Heartland Recreational Vehicles LLC v. Forest River Inc

Filing 134

MOTION for Partial Summary Judgment Against Heartland for Unfair Competition by Counter Claimant Forest River Inc. (Attachments: # 1 Supplement Memorandum in Support, # 2 Appendix Statement of Material Facts, # 3 Exhibit A - Hoffman dep. tr., # 4 Exhibit B - Lung decl., # 5 Exhibit C - Creech email, # 6 Exhibit G - Stuffing email, # 7 Exhibit H - Hotel Clerk dep. tr., # 8 Exhibit I - B. Brady email, # 9 Exhibit J - B. Brady dep. tr., # 10 Exhibit K - Donat dep. tr., # 11 Exhibit L - Leonard dep. tr.)(Fountain, Ryan) See 135 for sealed exhibits. Modified on 11/3/2010 (jld).

Heartland Recreational Vehicles LLC v. Forest River Inc

Doc. 134 Att. 3

EXHIBIT HOFFMAN EXCERPT OF TIMOTHY HOFFMAN DEPOSITION TRANSCRIPT - JUNE 17, 2009 15 Well, at the very beginning of the Company, what was your title? A I believe VP of Sales. Q Okay. And, are you still VP of Sales? A That's correct. Q

10 11 12 13 14 15

269 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Q Okay. You say that is a dealer list. What dealer list is that? A This is a dealer list from Forest River. Q That's a Forest River dealer list? A There's what we were told. Q Who told you that? A This came from a Sales Rep from another Company. Q Who was that? A That was Rod Lung. Q Okay. Rod Lung works for who? A Then? Or today? Q At the time he gave you a list, who did you work for? A Open Range. Randy Graber. 270 Q Okay. Who did Rod Lung give that to at Heartland? A He gave it to Brad Whitehead, my North Country Brand Manager. Q And, when did he do that? A Two weeks before the show -- before the October date. October 22nd. Q How did it come about that Rod Lung gave that to Brad? A I believe that -- I had a conversation with Brad Whitehead about it. He told me that he contacted Rod, and asked him if he had any information on the show. And, Rod said that, "He would look into it."

Dockets.Justia.com

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Q A Q

A Q A Q

When did you have that conversation with Brad? Preparing for the deposition. Okay. And, did Brad indicate when he had talked to Ron (sic) asking for this information? "Rod"? Rod? Yeah. "Rod Lung." Okay. Did Brad indicate when he had talked to Rod? 271

1A

Probably October.

8 9 10 11 12 13

271 Q And, did Brad indicate why it was he selected Rod to do that? A Rod Lung -- they're friends. And, Rod Lung has a lot of sources in the Industry. So, I think Brad thought it was a good choice. 273 Do you know why Brad would happen to do it on this occasion with Forest River's Open House? A I just think it was -- he's a knew Brand Manager and he wanted to show that he can go out and get prospects and know what's going on in the market-place. Q Mm-mm. At the time that this happened, did you know Brad was going to try to get this information? A No, I did not. Q 274 Did he tell you that he was going to try to get this kind of information? A No, he did not. Q When he got the information from Rod, did he tell you that he got it? A I knew that there was a list developed -- or Brian Walczek had a list. And, I asked him where he got it. Q And, what did he tell you? A Brad Whitehead. Q

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Q A Q

A Q A

And, where did you ask him that? I asked him that -- probably a week before the Forest River show. Okay. And, did you know what was going to be done with that list at that time? I knew what I wanted them to do with the list? And what did you tell him? I said, "Call our current dealers who is on the list and invite them to Heartland, if they want to come over." 274

25 Q 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A Q A

And, who did you tell that to?

275 My Brand Managers. Who was that? That would be Mike Creech, Brad Whitehead, Coley Brady, Brian Walczek and Dave Willis. Q Okay. Do you know if they actually did that? A I know calls were made by my sale people to the current dealers, and Forest River dealers, yes. Q Okay. Do you know what else was done with that list? A Yes. I do. Q What else was done with the list? A I know after preparing for this case that my Brand Managers -- well, let me go back. I found out that they delivered packets to a hotel from the list. Q When did you find that out? A Day after the show. Q Okay. And, you say, "They delivered packets..." -A My Brand Manager and Eric Esch. Q Which Brand Manager? A Brian Walczek. Q Okay. And, how did you find that out?

276 1 A Because they were talking about it in the hallway the 2 next day. 3 Q Talking about it with whom?

4A 5Q 6A 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Talking about it with Brian Walczek and Eric Esch. Just the two of them? Just the two of them and I walked in on the

conversation. Q Okay. And, what did you hear? A They were talking about them delivering packets to the hotels. Q Well, you say, "talking about it." What specifically were they saying? A Talking about what dealers that were coming in today. Talking about the amount of packets. Just general stuff. I didn't stay much longer after that. Q And, you heard them say what dealers were coming in that day? A Everybody was talking about dealers coming in that week. Because we had a lot -- we had dealers coming in just to see us. 276 24 Q Okay. 25 Well, let's focus on what you heard in that 277 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 hallway discussion between Brian and Eric? They mentioned that they distributed some packets. They mentioned that they were going to be on the phone, call some dealers to ensure that they were going to come to Heartland to take a look at products. Q You said, "They mentioned what dealers were coming in." What dealers where coming in? Which dealers did they mention? A Nothing specific. I don't remember specifics. Q Okay. And, you heard them talking about the amount of packet? A They were talking about who delivered what to what hotel. They were mentioning, "Well, I went here. I went there." And, that was pretty much the end of the discussion. I walked out. A

19 Q 20 21 A

Okay. Which hotel or hotels were involved? I didn't listen to the details of that. 278 You mentioned that a week before the show -Mm-mm. -- you met with your Brand Managers and told them to use the list to contact your dealers. Right? Right. And, contact Forest River dealers. Right? Yes.

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Q A Q

A Q A

279 1 Q And, then, you say after the show you overheard this 2 conversation between Brian and Eric. 3 Right? 4 A That's correct. 283 9 Q But, you did mean to take business away from Forest 10 River, didn't you? 11 A Yes. 290 21 Q Which dealers came to Heartland as a result of the 22 dealer-list you obtained from Forest River? 23 A Specifically, Race Track RV. 24 And, Loveland RV (sic). 25 Q Loveland? 291 1A 2 3Q 4 5A 6 Loveland. Just how it sounds, one word. Okay. And, where is Race Track located? Calgary, Alberta. And, Loveland is in Missouri.

294 23 When Race Track came as a result of the Forest 24 River dealer list to visit you, did they sign up for 25 additional Brands?

295 1A 2Q 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Yes, they did. And, would that be reflected as an amendment to the

Dealer Application? A No. Q To sign-up for additional Brands, did they have to do anything in particular? A Give increased" flooring", floor-planning. And that's about it. Q And, did they do that? A Yes. Q How did they let you know they did that? A They had -- they told us they had the funds to buy our products. That they were way under their limits on floor-planning.

298 21 Q Okay. 22 Now, other than Race Track and Loveland, (sic) 23 coming in as a result of that dealer list and placing 24 orders, were there any other dealers that came to visit 25 Heartland as a result of your having Forest River's

299 1 dealer list -- even if they didn't buy products? 2 A There were dealers that came to Heartland. 3 Specifically from the packets, I cannot say. 4 Q Well, at that point in time of October 22nd to 24th, 5 how many dealers visited Heartland? 6 A Between six to eight.