Taylor Farms California, Inc. v. Coopers Cold Food, Inc.

I. BACKGROUND

4 On November 7, 2019, Intervening Plaintiff Monterey Mushrooms, Inc. 5 (“Monterey Mushrooms”) filed a Complaint-in-Intervention asserting a breach of 6 contract claim and seeking enforcement of payment under the Perishable Agricultural 7 Commodities Act (“PACA”) against Defendant Cooper Cold Foods, Inc. (“Cooper Cold 8 Foods”) and Defendant Adam Cooper (“Cooper”). (See dkt. 10.) Monterey Mushrooms 9 is a California corporation engaged in buying and selling wholesale quantities of perishable agricultural commodities, or “produce,” and operates under the PACA. (Dkt. 67, Jenkins Decl. ¶ 7.) Cooper Cold Foods was a produce distributor founded in 1966 also operating under the PACA. (Dkt. 61, Cooper Decl. ¶¶ 3-4.) Cooper was the President, CEO, sole director, officer, and shareholder of Cooper Cold Foods from approximately 2010 until it ceased operations in 2019. (Id. ¶ 5.) Between April 24, 2019 and August 18, 2019, Monterey Mushrooms and Cooper Cold Foods entered into various transactions in which Monterey Mushrooms sold, and Cooper Cold Foods purchased, eighty shipments of produce in the principal amount of 19 …