FL Agency Refused To Pay For COVID Tests Ordered In Pandemic: Lawsuit

FLORIDA — An Alabama company is suing Florida’s Division of Emergency Management for reneging on a deal to purchase $4.4 million in COVID-19 tests at the start of the pandemic, according to court records.

Morgan & Morgan, P.A. filed the lawsuit on behalf of Global Innovative Concepts, a technology consulting and services company that worked with Essential Health Solutions and Essential Diagnostics, in Leon County, Florida, on July 6. The complaint accuses the DEM of breach of contract.

On March 22, 2020, the division purchased 200,000 COVID-19 testing kits from Essential Diagnostics for $2.2 million. Two days later, the agency asked for another 400,000 testing kits for $4.4 million, according to the complaint.

Jared Moskowitz, then director of the division, confirmed the additional tests pending payment for the $2.2 million, which the agency wired to the company on March 25, 2020, the suit said.

Following this, Jared Rosenstein, legislative affairs director for the division, emailed Global, Essential and DEM employees trying to “alter the parties’ prior agreements and terms,” the complaint alleges. “In the email, Mr. Rosenstein claimed that (1) the DEM’s March 25, 2020, wired payment of $2.2 million was for (the first purchase order) and (2) that the remaining $4.4 million purchase order for 400,000 test kits still needed to be finalized. These claims were flat-out incorrect, misrepresentations, and were clearly contradicted by the agreements, documents, and email exchanges” between the DEM and Global.

In the complaint, Global added that the initial “wired payment was indisputably the 50 (percent) required down payment for (the second purchase order.)”

As the 400,000 test kits were being shipped to Florida, Stephanie Twomey, clerk for the DEM, emailed Global and Essential trying to cancel the order. The agency refused to accept the kits or the remaining $2.2 million owed, according to the suit.

“Global exhausted significant costs, work and effort to procure the test kits, as ordered by DEM,” the complaint reads. “It was able to secure a much-needed product during the peak of COVID test demands, and it did so relying on DEM’s promise to uphold its end of the bargain. As a result of DEM’s failure to pay, Global suffered damages.”