A pastry shop in another state purchased two spiral conveyors from a company based in another country. The conveyors move bread dough through a humidity-controlled and heated room to make the dough rise prior to baking. The total cost of the equipment was $931,987.52. Since Oct. 21, 2013, Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe Inc. has made $835,185.84 in payments to the seller.

The problems with the machinery began within a week of being installed. Pieces of plastic would break off the machines and get into the uncooked bread dough. Numerous attempts were made to fix the issue, but the problem was not resolved. Therefore, the Pennsylvania pastry purveyor wrote a letter to Tecnopool SPA of San Giorgio — an company based in Italy — who sold them the equipment and requested a rescission of the contract. The Italian company refused to do so and also refused to participate in mediation in order to resolve the dispute.

Therefore, the pastry shop filed business litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The court will determine if the company’s claims are valid and whether the contract should be rescinded and damages awarded to the pastry shop. If the company prevails, it could be awarded both monetary and non-monetary damages similar to those that could be ordered here in Arizona.

Source: pennrecord.com, “Pastry shop accuses Tecnopool of contract breach“, Annie Hunt, Feb. 24, 2016