North American first filed its lawsuit in October 2019, alleging it paid in excess of $3 million dollars to cover a part of the verdict in the underlying suit but it claims that it never should have had to pay anything in the first place because Menard owed North American a duty to reasonably settle the litigation when an offer for a little less than $2 million dollars was put forth by Andrades.
According to North America’s complaint, they then wrote to Menard and spoke to their legal counsel and demanded that it accept the settlement, going so far as to tell the company that if it didn’t settle, it would be acting in bad faith.
In spite of this warning, North American claims the home improvement giant refused to settle, believing instead that it could prevail at trial, a decision made against the advice of Menard’s own attorney.
A jury awarded Andrades a $13 million verdict against Menard Inc., but it was later reduced to $6 million pursuant to the terms of an agreement that Menard entered into with Andrades. Right before a verdict was announced, wherein Menard agreed to pay Andrades at least $500,000 regardless of the verdict, but no more than $6 million even if the jury verdict was more.
