A Putnam County glove company is suing a customer for $5 million over personal protection equipment it never delivered to the customer.
Olympia Gloves claims that a shipment of medical grade gloves to Natural Essentials Inc., Aurora, Ohio, was delayed because of circumstances outside of its control, according to a notice filed May 12 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
But Natural Essentials claims that Olympia took advantage of rising prices for medical gloves and sold the gloves to other customers in a complaint filed last month in U.S. District Court in Akron, Ohio.
Olympia Gloves, on Fields Lane in the town of Southeast, has been in the glove business since World War II when it supplied the U.S. military. Now it makes a variety of gloves for biking, driving, gardening, hunting, snowmobiling, weightlifting and working.
Natural Essentials makes nonprescription drugs and distributes specialty ingredients.
Last October, Natural Essentials agreed to buy 250,000 medical grade gloves from Olympia for nearly $3 million, to resell to the state of Texas for hospitals.
The purchase order specified that the goods should be shipped as soon as possible.
But as the price for personal protective equipment rose, Natural Essentials says, Olympia Gloves “dragged its feet on delivery and began a long litany of misleading excuses for its failure to deliver as agreed.”
At one point, Olympia allegedly delivered a different brand of gloves that were defective and unsuitable for hospital use.
Natural Essentials claims that Olympia used their deal to secure financing to buy more gloves and sell them at a higher price than offered to Natural.
“To add insult to injury,” Natural alleges, Olympia sold a portion of the promised gloves directly to Natural”™s customer, the state of Texas, for a higher price.
The company”™s Cleveland attorney, James E. von der Heydt, canceled the order in a March 18 letter to Olympia CEO Roger Heumann, and accused Olympia of “theft of the Texas business.”
Natural Essentials accused Olympia Gloves of breach of contract, tortious interference and unjust enrichment, and demanded at least $845,000 in damages for lost profits.
Olympia had struck first, legally, by filing a summons and notice in Putnam Supreme Court, seeking $5 million for breach of contract. The case was then moved to White Plains federal court, at the request of Natural Essentials.
Olympia does not dispute that gloves were not delivered, but it claims that Natural repudiated the deal.
The purchase order did not specify a delivery date, Olympia argues, and Natural understood that the delivery was inherently difficult because of overwhelming worldwide demand and lack of supply for personal protection equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Olympia says it acted in good faith by notifying Natural Essentials that the delivery would be delayed, and Natural acted in bad faith when it repudiated the deal.
Olympia Gloves argues that the contract was not valid, because there was no delivery date. But if the court finds the contract valid, it should say there is no liability “due to doctrines of frustration of purpose, impracticability of performance and plaintiff”™s wrongful repudiation.”
Olympia Gloves is represented by Harrison attorney Fredric Goodman.
