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The California NWCO Association is very pleased to announce that our lawsuit, waged in defense of WCO’s constitutional right to earn a living, is finally over. On February 23, 2009 the Defendants threw in the towel and agreed to pay all the attorneys’ fees, court costs, and other expenses incurred the in bringing this legal action. The total cost of this five year lawsuit ultimately exceeded well over a half million dollars.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the District Court in San Francisco with instructions to award the judgment in favor of Plaintiffs Alan Merrifield, Urban Wildlife Management, Inc. and the California NWCO Association. The federal trial court has been notified of the settlement by both sides and a Final Order is expected to be issued by the San Francisco court shortly.
As the State of California has decided against a further appeal of the Ninth Circuit Court’s Opinion up to the United States Supreme Court, the rulings made in Merrifield v. Lockyer stand as precedential law within every federal court in the nine western U.S. states and the Marianna Islands.
“Economic protectionism for its own sake, regardless of its relation to the public good, cannot be said to be in the furtherance of a legitimate governmental interest.” Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Merrifield v Lockyer
With the lawsuit now over, the California NWCO Association is preparing to move forward to address other state issues vital to our industry’s growth and survival. Last week this Association held a Special Meeting welcoming its new members and electing new members to serve as officers and members of the corporation’s Board of Directors. The members selected Alan Merrifield to resume his original role as the Association’s President. Merrifield also agreed to Chair the Association’s newly created Legal Affairs Committee.
President Merrifield unveiled the State Association’s new website: www.ca-wco.org so masterfully created by Harold Gain the CNWCOA Board Secretary. This site features a retrospective analysis of how we waged and won this lawsuit against a powerful California cartel operating in common cause with the state’s pest control industry – a victory nobody ever thought we could achieve.
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