Descendent of Woolrich founder John Rich files suit against company
WILLIAMSPORT, PA – The last family-related head of Woolrich Inc. has filed suit in federal Middle District Court in Williamsport, claiming the company’s present owners are spreading false information about him and financially benefitting from his name.
Nicholas “Nick” Brayton filed the action on Tuesday against Woolrich Inc. and Woolrich International. Brayton was the last descendent of Woolrich founder John Rich to serve in a leadership capacity; he was CEO and president from 2012 until May of 2019. (It was in the fall of 2018 Brayton announced that Woolrich would be closing its woolen mill in the village of Woolrich).
Brayton, now a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, claims that the current Woolrich owners continued to use his name in marketing materials for 20 months after he left the company in 2019. His court action claims use of his name leaves him open to potential liability. According to a PennLive story, Brayton claims the use of his name as a descendent of John Rich, the company founder in 1830, is a financial benefit to the company and damages his character and reputation. He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Woolrich Inc. had been acquired by a European-based company in 2016. Once one of Clinton County’s leading employers, there were a reported 40 employees at the woolen mill at the time of the closing announcement in late 2018. The present ownership still maintains a company store adjacent to the Woolrich Park.
The Brayton court action alleges violations of Pennsylvania’s Right of Publicity Statute and Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, invasion of privacy by misappropriation of identity, false advertising and unjust enrichment.
The nearly two century old Rich family business had been sold most recently in September of 2018 for the second time in two years to a Luxembourg-based investment company. A fashion publication at the time said that the sales meant that the Rich family would assume a minority stake in Woolrich and then exit the company after seven generations of ownership.
