused to cooperate with relocation efforts for five years. Georgia Power’s project manager eventually emailed saying he would “no longer be working on this project” because he had not been “getting the necessary easements needed to continue this project.” The line finally moved in 2021.
