BRC Rubber & Plastics, Inc. v. Continental Carbon Co.

949 F. Supp. 2d 862, 2013 WL 2462147, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78861
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedJune 5, 2013
DocketCause No. 1:11-CV-190
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 949 F. Supp. 2d 862 (BRC Rubber & Plastics, Inc. v. Continental Carbon Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BRC Rubber & Plastics, Inc. v. Continental Carbon Co., 949 F. Supp. 2d 862, 2013 WL 2462147, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78861 (N.D. Ind. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

ROGER B. COSBEY, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff BRC Rubber & Plastics, Inc. (“BRC”), and Defendant Continental Carbon Company (“Continental”) entered into a Supply Agreement as of January 1, 2010, in which Continental agreed to supply all of BRC’s requirements for carbon black.1 On June 2, 2011, BRC terminated that Agreement and filed this lawsuit against Continental, advancing claims of breach of contact and anticipatory repudiation and seeking declaratory relief and damages. The crux of BRC’s claims is that Continental breached and repudiated the Agreement when it failed to confirm BRC’s orders for carbon black, failed to ship the material to BRC, and limited the annual quantity it would supply.

Now before the Court is a motion for summary judgment filed by BRC, contending that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on all claims. For the following reasons, the Court finds BRC’s arguments persuasive and thus will GRANT its motion for summary judgment.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND2

A. Relationship of the Parties

Continental manufactures furnace-grade carbon black, a raw material filler used in tires and other rubber and plastic products. (Moccia Decl. ¶ 3.) BRC was a longtime customer of Continental, purchasing three grades of carbon black for incorporation into the numerous rubber products it supplies to customers. (Nunley Dep. 134; Cornwell Dep. 12.) Continental was BRC’s exclusive supplier of carbon black at least back to 1997. (Nunley Dep. 134; Cornwell Dep. 12.) From 2005 to 2008, Continental annually supplied BRC between 1.89 and 2.43 million pounds of carbon black (Pl.’s Mem. of Law. Ex. 3), and in 2009, 1.9 million pounds (Moccia Decl. ¶ 6; Cornwell Dep. 62). Continental supplied about forty customers and its potential annual capacity for carbon black was approximately 500 million pounds; consequently, BRC was a “very small” customer of Continental. (Moccia Dep. 17.)

B. The Parties Enter Into the Supply Agreement as of January 1, 2010

Thomas Nunley, a salesperson for Continental, handled the BRC account from 1997 to May 2011. (Nunley Dep. 134.) In 2009, Continental’s President, Kim Pan, asked his sales team “to negotiate as many long-term contracts that we could convince our customer base to take” and to “get as much as we could committed long term in volume[.]” (Nunley Dep. 9.)

Accordingly, Nunley negotiated the terms of the Supply Agreement with Mike [865]*865Cornwell, BRC’s Vice President of Materials (Pl.’s Mem. of Law Ex. 5; Nunley Dep. 20-21, 26, 29-30), and the parties executed it as of January 1, 2010 (Pl.’s Mem. of Law Ex. 7; Moccia Decl. ¶ 4). Nunley was the sole negotiator of the Agreement for BRC. (Moccia Dep. 10). The Agreement obligated Continental to supply, and BRC to purchase, all of BRC’s requirements of three grades of carbon black (N339, N550, and N762) during the five-year term of the Agreement. (Docket # 46.)

The terms of the two-page Agreement relevant to this dispute are:

Quantity of Material
It is the intent of this Agreement that Continental Carbon Company agrees to sell to BRC Rubber and Plastics approximately 1.8 million pounds of prime furnace black annually. These volumes are to be taken in approximately equal monthly quantities. BRC Rubber and Plastics, to the best of their ability, will provide accurate forecasts of the future usage of their manufacturing sites which will assist Continental Carbon Company in meeting these and additional requirements.
Carbon Black Pricing
The following baseline prices for all rubber grade carbon blacks purchased by BRC Rubber & Plastics as of January 1, 2010 are as follows and are to remain firm throughout the term of this agreement.
Additional Volume Rebate/Penalty
An additional rebate or penalty will be applied according to the following schedule:
Lower Limit Upper Limit Amount Applied
1.500.000 2,100,000 $.005/lb
1.400.000 2,200,000 An additional $.005/lb for a total of $.01/lb
Rebates or penalty are applied to all pounds purchased during a calendar year. Rebates will be credit or invoice will be issued to make the appropriate adjustment.
Should the normal ■ annual volume for BRC shift significantly BRC and Continental Carbon agree to establish new upper and lower limits.

(Pl.’s Mem. of Law Ex. 7.)

Thus, as long as BRC purchased between 1.5 and 2.1 million pounds of carbon black a year, the price for the material remained the same. (Cornwell Dep. 52.) But if BRC purchased more than 2.1 million pounds a year, it would receive a half-cent rebate on each pound purchased that year, and if it purchased less than 1.5 million, it would pay an additional half-cent per pound penalty. (Nunley Dep. 33; Cornwell Dep. 32.) The rebate or penalty would correspondingly increase to one cent per pound if BRC purchased more than 2.2 million pounds or less than 1.4 million pounds. (Nunley Dep. 33; Cornwell Dep. 32.) BRC and Continental never established new upper and lower limits for the rebate/penalty during the term of the Agreement (Moccia Decl. ¶ 29), so the annual volume in the terms of the contract did not “shift significantly.”

Also, in late 2009, Continental internally classified BRC as a “Tier 1” customer who would get its orders “filled first” if Continental faced a shortage of supply. (PL’s Mem. of Law Ex. 9; Moccia Dep. 92; Nunley Dep. 14-15.)

C. The Parties Perform Under the Agreement Without Dispute Until April 2011

Continental projected in its 2010 Forecast that it would supply BRC with 1.95 [866]*866million pounds that year. (Moccia Dep. 16; Moccia Decl. ¶ 5; ' Nunley Dep. 37; PL’s Mem. of Law Ex. 10.) But BRC’s requirements increased with the rebounding automotive industry, and Continental actually supplied BRC with 2.612 million pounds in 2010. (Nunley Dep. 37; PL’s Mem. of Law Ex. 10.) The monthly quantities supplied to BRC varied from 93,000 to 322,000 pounds. (PL’s Mem. of Law Ex. 10.) Continental awarded BRC a rebate in the amount of $26,118.30 for its purchases in 2010. (Nunley Dep. 37-38.)

Continental’s 2011 Sales Forecast, updated as of May 27, 2011, planned for BRC to order 2.68 million pounds, consisting of 339,000 pounds of N339; 1,699,000 pounds of N550; and 780,000 pounds of N762. (PL’s Mem. of Law. Ex. 11; Moccia Decl. ¶ 31.) Accordingly, Continental designated 2.734 million pounds for BRC in its 2011 Annual Operating Plan. (PL’s Mem. of Law Ex. 11.) Continental, however, does not actually reserve quantities of carbon black based on these forecasts because they are provided by its sales personnel and are often inaccurate. (Moccia Decl. ¶ 30.) The forecasts are merely used as a tool to predict demand and assist planning production of particular grades of carbon black throughout the year. (Moccia Decl. ¶ 30.)

D. Market Demand for Carbon Black Increases and Continental Seeks a Price Increase From BRC

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949 F. Supp. 2d 862, 2013 WL 2462147, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78861, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brc-rubber-plastics-inc-v-continental-carbon-co-innd-2013.