PACA Trust Litigation Alert
On February 17, 2012, a civil action was filed in Missouri against Harry Gelb Frozen Foods, Inc. in an attempt to collect over $17,000.00 in alleged PACA trust debt.
Please check your A/R to see if this case affects you. If it does, please do not wait to assert your rights.
A produce buyer is not at liberty to breach a contract with a produce seller via nonpayment on an invoice simply because the buyer perceives that a seller is indebted to them. A buyer who accepts produce becomes liable to the seller for the full purchase price thereof, less any damage resulting from any breach of contract by the seller. Ocean Breeze Export, Inc. v. Rialto Distributing, Inc., 60 Agric. Dec. 840 (2001)(emphasis added).
An offset is not a defense to a buyer’s non-payment. See Standard Fruit & Steamship Company v. Jos. Notarianni & Company, Inc., 41 Agric. Dec. 1425 (1982)(finding the buyer defenseless against a seller’s unpaid invoice claim and holding that the buyer owed the gross invoice amount, unless it can prove offsetting credits. )
What does this mean? Every produce transaction/file must stand on its own. It also means that a buyer cannot justify its failure to make full payment promptly under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act simply because the seller may owe the buyer some amount on an unrelated produce transaction/file.
On February 10, 2012, a civil action was filed in New York against New Hyde Park Inn, Inc. d/b/a Inn at New Hyde Park in an effort to collect approximately $74,000.00 in alleged PACA debt.
On February 14, 2012, a civil action was filed in Pennsylvania against Cardile Bros. Mushroom Packaging, Inc. in an effort to collect approximately $95,000.00 in alleged PACA debt.
On February 15, 2012, a civil action was filed in Chicago against Fresh Farms International Market, Inc. d/b/a Fresh Farms Wheeling in an effort to collect approximately $34,000.00 in alleged PACA debt.
On February 1, 2012, a civil action was filed in Pennsylvania against Reed-Saul, Inc. in an effort to collect approximately $41,300.00 in alleged PACA Trust debt.
Please check your A/R to see if this case affects you. If it does, please do not wait to assert your rights.
Featuring Keynote Speaker Dr. Robert E. Brackett, Vice President and Director, The Institute for Food Safety and Health at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Brackett will discuss: How Importers Can Prepare for the Impact of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Also featuring Industry Update Speaker Tejas Bhatt, Staff Scientist, The Institute of Food Technologists. Mr. Bhatt will discuss: The FDA’s Food Safety Pilot Program: Meeting the Challenge of Traceability.
***This event is the part of the Global Midwest Alliance Food Trade and Technology Series.