A group of beer and soda distributors is suing the state, alleging that its attempt to retroactively take the unclaimed nickel deposits on cans and bottles violates their constitutional property rights, according to CTNewsJunkie.com.
James Robertson Jr., the lawyer for the bottle distributors, said recently in Hartford Superior Court that distributors are not arguing in this lawsuit over the taking of the unclaimed deposits going forward, the online news journal reported.
However, he said the proposed retroactive taking of them from Dec. 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009 is a violation of their constitutional property rights. The lawsuit seeks to stop the state from taking the unclaimed nickel deposits on April 30.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit along with Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said that lawsuits based on takings claims commonly fail in Connecticut courts. But he said he would certainly fight this one “vigorously and aggressively.”
Against the backdrop of a looming state budget deficit, the legislature on Nov. 25, 2008 passed a mitigation bill which required the distributors to open special bank accounts for the purpose of processing all deposits, returns, and refunds. The lawsuit says the November measure was essentially a reporting act and it was the January mitigation bill, which went one step further toward taking the money away from the distributors.
“Consistent with its purpose as an accounting and reporting mandate, the November Act did not provide that the funds deposited in the special accounts would cease to become the property of the plaintiffs, nor that they would become the property of the state,” Robertson writes in the lawsuit.
