Marsh Wins $19.5M Judgment Against Roche

Marsh Supermarkets Inc. has won $19.5 million in the breach-of-contract lawsuit suit the Indianapolis-based grocer filed in July 2008 to enforce a deal with Roche Diagnostics Corp. to sublease its 148,000-square-foot-headquarters.

The deal, worth more than $47 million over 18 years, would have been one of the largest of its kind in central Indiana, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported.

Roche, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, announced the lease of Marsh’s headquarters in March 2008 but backed out the following May. The move was a surprise to Marsh, which had vacated most of the building, and Roche employees already were moving in, the lawsuit claimed.

But Roche said it had a right to terminate the deal because, the defendant alleged, Marsh failed to deliver certain documents, including standard paperwork that protects sublease tenants much like primary tenants are protected, IBJ reported.

Roche, which was undergoing many internal changes at the time it pulled out of the deal, reportedly will appeal the decision.

Marsh moved into the building in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers in 1991 and has since moved several employees to offices at its warehouses on Franklin Road in Indianapolis and in nearby Yorktown.