Protecting Long-Term Suppliers: A $657K Verdict for Fraud and Breach of Contract

March 30, 2018
By: Christopher Davis

Chesapeake, VA — March 30, 2018 — Today we announced a decisive win for our client, Multi Textiles Inc., in a commercial dispute involving breach of contract and fraud claims against Tidewater Area Central Laundry, Inc., doing business as Shared Hospital Services (“SHS”).

After a multi-day trial, a Virginia jury awarded $657,434.80 in damages to Multi Textiles, finding that SHS breached a written supply agreement and committed fraud following the breakdown of a decades-long business relationship.

For more than thirty years, Multi Textiles supplied SHS with specialized hospital textiles designed and manufactured exclusively for SHS’s operations in the Hampton Roads region. When SHS’s management changed, the company failed to honor its prior purchasing commitments, leaving Multi Textiles with large quantities of customized inventory and substantial financial loss.

We presented evidence that SHS’s new management knowingly entered into an agreement it never intended to fulfill, misrepresenting its obligations and misleading its long-time supplier. The jury agreed, returning a verdict for Multi Textiles on both the breach of contract and fraud claims.

“This was a decisive win for a client that had conducted business in good faith for decades,” said Christopher Davis, partner at Davis, Burch & Abrams, who led the litigation. “The verdict reaffirms that honesty and accountability still matter in commercial relationships — and that businesses have the right to rely on the commitments made to them.”

The verdict reinforces the firm’s record of success in complex commercial litigation and its commitment to protecting business clients across Virginia from unfair and deceptive practices.