UPDATE: La-Z-Boy delivering furniture from Seattle-area stores

Units are under new management

Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, August 20, 2009

SEATTLE — La-Z-Boy says it is working to deliver furniture from five stores in the Puget Sound area once run by the Tolle Furniture Group, which is no longer operating the stores.

According to La-Z-Boy, N.A. Promotions, part of Denver-based management consulting and liquidation firm SPCI Co., is managing the stores and taking new orders. La-Z-Boy corporate is working to fulfill orders made under the Tolle management, said Kathy Liebmann, the company's director of investor relations.

She said the stores' ownership structure and Tolle's status as a licensee are still being resolved through legal proceedings.

In June, Tolle Furniture Group had sued La-Z-Boy in U.S. District Court in Seattle in an effort to keep the manufacturer shipping furniture to the Tolle stores. But that order was denied.

Tolle had also alleged that La-Z-Boy breached its contract with the company, but Tolle voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit earlier this month.

In a response to the charges in the lawsuit, La-Z-Boy had said that the Tolle group had past due debt of $5.1 million as of June 28.

Court documents listed Jerry and Barbara Spotts, Peter Scroggs and Mary and Tim Smith as Tolle Furniture Group's owners.