A tenant vacated the premises he had occupied, but left behind containers of hazardous materials which he promised the landlord he would remove. The tenant did not remove the hazardous materials and the landlord moved the unclaimed materials beyond his property line onto the frontage road. The local department of environmental health investigated the materials and filed a complaint with the district attorney (DA), who determined the landlord did not have a permit to transport hazardous waste. The county sought to convict the landlord for improper transport of hazardous waste, claiming the landlord illegally transported hazardous waste since he transported hazardous material without the necessary permit. The landlord claimed that he was innocent of transporting hazardous waste without a permit since the materials were going to be used by the tenant who promised to pick them up, thus disqualifying the materials as being labeled as “waste.” A California court of appeals held the landlord was guilty of transporting hazardous waste since he intended to relocate the hazardous material and did so without a permit to transport hazardous waste. [The People v. Tarris (2009) 180 CA4th 612]
