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Maryland Court rules in Harford County's favor on rubble landfill case

Posted at 6:57 PM, Aug 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-02 10:26:36-04

Harford County Executive Barry Glassman announced on Thursday that the Maryland Court of Special Appeals has ruled in the county's favor in the long-running legal matter brought by Maryland Reclamation Associates, Inc.

The case stemmed from the efforts of the MRA in the early 1990s to establish a rubble landfill near a community on Gravel Hill Road Outside Havre de Grace.

The county denied a number of MRA’s applications for zoning variances that were required to move the project forward.

MRA filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court in 2013 claiming that the county’s denials of zoning variances and the enactment of county council legislation had devalued the property.

Last year a jury ruled that the county must pay $45.4 million in damages to MRA, but the county objected based on the fact that the statute of limitations had run out from the time of a previous ruling to the 2013 filing of MRA’s lawsuit.

The Court’s opinion today agreed with the county's argument, and it has instructed the Circuit Court to vacate last year’s judgement.

“I am happy that the Court of Special Appeals agreed with us that MRA’s 2013 lawsuit came well past the deadline for making such a filing," County Executive Glassman said. "I hope that this puts an end to this long-running matter once and for all, and I am pleased not just for the residents of Gravel Hill, but for all Harford County taxpayers.”