Ocean Pacific and Partners Sued by Bank : Debt: Wells Fargo seeks to recover $2.1 million owed by surf-wear giant, which has filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Wells Fargo Bank, trying to recover more than $2 million that it is owed, has filed a lawsuit against Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd. and the partners who own the privately held surf-wear giant.

And Elaine Ornitz, the partner holding the largest chunk of Tustin-based OP, has disclosed in court papers that the company lost money every year since 1988 while trying to cope with its large debt load.

Ornitz, who is the widow of former OP President Larry Ornitz, had filed a lawsuit earlier against the other partners over the way the company is managed.

The Wells Fargo suit, filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said that OP has failed to keep up the payments on the $2.1 million remaining on a $6.7-million loan it took out three years ago. Wells Fargo and Republic Factors Corp. in Los Angeles are the two secured creditors of OP. Republic is one of the nation’s largest factors--companies that buy invoices from other companies.

OP filed under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which means that it is protected from creditors while it tries to reorganize its finances. Wells Fargo acknowledges that, as a result, it is precluded from collecting from the company itself. But the suit says that the bank can press its claims against individual partners.

The bank asks for judgments of at least $697,647 from partner Robert R. Driver and his trust; $238,066 from surfboard and catamaran entrepreneur Hobie Alter and his trustee, Gary Spencer; $726,713 from OP Chairman Jim Jenks and Marilyn Jenks; $786,601 from Ornitz, and $152,609 from partner Thomas Hilb.

Each of the partners signed an agreement as part of the loan package that “guaranteed the prompt payment of any and all indebtedness” in case of a default.

Ocean Pacific filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana on May 27, saying that a reorganization would allow it to shed the enormous debt load that is preventing the company from being profitable.

Jenks founded OP in the early 1970s. The company initially designed swim trunks that were loose in the legs, allowing surfers more freedom of movement than ordinary bathing suits. It grew sensationally in the early 1980s, when the California surfing look was taking hold, and “Op” became a well-known and hot-selling label.

The clothing was first made by OP but later farmed out to companies that bought licenses to make apparel under the OP name. In the late 1980s, the company decided it might be more profitable if it went back to manufacturing the garments.

OP took out loans to resume manufacturing operations at its sprawling plant in Tustin. It soon discovered, however, that manufacturing was impractical and best left to the licensees. Today, the company says, those licensees are selling between $200 million and $300 million worth of surf wear a year.

But company documents filed in bankruptcy court last week by Ornitz reveal that OP itself has had a string of losses. Its only annual profit in the past four years was for 1988, when the company earned $5.1 million. Since then, OP has lost $3.1 million for 1989, $3.5 million for 1990 and $1.1 million last year, the documents showed.

OP’s annual revenue was $24.1 million for 1988, $24.5 million for 1989, $26.5 million for 1990 and $20.2 million last year, the documents showed.