Mid-American Waste Systems acquired the Northwestern Landfill in Wood County. Mid-American attempted to use its landfill and “evergreen” commercial contracts to monopolize the commercial trash hauling business in Wood and Wirt Counties, West Virginia. The evergreen contracts automatically renewed unless customers gave notice of non-renewal several months in advance. If the customer failed to give the contracted-notice, large cancellation penalties applied, essentially locking-in the smaller customer for another term. Mid-American also was charging below-cost hauling fees to gain market share in the commercial trash hauling market. The landfill dump fees subsidized the below cost hauling. Mid-American filed bankruptcy. The case settled during the bankruptcy proceeding for $36,555.