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01-25-2005, 04:55 AM
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#1
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 65
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BREAKING NEWS
Award Tripled in Fleetwood, Coleman Case
News from:
RV Business
Friday, January 21, 2005
Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. announced today (Jan. 21) that a Kansas judge had nearly tripled the award for damages to The Coleman Co. in its case against Fleetwood Folding Trailers Inc.
According to a press release, the judge awarded Coleman approximately $14.6 million. Previously, the jury had ordered Fleetwood to pay Wichita, Kan.-based Coleman $5.2 million. Fleetwood said it would be appealing the decision.
Riverside, Calif.-based Fleetwood restated that the payment would be reflected in the company's fiscal third quarter, ending Jan. 23. Coupled with a slowdown in retail sales, Fleetwood had previously revised expectations for the third quarter, indicating the loss would be wider than anticipated.
The firm is still expecting to be profitable in its fourth quarter, but the recent ruling now "makes it less likely" that Fleetwood would be profitable for the full fiscal year.
"There is no basis for treble damages in a case of this nature, and there is no precedent for such an award," said Edward B. Caudill, president and CEO. "We fully intend to appeal this ruling."
Caudill added, "We will not be required to make any payments on this judgment until the appeal process is fully completed. We will be required to post a bond in order to pursue an appeal, but we reiterate our prior statement that we believe we have a sufficient combination of cash, borrowing capacity and access to other sources of external funding to continue to meet our foreseeable cash flow requirements."
__________________
2001 Coleman Caravan 25SL
2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD
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01-25-2005, 04:55 AM
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#2
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 65
|
BREAKING NEWS
Award Tripled in Fleetwood, Coleman Case
News from:
RV Business
Friday, January 21, 2005
Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. announced today (Jan. 21) that a Kansas judge had nearly tripled the award for damages to The Coleman Co. in its case against Fleetwood Folding Trailers Inc.
According to a press release, the judge awarded Coleman approximately $14.6 million. Previously, the jury had ordered Fleetwood to pay Wichita, Kan.-based Coleman $5.2 million. Fleetwood said it would be appealing the decision.
Riverside, Calif.-based Fleetwood restated that the payment would be reflected in the company's fiscal third quarter, ending Jan. 23. Coupled with a slowdown in retail sales, Fleetwood had previously revised expectations for the third quarter, indicating the loss would be wider than anticipated.
The firm is still expecting to be profitable in its fourth quarter, but the recent ruling now "makes it less likely" that Fleetwood would be profitable for the full fiscal year.
"There is no basis for treble damages in a case of this nature, and there is no precedent for such an award," said Edward B. Caudill, president and CEO. "We fully intend to appeal this ruling."
Caudill added, "We will not be required to make any payments on this judgment until the appeal process is fully completed. We will be required to post a bond in order to pursue an appeal, but we reiterate our prior statement that we believe we have a sufficient combination of cash, borrowing capacity and access to other sources of external funding to continue to meet our foreseeable cash flow requirements."
__________________
2001 Coleman Caravan 25SL
2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD
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01-25-2005, 06:49 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Carson City, Nevada USA
Posts: 417
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I must be missing something Jim,, because I have no idea WHAT the lawsuit is about.
What happened ??
thanks,
John
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01-25-2005, 10:18 AM
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#4
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 65
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This has actually been big news for quite some time now. Basically, it's a spitting contest between a bunch of big corporations. And there's a lot of money involved.
To summarize... Coleman caught Fleetwood branding products with their name, but without their authorization. They told them to stop, but apparently Coleman and Fleetwood interpreted the contract differently.
Coleman sued Fleetwood to make them stop using the name on any products. Fleetwood, in turn, sued Coleman for breach. Coleman won, and the judge found Fleetwood in breach and awarded them 5 million (which was later upped to 14, which is what I posted above). Coachmen then licensed the Coleman name, and started to produce a new line of PU's (and a soon to be released hybrid). Fleetwood was ******, so they sued Coleman and Coachmen.
A week before Coachmen was set to unveil the new Coleman PU's Fleetwood got an injunction preventing anyone from ever using the Coleman name on an RV again. So, Coachmen sued Coleman and Fleetwood.
Bottom line? Everyone is suing everyone else, and chances are you've seen your last Coleman banded RV of any type. As usual, only the lawyers are getting anything out of the deal...
__________________
2001 Coleman Caravan 25SL
2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD
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05-24-2005, 08:29 PM
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 53
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It's all sad really. The Coleman family probably has more money than some third world countries. To me it would have all to simple for Fleetwood to amend the contract with Coleman. I pretty sure what brought all this about was the Caravan. There were no clauses in the contract to produce a TT with the Coleman name on it. But, there wasn't anything writen disallowing either. How Fleetwood got away with it for three years is anybodys guess. On the day (August 2003) when I purchased our 2004 Caravan, my dealer just got a phone call from corporate (Fleetwood) to remove any and all Coleman signs and decals from the store front and on the new popups on the lot. They even thought of removing it from mine, but it was sold and they couldn't touch it. I guess mine is a collectors item now. Whoopie!
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