PHILADELPHIA – A seafood store in Bethlehem is not clamming up about an allegedly unsatisfactory order from a food service wholesaler in New York State, and has brought legal action versus the latter for supposedly breaching a contract between the two companies.
Two If By Sea, Inc. (doing business as “Orchard Knoll Seafood Market”) of Bethlehem filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on June 23 against Restaurant Depot of College Point, N.Y.
Per the litigation, during the week of Aug. 28, 2016, plaintiff, a frequent customer, went to Restaurant Depot’s Bethlehem location to place a very large holiday clam order through its agent, Tami King. Though told it did not deal with Middleneck clams, a manager of the defendant supposedly informed King that it did – and procured an order of 30,000 Middleneck clams, 30,000 Littleneck clams and 20,000 Connecticut Littleneck clams, to be picked up at the end of that week, just prior to the very busy Labor Day weekend.
However, the Middleneck clams were allegedly not of the proper size and the plaintiff was forced to take them to fulfill its holiday orders regardless.
“As a result of the non-conforming clams, plaintiff lost sales and customers, and many customers walked out of plaintiff’s store in anger, as many had large holiday picnics arranged,” the suit states.
Despite getting an order of Middleneck clams from another supplier, the plaintiff says the damage was already done in selling the excess clams at a loss, angering its customers and harming its relationships with them in the process.
“As a result of defendant’s failure to provide the clams it agreed to sell plaintiff, plaintiff has lost sales and customers well in excess of the arbitration limit of $50,000 and suffered severe harm to its business and goodwill,” the suit explains.
For a count of breach of contract, the plaintiff is seeking in excess of $50,000, plus interest, delay damages, punitive damages and other relief that the Court deems appropriate under the circumstances in this matter.
The plaintiff is represented by and Timothy M. Kolman, Wayne A. Ely and W. Charles Sipio of Kolman Ely, in Penndel.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 170602658
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com