PROVIDENCE — A “sordid” chapter in the city’s history came quietly to a close this week as the state Supreme Court dismissed with prejudice an appeal by the Inge Co., which had sued the city 27 years ago alleging that it breached its contract to provide the company with sludge from its sewage treatment plant.

The court, “dismayed by the fact that so much time has been expended” on the case, dismissed the appeal because Inge, which stands for “I Never Get Enough,” had its corporate charter revoked by the state in 1986 and has not legally been in existence for 23 years, according to an order issued Nov. 16.

Inge was the brainchild of James A. Notorantonio, a North Providence businessman who planned to take the city’s sludge and turn it into flammable bricks that could be sold and burned for fuel.

Notorantonio’s company inked a deal with the city for its sewage waste in June 1980 and later received a $5-million dollar federal loan to build a sludge-to-fuel plant.

The only problem was that, later in 1980, Rhode Island voters approved a referendum creating the Narragansett Bay Commission, a quasi-state agency that would take over the city’s sewage treatment plant at Fields Point, which was outdated and causing major pollution in the Bay.

NBC, the new owners of the city plant, did not honor the preexisting agreement with Inge. With no source for sludge, Inge defaulted on its federal loan and never opened its $5-million sludge treatment plant. Notorantonio was later convicted of defrauding the federal government and sentenced to two years in federal prison.

After the Superior Court denied a suit to stop the transfer of Fields Point to the Bay Commission, Inge filed suit in 1982 against the city seeking millions of dollars in compensation for breach of contract.

Senior Assistant City Solicitor Kevin F. McHugh says the suit was purged by the court sometime in the 1990s after years of delays and inactivity on the part of Inge.

Then earlier this decade, Inge won a request to put the suit back on the court calendar, over the city’s objection.

Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia ruled in December 2006 in the city’s favor, noting that the city no longer had authority over sludge produced at Fields Point since it was now NBC property. He also noted that the decision to ask voters to approve the creation of NBC predated the city’s deal with Inge.

Indeglia prefaced his decision by writing, “Hopefully, the Court’s decision today will put an end to this sordid chapter in Providence’s history.”

According to McHugh, the state Supreme Court, by dismissing the case with prejudice, did just that, preventing the company from reestablishing its corporate standing and refiling its appeal.

pmarcelo@projo.com