West Chester, Pfizer settle sewer dispute
West Chester Borough agreed to give up its years-long fight to collect more than $1.7 million in sewer fees from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer under a court agreement announced Friday.
West Chester Borough agreed to give up its years-long fight to collect more than $1.7 million in sewer fees from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer under a court agreement announced Friday.
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which Pfizer bought in 2009, used to operate a plant in West Chester.
It agreed in 1984 to pay the borough for the life of the Goose Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The sewer plant was built in the late 1980s, largely to handle wastewater from the Wyeth plant.
Wyeth demolished its plant a decade ago, but continued to pay the borough, based on the agreement. Pfizer objected to the payments because there was no longer a plant to produce wastewater. The company sued the borough in 2012.
Under the "walk away" agreement, which the Borough Council approved Wednesday, the borough and the company ended that 1984 agreement and legal action against each other.
The settlement, which still must be finalized, was the result of a couple of months of negotiations.
Borough Manager Michael Cotter said that the cost of a continuing legal fight was a big factor in the resolution.
"While the borough has full faith in the merits of its claims against Pfizer/Wyeth, the settlement allows the borough to finalize litigation that has gone in favor of each party at various points, leaving the likely results uncertain," Ellen Koopman, council president, said in a statement.
A judge in Chester County Court ruled in favor of West Chester in 2014, saying the company had to give the borough $1.72 million in missed sewer payments.
Pfizer appealed to Commonwealth Court, which overturned the ruling and said the agreement had ended in 2011, the year the company told West Chester it objected to making payments. The court also said Pfizer could be entitled to rebates for payments from the year the Wyeth plant closed until 2011.
West Chester then appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Borough officials will drop their appeal as a term of the settlement.
610-313-8207 @MichaelleBond