We just concluded a bench trial in Federal Court in New York City. The client was an accessories rep organization, sued by an importer it sold product for, claiming that the rep group had breached their contract by selling competing product. The vendor sought damages of over $1.5 Million, and to add insult to injury refused to pay our client over $110,000 in commissions for product actually sold before their falling out. While the Court found that our client had sold competitive product, the vendors damages were only $33,000, and in the context of over $30 Million in sales over a five year period, this was truly insignificant. Fourtunately, the Court also awarded our client its unpaid commissions. It just goes to show how emotion can really cloud good judgment.

We just concluded a two week jury trial in which we received a $450,000 verdict in favor of an apparel representative, selling private lable programs to several major accounts in the Midwest valued at nearly $20 Million. Not only did the jury find that our client was owed over $200,000 in commissions, the Court awarded the client $175,000 in statutory penalties for non-payment of commissions and $80,000 in attorneys’ fees. Even more importantly, the jury pierced the corporate veil of the Defendant companies, and mandated that the individual owners were responsible for the entire amount of the verdict. We hope that this verdict will provide us with another tool in collecting unpaid commissions for sales people who create substantial markets and open huge accounts for their vendors.