March 13, 2013

Mahindra USA lawsuit receives go ahead by US District Court

Mahindra has received yet another setback in the USA. A US District Court has ruled that the lawsuit filed by five dealers of Mahindra USA, should move ahead as against Mahindra’s move to dismiss the case.

Thomas Thrash, District Judge at Atlanta, ruled that there was sufficient evidence for a case filed by the dealers against M&M, reports AutoNews. The five dealers surmise that Mahindra USA tried to defraud them, when the company stated that they would be launching a new line of light trucks in the US.

Mahindra USA was in a four year long deal with Global Vehicles USA on the outskirts of Atlanta. Global Vehicles had a dealer network of 350 retailers, while Mahindra planned on introducing a new line of light trucks. This plan however, never went off the ground and this caused much upheaval in the dealer networks. The launch of these light vehicles was altogether shelved late 2010 which resulted in empty showrooms for many dealers and investments which went awry.

The case went to court where the US District Court in Missouri stated that the deal was between the dealers and Global Vehicles while Mahindra was in no way involved in the contract. However, the Atlanta court has stated otherwise and the case continues.