R. Home Supply Centre Ltd. and Rock and Angela Petrick are suing Home Hardware Stores Ltd. and the Bank of Nova Scotia for conspiracy, interference and breach of contract after Home Hardware allegedly detrimentally interfered with lenders and suppliers to weaken the plaintiffs in order to force them to sell or liquidate their store.
The Petricks and their company filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on February 24. The company has been in the Petrick family for 60 years, according to the claim, and has operated as a Home Hardware for more than 30 years.
The plaintiffs claim Home Hardware promised to support them as dealers and assist with banking and lending issues as well as inventory and supply needs. But the company allegedly set sales, cash flow and profit projections that were unachievable on R. Home, the claim says. The family-owned store was allegedly pressured to increase sales, forcing them to sell to contractors who weren't able to pay, increasing their debt to Home Hardware, which charged them 18% interest.
The Petricks and R. Home claim Home Hardware wanted to "acquire the store premises" by seeking to "weaken R. Home so that it would be forced to sell the store premises to Home Hardware or so it would be driven to liquidation," the lawsuit states.
Home Hardware allegedly interfered with plaintiffs' lenders while insisting on "excessive, intrusive and unnecessarily rushed audits" of the store's inventory that were allegedly riddled with errors, "leading Scotiabank to believe that R. Home was falsifying its inventory records," the claim states.
Meanwhile, Home Hardware stopped delivering to R. Home in March 2012, which further weakened the business, the plaintiffs claim.
The Petricks and R. Home seek damages for lost profit, intentional interference in economic relations, breach of contract and conspiracy. None of the allegations has been proven in court and neither of the defendants had filed a response to the claim by press time.
