J.C. Penney Co. tried to persuade Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. to break its contract with Macy’s Inc., an attorney for the second-largest U.S. department-store chain told a judge.
J.C. Penney chief executive officer Ron Johnson wanted to replace Macy’s as an exclusive seller of Martha Stewart-branded products in categories such as bedding and cookware, Theodore M. Grossman, an attorney with Jones Day representing Macy’s, told New York state Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey K. Oing in Manhattan at the start of a trial Wednesday.
