While a jury decided in favour of Dawn International last year after a trial, a Florida court has just confirmed the damages award to the Irish company.
Dawn International is a food brokerage business and part of the Queallys’ Arrow Group empire.
In 2022, Dawn sued US firm Jacob Fleishman in Florida, alleging that the company had not paid for $1.4m worth of deliveries. The following year, Jacob Fleishman filed a counterclaim against Dawn International.
In 2024, the court granted partial summary judgment in favour of Dawn for a total of just over $475,000.
The remaining claims made by Dawn International were tried before a jury in March last year. It found in favour of Dawn on its claims for breach of delivered contracts and outstanding contracts.
Fleishman retained the benefit of those products by failing to pay
Days later, Jacob Fleishman filed a motion to deny or delay entry of the final judgment, “based upon anomalies”. However, in July of that year, the court denied the company’s motion to delay.
“Pursuant to the jury verdict on Dawn’s claim for goods sold, Dawn is entitled to recover damages in the amount of $919,808 for the delivered ribs,” the court said in a ruling issued this week.
It added that Dawn is entitled to recover $475,410 for the delivered pork bellies.
“That total amount of $1,395,219 is consistent with the evidence introduced at trial and also consistent with the jury’s findings, which are binding on this court,” added the ruling.
It noted: “Dawn delivered pork products to Fleishman, those products had value as shown by Fleishman’s sale of the products to subsequent purchasers, and Fleishman retained the benefit of those products by failing to pay the proceeds from those sales over to Dawn.
“Simply put, Fleishman ordered products, refused to pay for them, kept them, and then sold them and kept the proceeds.”
Profits at Arrow Group jumped almost 17pc to €28.4m in 2024 despite revenue dipping to €748m.
Arrow Group has a diverse business portfolio that includes meat processing as well as the supply of pizzas, beverages, snacks and sandwiches in Europe, Africa and Asia. It also manufactures and distributes dog food.
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