A federal jury in Arkansas has found Walmart liable to a New Rochelle company for $101 million for backing out of a deal to buy $500 million in disposable gloves during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Walmart Inc., the world’s largest retailer, had agreed to buy billions of nitrile examination gloves from London Luxury LLC, New Rochelle, in the early days of the pandemic. Demand for personal protection equipment was high then, and Walmart intended to resell the gloves to health care businesses.
“Walmart executives made a bad bet on PPE prices,” according to a press release issued after the verdict by London Luxury’s attorneys, Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP, of Manhattan.
“When prices dropped, they tried to cancel the contract and invent excuses rather than take responsibility for their bad business decisions.”
Walmart filed a counterclaim accusing London Luxury of breach of contract by delaying shipments and delivering gloves that failed to satisfy quality standards.
The retail giant also claimed that London Luxury had bribed the Walmart employee who led the gloves deal, according to London Luxury’s law firm.
The New Rochelle business was founded in 2002 by London native Marc Jason. It designs and makes consumer health and wellness products, according to its website, and employs 278 people in 12 countries.
The lawsuit was filed in Westchester Supreme Court in 2022, moved to federal court in White Plains at Walmart’s behest, then transferred to federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas near Walmart’s Bentonville headquarters.
On April 9, after a ten-day trial, the jurors found that Walmart had breached the contract and caused $101,218,680 in damages to London Luxury.
The jurors rejected Walmart’s breach of contract counterclaim against London Luxury.
But they also found that London Luxury had interfered with Walmart’s business relationship with its former director of sourcing, Garrett Small, had acted in concert with Small, and had aided and abetted him in breaching his fiduciary duties to Walmart.
The jury awarded $350,000 for Walmart and against Small.
Walmart does not believe that the evidence supported the verdict for London Luxury, spokesperson Kelly Hellbusch stated in an email. “We are continuing to review the verdict and weighing our post-trial options.”
