The Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation (ETC) has announced that it has obtained a favorable ruling from the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in its lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority (MDX).
The ruling in the case of Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp. v. Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority finds that the system delivered by ETC to MDX was in material compliance with the contract, ETC was not in default of its contractual obligations, and states that MDX materially breached the contract with ETC. The court also denied MDX’s counter claims. In its ruling, the court awarded ETC the principal amount of US$43m plus its costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.
In 2009, MDX awarded a contract to ETC to implement a system-wide all-electronic toll (AET) collection conversion, including open road tolling (ORT) roadside systems and a new back-office Account Management and Toll Enforcement System (AMTES). The ORT system was implemented on five expressways: SR 924-Gratigny Parkway, SR 874-Don Shula Expressway, SR 878-Snapper Creek Expressway, SR 112-Airport Expressway, and SR 836-Dolphin Expressway.
ETC installed its then-latest generation RITE Solution suite of applications and also agreed to provide up to 10 years of maintenance and customer service center operations as part of the contract, which covered 100 lanes across 40 tolling locations. The project was phased in between 2010 and 2013. Texas-based ETC has been in dispute with MDX since completion of the project.
“We have said throughout this litigation that ETC was asking to be paid for work it performed,” said ETC’s counsel, Mike Piscitelli, of Vezina Lawrence & Piscitelli PA. “The company spent US$55m to collect over US$400m for MDX, while only being paid US$5m. This ruling corrects that injustice.”
Keith Rayborn, president and chief executive officer of ETC, commented, “Our intention when filing the original lawsuit against MDX more than five years ago was to recover payment for work and services provided under the terms of our contract. This ruling validates that action. We are very pleased with the ruling and sincerely appreciate our team members and customers for their continued support as we pursue our collective mission to provide innovative toll and intelligent transportation solutions and services.”
