Foss Manufacturing Co. v. Malden Mills Industries, Inc.

10 Mass. L. Rptr. 504
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedMay 24, 1999
DocketNo. 961606
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 10 Mass. L. Rptr. 504 (Foss Manufacturing Co. v. Malden Mills Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foss Manufacturing Co. v. Malden Mills Industries, Inc., 10 Mass. L. Rptr. 504 (Mass. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

Whitehead, J.

By way of introduction, I note that the plaintiff, Foss Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, brought this action against the defendant, Mal-den Mills Industries, Incorporated, alleging breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and violation of General Laws Chapter 93A. The case was tried before the Court on May 5, 1999 through May 7, 1999. The following constitute the Court’s findings of fact, rulings of law and order for judgment after trial.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Foss Manufacturing Company, Incorporated, is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of synthetic [505]*505fibers and non-woven textiles. It employs approximately 600 people and has a principal manufacturing facility in Hampton, New Hampshire. Malden Mills Industries, Incorporated, is a corporation also engaged in the manufacture of textiles. It has a principal manufacturing facility in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

On December 11, 1995, a fire destroyed three buildings at the Malden Mills facility in Lawrence. The buildings housed, among other things, the company’s Flock Division, which manufactured printed flock products. The buildings also housed other manufacturing processes.

The fire at Malden Mills was the subject of extensive coverage in the news media. That coverage gave the impression that the impairment of Malden Mills’ manufacturing capability was even greater than was the case. Malden Mills’ management, headed by its president and chief executive officer, Aaron Feuerstein, believed that it was important to reassure the public, and particularly Malden Mills’ employees and customers, that it remained an ongoing concern. It was also important to avoid remaining out of the flock market for an extended period of time. Accordingly, management undertook action immediately after the fire to secure a new facility in which to locate the operations affected by the fire.

In that regard, Foss Manufacturing Company owned a 152,000-square foot building which was located at 231 Neck Road, in Haverhill. The building was essentially vacant. Foss had moved its Haverhill operations to Hampton in 1992. All that remained in the building in Haverhill was some obsolete equipment and product that Foss was keeping in storage. These items occupied approximately 50,000 square feet. Foss only kept them there because the space was free.

In mid-1995, Foss had placed the Haverhill building up for sale and was marketing the property through a brokerage known as The Thomas Group. The Thomas Group’s representative with which Foss dealt was Thomas Bachini. In late fall 1995, approximately four prospective purchasers were talking with Foss about the possibility of buying the Haverhill property.

Immediately after the fire, Mr. Bachini, at the direction of Stephen Foss, the President of Foss Manufacturing Company, notified Jeffrey Weise, Purchasing Director of Malden Mills, of the availability of Foss’s Haverhill property.

In late December 1995, Mr. Feuerstein, Mr. Weise and a Mr. Naor, who was the manager of the Flock Production Division of Malden Mills, toured the Haver-hill facility in the company of Mr. Bachini and Mr. Foss. During that tour, representatives of Malden Mills stated that the new site for operations required four things: first, 300 linear feet of space; second, steam; third, gas; and, fourth, a significant amount of electrical power. All of those items were present at the Haverhill facility.

The parties discussed the fact that certain electrical transformers at the Haverhill building might have to be moved to make room for the flocking operation. Mr. Foss noted that that movement could be done, although with some complications, and, when being done, it was a good time to change oil which they contained, because the oil had a product in it which contained PCBs. PCBs are now deemed hazardous materials. Mr. Foss stated that the cost of the oil change would be approximately $30,000. No representative of Malden Mills expressed concern at the presence of the PCBs or at the cost of the oil change.

After the tour, Mr. Naor, the Flock Production Manager, advised Mr. Feuerstein that the Haverhill building was indeed suitable to accomplish Malden Mills’ goal of getting back into production and into the market as quickly as possible.

Contemporaneously with the consideration of the Haverhill site, representatives of Malden Mills were considering other sites. By January 1996, Mr. Feuerst-ein had focused his interest on the Haverhill site. However, within a couple of days of January 1996, his engineering staff told him that the use of the facility involved several million dollars of additional costs, and he deferred a decision on making an offer. Mr. Weise spoke with Mr. Bachini and kept him abreast of Mr. Feuerstein’s thinking during this time period.

On January 25, 1996, Mr. Weise faxed Mr. Bachini a memorandum stating that another acquisition that Malden Mills had been contemplating had fallen through on the previous evening. He stated that Mal-den needed the Haverhill property and wanted to buy it at the price of 2.7 million dollars. He specifically stated that he wanted to, as he put it, “put the deal to bed.”

Still on January 25, 1996, Mr. Feuerstein, on behalf of Malden Mills, signed a memorandum of purchase which had been prepared by The Thomas Group. It was similar to what is commonly referred to as an offer form and comprises Exhibit 2 in this case.

Later on January 25, 1996, Kevin Sexton, a board member, vice president and chief financial officer of Foss, at the direction of Stephen Foss, signed the memorandum of purchase on behalf of Foss. Before he did so, he inserted and initialed the words “as is" after the description of the premises. On January 26, 1996, Mr Weise faxed Mr. Bachini a memorandum agreeing to the insertion of the “as is” term.

Shortly after execution of the memorandum of purchase, news reports of the purchase began to appear. From the evidence that I’ve heard, I cannot determine the original source of those news reports. However, representatives of Malden Mills did confirm either explicitly or implicitly to the news media that a preliminary agreement, at least, had been reached relative to the purchase of the facility.

[506]*506After execution of the memorandum of purchase, Foss Manufacturing immediately began to take steps to sell the obsolete inventory and product that was located at the Haverhill facility. In that regard, it called brokers, in order to arrange an expedited sale of those items. Foss also called the prospective buyers of the facility and told them that the facility had been sold.

From the other end, Mr. Feuerstein directed his engineering staff to do a study to confirm that the Haverhill facility was indeed suited to Malden Mills’ needs to get into production into the market as quickly as possible.

On January 29, 1996, Kathleen Potter, an in-house staff attorney for Malden Mills, forwarded to John Ryan, outside counsel for Foss, a draft of a proposed purchase and sale agreement, which is now attached to Exhibit 4 in this case. On January 31, 1996, Mr. Ryan faxed to Ms. Potter his response, which now comprises Exhibit 18 in this case. The two exchanged phone calls at some point and, on February 7, 1996, they talked about the proposed purchase and sale agreement and the changes suggested by Mr. Ryan.

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10 Mass. L. Rptr. 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foss-manufacturing-co-v-malden-mills-industries-inc-masssuperct-1999.