Contractor Won’t ‘Indemnify’ Samsung Against Deeds of Sham E-Cycler: Suit

Samsung seeks a court order declaring that its e-waste contractor Vintage Tech is “obligated to defend and indemnify” the tech company for “all costs, fees, expenses, and liabilities incurred” in two lawsuits alleging Samsung was partly culpable for the improper disposal of whole CRTs and processed CRT glass, argued a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The two lawsuits, filed in August in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, alleged Vintage subcontracted the e-cycling work to a sham recycler, Closed Loop Refining and Recovery, which stockpiled and abandoned millions of pounds of e-waste in two large Ohio warehouses, much of it still bearing the Samsung logo. Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA are suing to recover the cleanup costs, naming Closed Loop, Vintage, Samsung and others as co-defendants. Vintage refused to defend, indemnify and hold Samsung “harmless against the claims asserted” in the warehouses' suits, breaching protective terms written into two “master service agreements” Samsung and Vintage signed in 2014 and 2017, said Tuesday’s complaint. The agreements, attached to the complaint but completely redacted, are “valid, binding and enforceable,” said Samsung. Vintage didn’t respond to questions Wednesday.