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Garbage carter companies day in court delayed again

REPORTER FILE PHOTO It’s another delay at the Suffolk county Courthouse for Shelter Island carters.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
It’s another delay at the Suffolk county Courthouse for Shelter Island carters.

If you’ve ever dealt with the legal system, you know wheels of justice often grind slowly. That’s the case for two Shelter Island carters who have been locked in battle over who’s entitled to use what name when doing business here.Jonathan DiVello, owner of Shelter Island Environmental Services and Dan Binder, owner of Shelter Island Sanitation, have been engaged in a lawsuit that dates back to early 2013 and had been set for trial Monday. But the case has again been delayed — this time until December 16.

Mr. DiVello sued Mr. Binder last year, maintaining that the latter’s use of “Shelter Island” in his company’s name was meant “to deceive and mislead the public” about who is handling their refuse.

He further charged that Mr. Binder libeled him in a letter to the editor that appeared in a September 2012 edition of the Reporter. Mr. Binder said in his letter that his company is properly recycling refuse, but that “another garbage company” on the Island is failing to do so. He never named the other company, but the Reporter, in an editor’s note, identified it as Shelter Island Environmental.

Mr. Binder incorporated his business in 2005 as Shelter Island Sanitation, doing business as Dan’s Carting and Recycling. Mr. DiVello, whose family has long operated Mattituck Sanitation, purchased Shelter Island Refuse from Fred Ogar in 2003. Mr. DiVello’s father operated the business here until 2011 when the younger DiVello  and a business partner took over the operation.

To date, Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines hearing the case in Riverhead, has refused to enjoin Mr. Binder from using the “Shelter Island Sanitation” name pending the outcome of the case.

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