According to the Company’s FORM 10-Q For The Quarterly Period Ended September 30, 2001, in 1999, the Court consolidated these lawsuits and the consolidated action has been named In Re: Republic Services, Inc. Securities Litigation. The plaintiffs filed a consolidated complaint in February 2000 and the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the consolidated complaint in April 2000. In February 2001, the Court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the consolidated complaint. On September 24, 2001, the Court denied the plaintiffs' motion requesting reconsideration of the Court's order dismissing the consolidated complaint.

The original Complaint alleges that Republic and certain of its officers and directors violated the federal securities laws. According to the Complaint, during the Class Period, defendants issued a series of materially false and misleading public statements about the assets the Company had acquired from Waste Management. The issuance of these false and misleading statements caused the price of Republic's common stock to be artificially inflated during the Class Period and enabled the Company to sell over $1.2 billion of common stock in a public offering and to raise $500 million in a note offering.