An Associated Press story this week from Santa Fe, New Mexico indicates that a state judge, Carol Vigil, has slapped Home Depot with a $2.76 million legal bill to pay off lawyers who represented the Santa Fe Shutter company in its lawsuit against Home Depot. About six months ago, the District Judge ruled that Home Depot had broken a contract with Santa Fe Shutters, which was founded in 1995, but went out of business after Home Depot dropped its contract with the company in 2000. The Judge awarded damages of $12 million to the manufacturer, and now the court has added nearly $3 million in legal fees against Home Depot. The court ruled that Home Depot had broken a verbal contract it had with Sante Fe Shutters to expand the market for its shutters. The judge found that Home Depot’s conduct was malicious, reckless, wanton, oppressive and fraudulent. The AP noted that the judge found that this conduct was not just an isolated mistake, but “rather a regular practice of Home Depot.”
For more background on vendor practices, search this database by “vendor”, and see the article “Home Towns, Not Home Depot.”
