Ed Peters Jewelry Co., Inc. v. C & J Jewelry Co., Inc.

124 F.3d 252 (1997)

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Ed Peters Jewelry Co., Inc. v. C & J Jewelry Co., Inc.

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
124 F.3d 252 (1997)

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Facts

Ed Peters was a sales agent for a jewelry company called Anson (defendant). Anson was experiencing financial difficulties, and its creditor, Fleet Corporation (defendant) foreclosed on Anson’s assets and sold them to C & J Jewelry Co., Inc. (C & J) (defendant). Ed Peters sued Anson, Fleet, and C & J on behalf of his company, the Ed Peters Jewelry Co., Inc. (Peters) (plaintiff) to seek unpaid commissions, claiming that C & J was simply Anson reorganized under another name and therefore responsible for Anson’s liabilities, including Peters’s sales commissions. In support of this claim, Peters pointed out that C & J continued manufacturing the same products Anson made at the same facility and for the same principal customer, even announcing to Anson’s customers that it had retained Anson’s current employees. The lower court dismissed Peters’s claim, ruling that C & J was not liable for Anson’s debts. Peters appealed, claiming that the successor-liability doctrine meant that C & J, as the successor company to Anson, was liable for Peters’s commissions. C & J argued on appeal that the successor-liability doctrine did not apply because C & J had acquired Anson’s assets by foreclosure rather than a direct purchase.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Cyr, J.)

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