SAAB News: U.S. District Court Dismisses Spyker Suit Against GM

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

June 12, 2013

A U.S. District court judge has dismissed the $3 billion lawsuit filed by Spyker on behalf of Saab against General Motors last August. The suit alleged GM blocked the sale of Saab's assets to Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co and eliminate a potential rival in the growing Chinese market.

"General Motors had a contractual right to approve or disapprove the proposed transaction. The court is going to grant the motion to dismiss the matter," said U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin Drain during a hearing in Detroit.

Judge Drain said GM acted legally in order to protect its intellectual property and that it did not stop the deal to intentionally drive Saab into bankruptcy.

"We are pleased with the court's decision to dismiss the case, which we believe was the appropriate result," said GM spokesman Dave Roman to Reuters.

Spyker CEO Victor Muller who was at the hearing declined to comment on whether or not they would file an appeal.

"We will be awaiting the written order and then we will assess," Muller said.

Source: Reuters

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

Non Issue and Spyker is grasping at straws to try and figure out how to survive in their own stupidity.

[Drew Dowdell]

Yes GM had the legal right.... but I do still believe it was intentional

[G. David Felt]

Drew, While I have to agree with you that this was probably Intentional, this is to me common sense when you want to spend millions and buy up a distressed asset from a large company like GM. They should have had a better assessment of this before going in and being surprised by GM saying NO.

I still believe that we will see another consolidation of the world wide Auto Industry in the next 2-5 years.