The attorney for Lancaster trash hauler Willie Shell Sr. said Monday that a ruling on his client's lawsuit against the city of Lancaster is expected in early 2009. Briefs in the case are on track to be filed by November or December, with a decision expected by February, according to Luther E. Weaver III of L.E. Weaver & Associates, Philadelphia.

Shell filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia last August, claiming his civil rights were violated when the city initiated a single-hauler trash-collection system in 2006.

Shell, an independent hauler, owns and operates Shell's Disposal and Recycling, 640 S. Franklin St.

The nine-count suit charges that city officials were illegally canceling contracts and transferring Shell's customers to the city's designated hauler, York Waste Management, Weaver said. Named in the suit are the city of Lancaster, Mayor Rick Gray, City Council, the Department of Public Works and its director, Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city's Bureau of Solid Waste and Recycling and its manager, Michael J. Devaney, and Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority and its executive director, James Warner.

According to a news release, Shell recently prepared to seek an injunction to keep the city from converting any more of his customers to the city's system while the case is in the court system.

A hearing on the motion was scheduled for Wednesday but Shell agreed to withdraw the request after the city showed that none of Shell's existing customers have contracts with termination or renewal dates before 2011, the release states. The ordinance states that existing contracts with independent haulers will be honored until their expiration or renewal dates, Weaver said.

Shell deferred all comment to his attorney Monday.

Gray said Monday the city maintains the suit is "without merit" and said the city continues to have problems with Shell independent of the case.

E-mail: jtodd@lnpnews.com