A British court handed Paradigm BioDevices Inc. a win in its contract dispute with Centinel Spine LLC subsidiary Surgicraft Ltd., ruling that Surgicraft must pony up a kill fee for terminating a deal with Paradigm in 2008.
Rockland, Mass.-based Paradigm sued Surgicraft in 2008, after the Redditch, England-based firm abruptly canceled Paradigm’s exclusive deal to distribute Surgicraft’s Stalif TT spinal fusion device. Centinel, which is owned by New York-based orthopedics hedge fund Viscogliosi Brothers LLC, acquired Surgicraft in 2008.
The Chancery Division of London’s High Court of Justice ruled that Surgicraft must pay Paradigm an unspecified amount, after Surgicraft defaulted on the court’s prior order to pay interim damages, according to a press release.
Paradigm president and CEO Mike O’Neill told MassDevice that the three-year contract with Surgicraft began in 2004 and contained a pair of two-year renewal options and a kill fee if Surgicraft decided to cancel the deal. O’Neill declined to specify how much the court ordered Surgicraft to pay.
"I really can’t get into that right now. They had the option to terminate [the contract], but in doing so they would have to pay us compensation," O’Neill told us. "We’re pursuing all remedies available to us in England and the U.S. as well."
Centinel did not respond to phone and email requests for comment.
