There is a new development in Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp.'s legal battle with Continental Tire the Americas LLC and Yokohama Tire Corp. over Toyo's stake in the companies' GTY Tire Co. joint truck tire manufacturing venture.
For full background on the controversy, see Toyo seeks relief vs. GTY joint venture partners, posted on www.moderntiredealer.com last week.
Toyo had sought a preliminary injunction against Continental and Yokohama, accusing the firms of "depriving Toyo of its agreed-upon share of truck and bus tires," according to documents submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, based in Los Angeles, Calif.
Toyo ordered nearly 290,000 truck and bus tires from the GTY plant, which was established 22 years ago in Mt. Vernon, Ill. (The company obtains more than 60% of its North American market truck and bus tires from the factory, according to court documents.)
Toyo's plea was denied. However, on June 17, the denial was reversed and remanded.
According to court documents, "a plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must establish (1) that he is likely to succeed on the merits, (2) that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, (3) that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and (4) that an injunction is in the public interest. In denying Toyo's motion for a preliminary injunction, the district court only considered 'whether under the existing Ninth Court authority, the Court has the power to grant a preliminary injunction on the facts in the case.'
"While we are concerned that Toyo faces an increasing chance of suffering irreparable injury as time passes, and have considered granting temporary injunctive relief ourselves, we conclude that the proper course in this case is to remand," say court officials. "We direct the district court to consider Toyo's motion for injunctive relief as expeditiously as possible."
Continental and Yokohama are not commenting on the case.
