Chep USA v. Mock Pallet Co.

CHEP, USA (“CHEP”) leases pallets to companies that use them to ship goods. Although CHEP originally required its customers to ship the pallets to entities that had agreed in advance to return them to CHEP, starting in 1998 CHEP began allowing some of its customers, under certain conditions, to ship pallets to entities with which CHEP did not have contracts. These entities are known as Non-Participating Distributors (“NPD’s”). Some NPD’s have “sold” the pallets to pallet recyclers, including the defendant in this case, Mock Pallet Company (“MPC” or “Mock”). 1 CHEP sued MPC to get back…