The Great Nut Caper

I’m cheating a little because, while this case has a breach of contract claim in it, it doesn’t really have anything interesting to say about contract law, mostly because the claim fails because the complaint didn’t identify any contract, any terms to the contract, or any facts about the formation of the contract. 

But this case out of the Northern District of New York, Golub Corp. v. Sandell Transp., Inc., 1:15-CV-0848 (LEK/CFH) (behind paywall), has an amazing set of facts relayed by the judge in a playful way, and sometimes you just want to read about a good pistachio heist, you know? 

Because yes, that’s what happened in this case. Golub in New York ordered some pistachios from Wonderful in California. Sandell was arranged to ship the pistachios. Sandell sought to subcontract out the job by posting on an industry job board and hiring a company called GM EXPRESS. In the court’s words: 

But appearances can be deceiving, and it turns out that “GM EXPRESS” was not actually GM EXPRESS. Unknown to Sandell, the identity of GM EXPRESS had been stolen by criminals who were set on pilfering Golub’s pistachio shipment. . . . In this shell game of trucking companies, the pistachio thieves provided Sandell with stolen yet still valid bona fides, including insurance information, tractor and trailer license plate numbers, and a driver’s license number (which Sandell claims was valid despite its conspicuously sequential numbering of B7890123). . . . Through this scheme, Sandell and Wonderful would become the thieves’ unwitting insiders, happily loading the nuts directly onto the getaway vehicle.

As I said, the breach of contract claim doesn’t amount to much in this case, but I enjoyed reading this opinion nonetheless and felt I had to pass it on, so you too can now ponder the disappearing truck of pistachios whose fate remains unknown.