Judge Stacy Sharp
The Business Court [11th Division] has denied a landfill operator’s motion for summary judgment in a breach of contract suit in which landowners alleged that the landfill ceased payment of royalties due on the parties’ contract.
Isaac Arnold, Jr., et al. v. Blue Ridge Landfill TX, LP d/b/a Blue Ridge Landfill (No. 24-BC11A-0024; 2025 Tex. Bus. 38; October 7, 2025) arose from a dispute over royalties from a 600-acre landfill in Fort Bend County. Blue Ridge contracted with several landowners to acquire property for the landfill in return for 5% of the gate revenues received from the landfill’s operation. The contract defined “gate revenues” to mean “the revenues actually received by the [Blue Ridge] for final disposal of solid waste” in the landfill, “less any charge required to be collected” at the landfill by Blue Ridge. Decades later Blue Ridge expanded its footprint, adding acreage known as the “Adjacent Tract.” For a number of years Blue Ridge paid royalties for waste in both the original and adjacent tracts but recently notified the landowners that such payments would cease. The landowners sued for breach of contract and declaratory judgment. Blue Ridge moved for summary judgment on both claims.
In an opinion by Judge Sharp [sitting by assignment], the court denied the motion. The narrow issue was the construction of the contract’s definition of “gate revenue.” That definition states that royalties must be paid on revenues generated by the “final disposal of solid waste in the sanitary landfill operated on the Property [defined as the initial 600-acre tract].” The landowners presented evidence that waste deposited on the Adjacent Tract comes within that definition because such waste “is, indeed, disposed of in the landfill operating on the Property.” There is one landfill and one operating permit. All waste, including that deposited on the Adjacent Tract, enters through the gate to the original property for weighing and pricing. Blue Ridge, additionally, conceded that its operations are part of a “single business enterprise.” In short, the court declined to read the definition to omit the words “in the sanitary landfill operated.”
Because Blue Ridge failed to conclusively disprove that the waste deposited onto the Adjacent Tract generated gate revenue, the court denied its motion for summary judgment.
